Lotus Elan and Lotus Elan Plus 2 Forums

If you do find the rack needs major work, be wary of the replacement new item sold for the Spitfire. It may fit the Spitfire, but it has different attachment points from the original and is known not to work with, for example, the Europa. Likely a similar story for the Elan.

This past week I got a new head on the MGB, so it's back on the road and ready for anything. Now I can get back to focusing on the Elan.

First, the "no charging" system. I did the "bridge the F and D terminals" test from the shop manual, and got lots of voltage. The dyno is obviously good.

Then I hooked everything back, and tested the D voltage at the vr terminal. Nothing. So I tested the F and D wires. D good, F shorted. Aha. I made up a new F wire, hooked it up to the dyno and vr, and expected everything to be great.

So I get the engine going good and test the voltage at the D terminal of the vr. 14+, great. Then I test the voltage at the B terminal of the vr. 11.7 - the same as the voltage at the battery at this point.

Conclusion - my vr has problems. The first test in the Lucas test pamphlet requires an ammeter, which I don't have. I'd rather not become an expert on vr's anyway. So the options are a new one at $50 or so, or just go ahead an put an alternator in. RDE has an alternator kit for $275 - that sounds like the way to go.

Next up, my sloppy steering. I pulled the column, and got the coupling off. Interesting bit of kit. I was actually able to tighten everything up and remove the slop. But RDE has a needle bearing universal joint for $80. All agreed?

My coupling had the bridging wire, but it really doesn't need it - I tested connectivity between the upper and lower splines and got a fraction of an ohm. In any event, not a factor with the universal joint.

In removing the column, I think I found the root cause of my non-functioning horn - a dangling, disconnected purple wire. Sound likely? I'm not sure, because I need to get a magnifying glass so I can read the friggin wiring diagram in the shop manual. I miss my on-line, color coded pdf wiring diagrams for B's, that you can scale up so even old people can read them.

The lower column clamp had a sheet metal screw driving through the bottom into the column. If it was supposed to line up with a hole in the column, they missed it. And with my rotating column problem, the point of that screw has practically cut the outer column in two. Ugly. Looks like I need to renew the outer column clamping parts in total.

For my column work, I took the driver's seat out. What I thought was the fore/aft adjuster is really the tilt adjuster. It looks like the seat just relies on gravity and the front base to hold it in position on the slider - is that correct?

All in all, progress is being made, and I'm learning about the car. Still need to make my u-channel to get the rear up and get the parking brake functional, but progress on all the other issues.

Sounds like your having fun with your elan, I am sure we would all love to see some pictures especially us sprint owners.

Hi Steve,
yep purple is the horn wire.

the seats can be adjusted fore and aft by unbolting the clamps that hold them at the front and facing them forward or backwards, there is a groove in the body infront and behind the bolt holes that the seat frame sits in.

the swinging motion of the seat frame front actually moves it back and forth on an arc,so you end up with quite a few locations with that and moving the clamps.

Re: wiring diagram. I took a copy of the wiring diagram to FedEx(Kinkos) and had it blown up to roughly
2 feet by 3 feet (or whatever the equivalent scale would be) and had it laminated. Great!