Lotus Elan and Lotus Elan Plus 2 Forums

Picked up a few parts recently and Im heading up twice in July so hope to have some good progress.

Dropped these off at the powdercoater. Going with gloss black to keep the arms somewhat consistent



Excited to get this next set of parts installed. Might have to actually flip the frame over and get some jack stands or something. Taking suggestions since there wont be any wheels

Finally got the parts back, no fault of theirs. They did a great job, and quickly.


Laid everything out to see what Im working with... and also realized I need to also get rose-jointed ends. Another quick $500 or something haha



Got the upper wishbones done, but need the previously mentioned rosejoints


... and the upper mounts for the rear suspension too. Im heading up to my parents so some parts will make their way to the frame. I will hopefully have the missing pieces for my next trip up in two weeks, but maybe not. After that probably wont be until the end of year when I head up again

When TTR supply their front adjustables they usually supply an install instruction sheet.
On the sheet it will describe having to turn over the top on the upper 'bones to avoid wheel contact at extremes of movement. They also use more washers between the ball joints and the 'bones, which are not needed for a road car so you may not have this problem.
Just make sure the gap between the inner surfaces of the upper 'bones corresponds to the gap on the spindle on the turret. The odd washer here or there may be needed.

Alas none of your images are visible to me.
I see that they are located off this website with typical URL:
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/525 ... aa36_c.jpg

It seems that staticflikr.com will not serve up images to my IP address.


This sort of mishap is one of the reasons why this lotus site has its own photo gallery.

billwill wrote:Alas none of your images are visible to me.
I see that they are located off this website with typical URL:
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/525 ... aa36_c.jpg

It seems that staticflikr.com will not serve up images to my IP address.


This sort of mishap is one of the reasons why this lotus site has its own photo gallery.

I uploaded the final pic of the 3 above. Let me know if it worked, that should because I went straight through the site itself.

I wonder if others have this issue too?…

Basically the “completed” work of the day

Drive up took a little longer because of a fire on Tejon Pass , which only fueled my own fire of wanting that High Speed rail completed, but that’s a story for another day and another place.

After the drive, I had an unusual amount of energy and decided to squeeze in some garage time so I ended up installing the steering rack that I purchased from Don Thompson’s wrecked FHC. In fact both parts I brought up on this trip were from his car. Steering rack went fairly easy except that the closet standard size socket I brought was a 9/16” where I think these are 1/2”... I m assuming they are not metric lol... Finally slept at 1am after being awake for nearly 20 hours

After waking up early and watching F1 qualifying, it was time for part #2 and attempt #2 at some rear suspension. This was a lovely set that I couldn’t resist, and luckily they went on very easy.







Those rear suspension units really changed the presence of this to really giving you a feeling that this is the beginning of a vehicle, and once the front is done and ready I’ll have to flip this over and set it up somehow that lets everything rest easy. I’ll be back up again in 2 weeks with more parts. How much will be ready and completed is TBD. See you then

Can you confirm that I’ve aligned the rack into the correct slots for a LHD setup?

Two Spectrums of the build.

The Rear suspension units did not have the upper mount so that will be wrapped up on the next trip. Bought Lotacone units from TTR. Reached out to a few vendors in the US but they were x2 the cost and TTR still managed to get them to me in 2 biz days from the day the order was placed.




The other thing I unboxed last night were the front knuckles I got from Ted Taylor. Going to break them down and rebuild as needed. Goal is to get these and the upper arms all bolted up on the next visit after this one (Thanksgiving aka November 23rd-ish Trip)

Alright update time.

Was excited to get to work installing the lower arms, along with the front coilovers, but having my tools 300 miles away (~420km) and the temps closing in on 40*C meant it was a miserable hour of work haha



It looks like good progress, but nothing is properly buttoned down.



Might try to make some progress tomorrow before I leave town, but who knows.

The front coilovers also seemed awfully close to hitting here, is this normal?



Also still hoping to get confirmation about the position of the steering rack, from a few posts earlier

2mAn wrote:Can you confirm that I’ve aligned the rack into the correct slots for a LHD setup?

I think you've got it in the wrong holes. As a check, centre the rack in the housing by rotating the pinion and the tie rod ends should then be the same distance from the chassis on both sides.

So an unexpected trip up north meant I’d get some time to play in the parents garage but I didn’t have anything new to bring other than some tools I forgot and extra stuff. I had planned to build something fancy with wood and furniture dollies, but had these two sawhorses sitting in the garage and thought I’d make my life easy and use them instead. I’ll have better pics of those later in the week once I’ve actually flipped the frame around.

For now, step one was tightening a few things, but more importantly moving the steering rack to the correct set of holes. They were definitely in the wrong slot before



I might be able to sneak away and go pick up some 26R Swaybars which aren’t too far away, but we’ll see.

2mAn wrote:
The front coilovers also seemed awfully close to hitting here, is this normal?

Are those the 1.9" or 2.25" TTR shocks?
I'm unfamiliar with fitting the big ones in the Spyder chassis, but they don't fit the standard chassis without modifying it. They fit the TTR 26R chassis which has been modified.
I have a Spyder SF chassis on my road car and it has TTR 1.9's, which fit.

Simon,

I have a couple of those plastic saw horses, I am surprised they hold the weight, please be careful.

Richard Hawkins

661 wrote:

2mAn wrote:
The front coilovers also seemed awfully close to hitting here, is this normal?

Are those the 1.9" or 2.25" TTR shocks?
I'm unfamiliar with fitting the big ones in the Spyder chassis, but they don't fit the standard chassis without modifying it. They fit the TTR 26R chassis which has been modified.
I have a Spyder SF chassis on my road car and it has TTR 1.9's, which fit.

I bought these second hand, and I’ll reach out to TTR to confirm but my money is on 2.25”

Any chance you can take a pic of your suspension? I. Guessing my next trip will require some sharp tools haha

RichardHawkins wrote:Simon,

I have a couple of those plastic saw horses, I am surprised they hold the weight, please be careful.

Richard Hawkins

I also approached with caution but I’d be shocked if this entire setup weighs more than the 350# that one of these is rated for. It’s not a long term solution and I think it will be fine as the next major piece to be added will be the last item before I plan to put it on some roller wheels