Lotus Elan and Lotus Elan Plus 2 Forums

I have a Caterham, and as part of my ongoing fettling I am about to replace the Vertical links. I currently have the setup that uses a spherical bearing but looks like the spitfire "K" type link. The only reason they are being replaced is for asthetic reasons. I was wondering about the feasibility of fitting the spherical bearing into a machined housing to replace the trunnion on my Plus 2 and using my old Caterham links. I already have the spyder type wishbones and TTR damper/spring combo. What do we think about the strength? Surely the weak point of both is the lower thread and these are solid as opposed to the hollow stanpart items.

they look like this:

http://www.caterhamparts.co.uk/product. ... oduct=1025

http://www.caterhamparts.co.uk/product. ... roduct=110

Its only an oblique answer to your question but in my experience the weakness is not caused by them being hollow but by the root of the Acme thread being a huge stress raiser/concentration.

I machined my Caterham uprights to accept the rose joint as I couldnt justify the ?75 IIRC per side to replace them, it seems weird that you are doing so for cosmetic reasons, they are pretty easy to spiv up, anyway my hollow machined ones are still on the Caterham after several seasons of racing on slicks in endurance races.

Until your posting i didnt realise that the correct Catarham ones are solid, I wrongly assumed that they would still have the drilling, perhaps its better that I didnt know during the races!!

Editted, didnt I learn recently that the Plus 2 uses the GT6 uprights? I know they look identical as I mistakenly bought Caterham parts for a Marcos.

I would have no hesitation on relying on the solid rose jointed uprights on an Elan, they must be stronger than the originals.

it seems weird that you are doing so for cosmetic reasons, they are pretty easy to spiv up

The standard caterham look is plated and mine are a bit dull so rather than have the 7 off the road, I bought a pair so it would be 1 off and 1 on.

I have been wondering for a while about their use on the Plus 2 with a machined bearing housing.

I have fitted these to my Elan:

http://www.canleyclassics.com/?xhtml=xh ... roduct.xsl

Unless the price of Caterham parts has gone sky high I am sure it would be cheaper buying them from them, the rose joint carrier looks to have Caterham written on it although maybe its Canley as the Caterham lower wishbone has a socket for the rose joint.

I am out of touch with prices but I am sure that the uprights with stub axle were ?75 and the rose joint ?20 which seemed a rip off at the time but over around ?360...........

Chancer wrote:Unless the price of Caterham parts has gone sky high I am sure it would be cheaper buying them from them, the rose joint carrier looks to have Caterham written on it although maybe its Canley as the Caterham lower wishbone has a socket for the rose joint.

I am out of touch with prices but I am sure that the uprights with stub axle were ?75 and the rose joint ?20 which seemed a rip off at the time but over around ?360...........

The rose joint carrier says Canley These are designed to fit to standard U section wishbones so a little modification is required to stop them rotating slightly if 'Spyder' type bones are used
Using these allows for caster adjustment without putting pressure on to the original trunnion.