Lotus Elan and Lotus Elan Plus 2 Forums

My plan is to get the frame refinished and then start to work on getting the suspension back together. On the frame, I noticed the threaded posts for the front lower arms are different on the driver and passenger side. (Driver on the left!) On the passenger side there is just a threaded rod welded to the frame; but on the drivers side, it appears that there is an unthreaded collar on the ?bolts? about 2? long, and then about 1/2? of thread of a lesser diameter. I?ve attached pictures of all four ?bolt? locations.

Is it supposed to be that way, and if so, why? Or is it that the metal piece from the inside of the A-arm bushing somehow ?welded? to the bolt shaft? I?ve tried penetrant, heat and penetrant, and trying to turn with a vice grip, but it won?t budge.

Sorry if the pics are not in the best light.

The welded pins should be the correct diameter for the inner bush to slide onto them. From the sound of it you have six chassis pins the correct diameter (four upper and two lower) and two lower pins with what looks like a collar on them. Is that right? Do you have two suspension arms with the inner bush collar missing?

I?ve had one of the bushes rust onto the chassis pin and once I?d cut and burned through the rubber to get the arm off it looked like yours. Likewise it wouldn?t come off by twisting / mole grips / heat etc and had to be ( very carefully) cut off. I had to do a lot of cutting before it came off. The pin underneath was totally unmarked and it just needed a new bush pressed into the suspension arm. It went back together with a lot of grease!

Yes, that?s pretty much my situation. What did you use to cut the collar off? An angle grinder with a cutting wheel?

An angle grinder with a grinding disc to start with - I didn?t want to use a cutting disc in case I cut too far - then a hammer and chisel and finally a Dremel with cutting disc to get rid of the lumps the chisel had raised. Then, once it was weakened, heat plus mole grips to twist it off. Took a couple of hours as I was paranoid about damaging the pin.

So then you used the angle grinder to grind one ?side? flat, and remove a good bit of material, but not through. Then went to work with hammer and cold chisel?

That?s about right. It was a bit more messy than that in practice but basically grinding away the length of it then trying to split it with the chisel. Grind a bit, ?split? a bit, clean the chisel marks up and grind a bit more if it didn?t move with heat. I was amazed at how solidly the collar was fixed to the pin. I thought initially a bit of heat and mole grips would get it off but it didn?t move until I actually split it.

I know, I?ve tried a couple of times now. I?m going to try your method next.

Thanks!