Plus 2 (Spyder) Body mounting & alignment

[gavk]

Good evening

I have recently swopped my 185/60/14 tyres for 185/65/14 as recommended by Spyder Cars.

Prior to the swop I had never experienced any tyre rub. The tyre change has highlighted that my front passenger tyre sits a bit prouder from the arch than the drivers front. Compounding the matter it seems the front passenger arch also sits slightly lower than on the drivers side (even when adjustable spring platforms are equally adjusted).

My front passenger tyre now makes contact with the arch whenever I carry a passenger and engage in spirited braking or cornering.

I guess I need to shift the body across by a few mm, hopefully I will be able to find a sweet spot where both tyres tuck into the arches under bump. I am also considering raising (shimming) the front passenger side by a few mm too, not to fix the issue, just to even things up but would be concerned this could stress the body?

I have found the attached image of body mount locations for a normal Elan, are these all the same or similar for a plus 2?

Any advice greatly received.

Thanks

Gavin

[Foxie]

Simplest solution: Go back to 185/60/14s.......

[gavk]

Cheers Foxie

While that would be the simplest solution, the higher profile 65 tyres are a much closer rolling radius to the original (Lotus) tyre fitment so they fill the arches slightly better and give a fraction more ground clearance.

Back to the body fixing locations
I have seen the two front most ones, in front of the vacuum tank and the ones at the base of the dash but does the +2 have some near the front suspension as shown on the elan diagram i posted?

[Foxie]

Cheers Foxie

Back to the body fixing locations
I have seen the two front most ones, in front of the vacuum tank and the ones at the base of the dash but does the +2 have some near the front suspension as shown on the elan diagram i posted?

The arrangement of the body mountings are the same except for the dimensions. However, while you can easily shim all the vertical bolts, the bobbins in the front and rear suspension turrets would be out of line. In fact it is these mountings which control the body height in relation to the chassis. I have removed and replaced the body from the original Lotus chassis, and also the Spyder chassis, and discovered that to get the turret mountings correctly lined up it was necessary to insert a degree of shimming on some of the vertical bolts.

You can weigh up the car (half fuel tank, spare wheel, concrete blocks equivalent to driver weight (or driver + passenger ) and check the lower suspension arms are level. If they are sagging, which is very likely, you can wind up the spring adjustments.

[gavk]

Thanks, that's great info.

Do the front suspension turret bolts bolt through from turret side with threads ending up in the body via a fibreglassed-in bobbin?

I have seen the arrangement into the rear suspension.

I understand what you mean about effecting the alignment of the horizontal bolts, I'll keep an eye on it.

My wishbones are definitely not sagging, I've adjusted the front ride height plenty of times. This is purely an issue with the left-right body alignment. If the alignment doesn't solve it then different tyres will be required.

Thanks

[gavk]

Ok, found this picture online.

I assume bolt comes through turret from behind spring and into bobbin in body.

Assuming body won't be an exact fit between turrets I guess there may be a few mm play if I loosen off the bolts, with a try I guess.

[types26/36]

No thats not correct, the threads are in the chassis turret with the bolt passing through the bobbin (no threads) and screwing into the chassis turret.
The bolt goes in from the engine compartment side, this on the Lotus chassis and presume it is the same on a Spyder chassis.

[gavk]

Excellent, thank you very much.

I have located them on my car, hopefully tomorrow I might have time to loosen off a few bolts and see what play there is (if any)

[Bigbaldybloke]

On my chassis I did fit a spacing washer between the turret and body on one side to try to get the body as central as possible. Not room for much to be added though.

[wotsisname]

My car [68 +2 with Spyder chassis] has shims between the front turrets and the body, this prevents the body cracking around the bobbins (I can't recall if I did one or both sides). As has been said, the chassis turret is drilled and tapped, the bobbin is plain. Any change of body height may require the bobbins to be re-positioned or the chassis to be welded & redrilled.
my car is also shimmed under the bulkhead (front pair of chassis mounts).. there is a fair gap here. My original Lotus chassis was also shimmed here, I guess the body build had a fair degree of variability in these areas.

[gavk]

Thanks, that's good info.

Wotsisname, when you talk about shimming under the bulkhead, do you mean there is another bolting location between the dash and turret bolts or is the bulkhead location only shimmed?

[types26/36]

Lotus do say that the bobbins can be "elongated" if they do not line up with the chassis threaded bolt holes when fitting a body to a chassis that has been drilled and tapped.

[Bigbaldybloke]

I also had to fit several large spacer washers between the bottom flange of the chassis and the body at the mounting point on the floor just behind the gear lever position and had to elongate the hole in the chassis for the left side bolt in this location, the rest were In the right position or were ones that I had drilled through the plain bobbins in the shell. The main thing is to ensure the body is hard against the chassis and spacers if need so that no stress is put on the body when the bolts are fully tightened.