Lotus Elan and Lotus Elan Plus 2 Forums

Mine is a Sprint .... this may/not be common to others.

The problem area is the front inner mounting of the rear
wishbone to the chassis, near the front of the differential.

The bolt had been inserted such that the head pointed to
the front of the car ...... which was a problem, since with
the body on, the rear bulkhead/floorpan narrows against
the chassis, leaving not enough room to withdraw the
"blessed" bolt.

Fortunately the other wishbone was not a problem. The
bolt was in the same way round, but "blessed" Lotus build
quality meant there was a fag paper clearance ... so I
saved a couple of hours there !!!

So for my reassembly, the bolts will go in from the back !!!!

The rear mountings appear to be less critical.

Hope this helps,

Regards,

Stuart.

Stuart,
I share the pain! Made the very same mistake myself.

Keith,

In my case, I've inherited the problem from the PO.

So whilst on the one hand I'm not to blame this time,
on the other, I can:

a) put a date to when the bushes were last replaced
and
b) expect more "pleasant" surprises.

Regards,

Stuart.

Haven't looked yet but I bet I got it wrong

Happened to glance across this in the manual earlier - it says the heads of the bolts should point towards each other although I can't see why that is necessary for the rearmost one.

It's common to see the bolts orient as such from the factory! The chassis & suspension were built up before the body going on so the lads simply attached the rear A-arm in the easiest fashion!

Kiyoshi