Lotus Elan and Lotus Elan Plus 2 Forums

The cable on my drivers door window bust recently.

I prepared for the repair by doing a good deal of research on here, printing out a sheet of all the helpful tips that I found. I printed out Brian Buckland's helpful article from Jan 2012 in Club Lotus News. I earmarked the Workshop Manual pages and also those in Brian's Addendum bible. I contacted Susan Miller and bought a new cable and some of the Alex/Eric window clamps.

Earlier this week I removed the window frame from the door without any problems. I cleaned and oiled/greased the door lock and window motor.

Today I set up on the floor of my dining room, ready to tackle the cable replacement. Fortunately my wife was out all day looking after some of our grandchildren, so I had free reign of a warm house and carpet to kneel on. I did clean up the frame and apply some rust prevention outside though!

It all went pretty well - first time. Until I tested with the window pane in place. The wire kept winding over itself on the pulley. I dismantled the cable and started again. Same problem, though this time I tested more rigorously without the pane. For those that have not used the modified clamps, it is possible to set up and test the cable set-up without the pane in situ.

Soooo, I dismantled the cable and started over again. This time I did something a little different. With the wire already inserted into the two holes in the cable pulley, instead of crossing the wires over before winding them on, I folded them back and wound on. See second photo. This is not detailed in any of the instructions. Once I got set up - again - I carried out the test and all was well. So I fitted the pane and ... the window did not go quite all the way to the top. I believe that is due to me not having done enough turns on the cable pulley.

This is what the manual has to say on the subject:

"Insert the cable through the two holes in the drive pulley, wind cable on to pulley for three complete turns. Temporarily secure with adhesive tape."

And Brian B:

"Wind the cables round the pulley half way each side, keeping the cable in the grooves."

My question is, how can you tell how many turns should be on the pulley? If I did three, there was clearly not enough room for the cable to run freely on testing. It seems twice is not enough. Also, I now assume that folding the wire back from the two holes is the correct way? It would appear to be.

I will have to tackle this again at a later date, I am now out of time for a few days.

Tim

Original and replacement cables had a crimped on, in the correct place, a pellet that gave the right ratio of the unequal lengths of cable, alas replacements is just a length of cable. This pic may or may not help.
Loaded bobbin

Thank you Ron, that is very helpful.

My new cable from Susan Miller came with a crimp in the right spot for feeding the two unequal lengths of cable through the two holes, so that was not a problem.

However, your photo illustrates just what I needed to see, namely that the wire folds away from the hole and that the longer side winds on more than the shorter. I shall give that a go when I get to tackle it next week.

Tim