Lotus Elan and Lotus Elan Plus 2 Forums

Please look at how the straps are fastened to the body and decide if that is sufficient to hold a full tank under high g event.

Mine have always been over the brace and there are no signs of any significant fretting and my memory is the strap is quite parallel by the time it gets to the brace.

The tank is hard up against the brace so in any severe deceleration moving forwards the brace will take the force of the tank mass anyway so I dont agree that this is why the straps need to be over the brace. The only scenario where this theory has any viability is in the opposite direction of travel however I don't see this as a likely occurrence. Even if you do have a huge reverse shunt if the straps let go the tank is going out the back window not into the cabin. In my view (as a mechanical design engineer) if something looks wrong it generally is. The factory probably fitted them both ways for whatever reason, but on mine there were no indications that the straps were on top, on the contrary the felt pad on the rear has indents where the straps have been.

High 111Robin

looking through images of my 1987 restoration of my 1971 2S130 I noticed the fuel tank which I did not remove.

My opinion of the the car was it was totally original and never touched by others.
You can see the tank and strap is around both,

Good luck with your rebuild

Thanks John,
The cutaway drawing in the manual shows the straps on top of the brace so it looks like this is indeed correct.

And finally in the Motor road test cutaway the straps are also shown over the brace so I think that concludes the query. Indeed they even label the brace as the "fuel tank carrier", rightly or wrongly as we know it's bracing the strut towers primarily.

While we're on the subject of the tank-straps, what is the size of the thread on the threaded bits welded onto the ends of the straps?

I've had mine apart recently but have mislaid the nuts (can't find them for the life of me! ) and none I have to hand seem to fit, despite having more than one thread pitch on what looks to be the right base diameter.

The Veg wrote:While we're on the subject of the tank-straps, what is the size of the thread on the threaded bits welded onto the ends of the straps?

I've had mine apart recently but have mislaid the nuts (can't find them for the life of me! ) and none I have to hand seem to fit, despite having more than one thread pitch on what looks to be the right base diameter.

According to the parts book they are 1/4" UNF.