My Voigt 5-speed conversion

[1owner69Elan]

Good to see you are really driving a lot. The 5th gear lends itself to making longer trips.

Haven’t yet put many miles on mine. And the weather is going to turn soon. But looking forward to future travels.

I put the Quaife short shifter in without trying it without. I find the shifting excellent and actually seems better than my original (recently rebuilt) 4 speed. Part of that could also be the close ratio gear set.

[1owner69Elan]

Some finishing touches:

1. Affixed a 5-speed shift pattern stencil to the dash. In case someone else drives the car (highly unusual). Also, a subtle indicator that a 5 speed lies within.
2. Secured a black lotus logo shift knob to the Quaife short shifter, matching the black nose badge.

The leaky heater valve, mentioned in my last post, turned out to be an incorrectly assembled one. The valve was relatively new. The rivet that keeps the two halves from rotating and separating was installed incorrectly in a wrong position. Had not showed up before as the halves had not rotated even there was nothing restraining them from doing so - but when reconnecting the heater cable in this last engine out go round, they must have rotated and thus leaked. Drilled the bad rivet out and re-riveted in the correct position. Leak solved.

[My72Sprint]

@ 1owner69Elan
My later S4 Sprint has a Hazard Switch where you placed the shift pattern stencil.
Guess I'll just run the standard Lotus shift knob, perfect condition, no pattern.
Tim

[innesw]

Steve, would be interested to see what kind of clearance you have between the exhaust pipe and the bottom of the plate gearbox mount.

The mount supplied by Voigt is essentially a flat plate that bolts into the existing mount holes. The stock Elan gearbox mount is a "bridge" affair allowing clearance for a central exhaust pipe. The Voigt flat plate reduces the available clearance by ~1.5 inches (substantial) requiring the pipe to be under a plate that is bolted flush with the body/frame.Voigt on left:

IMG_5502.jpeg

Interesting...
Slight tangent, my Lotus 5 speed mount is very different to yours and is more plate like with two folded edges, because it isn't a bridge my TTR exhaust does sit lower and I have to take speed humps diagonally and slowly.

My large bore TTR pipe definitely will not fit under the plate (further exacerbated by the end folds extending downward). I would have to modify the exhaust and drop it down to clear. With the car already lower than stock, and further reducing ground clearance, I'm not sure that is the direction I want to go.

I'm inclined to look into adapting the stock gearbox bracket to the proper height for the Voigt T9 and thus regain some of the clearance that the flat plate removes. And thus, allow the exhaust pipe be tucked up in the central tunnel as in a stock configuration, and not causing a low hanging obstacle. Note that both the stock 4-speed and the Voigt 5-speed use the same gearbox saddle. The issue is to get the proper height of the gearbox saddle and in the right axial position.

It appears that I can achieve the proper positioning by turning the stock mount around and then using 3/4 inch spacers where it bolts to the frame to achieve the same gearbox saddle height as the Voigt plate (with its spacer). The two different mount plates already use the same mounting hole positions as well the same axial position for the saddle (if turned around). I have dry-fitted this solution and it appears to work. One can fine tune the height of the gearbox by the size of the spacers, later, but 3/4 inch appears to be very close.
Voigt plate on top of stock plate for comparison. Dramatic difference in clearance to an exhaust pipe. The two mounts align except for saddle height:

IMG_5512.jpeg

Spacer to place saddle at correct height:

IMG_5517.jpeg

I guess with a stock, small bore exhaust one can get by with the Voigt flat plate but the clearance really becomes problematic with a large bore setup.

So after all the machinations with modifying the Voigt mount plate with a leading edge fold (me) or making a cutout to clear the casting (Steve), I may not be using the Voigt plate after all. But, simply adapting the original mount.

[steve lyle]

Just got back from LOG 40. A bit over 2800 miles. Lots of climbing and descents at various Colorado passes.

My pre-LOG project list included glassing in some steel plates at the top & bottom of the tunnel shifter opening so that I could drill/tap mounting positions for the gaiter hold-down. By design, this removed the 'floating' nature of my shift gaiter. Which apparently added a bit of back-force to the shifter.

That's my explanation on why the tranny would pop out of 3rd and 5th on downhill runs when off the throttle. No issue with 4th. Shifter would also pop out of reverse, fwiw.

I'm using an MGB gaiter to enable the longer throws this shifter has. Apparently it's still too restrictive, so I'll have my upholstery guy make up a leather one, and make sure it in no way restrains the shifter. Then find a mountain somewhere to try it out.

[1owner69Elan]

Congrats on your 2800 mile trip. Certainly nice to have the overdrive fifth gear.

Regarding having a restriction on your gear lever throw potentially causing problems of popping out of gear:

1. There is a commercially available leather boot for the Elan from: https://www.redlinegoods.com/Elan6273shiftboot.php

It is my own design in leather created for my Elan based upon the original rubber one. No affiliation- I don’t get a royalty or some such. Or you can get your local guy to make one up.

2. You might consider the Quaife short shifter for the T9. As earlier posted this cuts down on the long throw bringing it back more in line with the original 4 speed. And thus less potential for binding with the gaiter.

[steve lyle]

Wow, that really looks good.

Unfortunately, the MGB gaiter has an oval base, and I cut an oval hole in the console to match it. I don't think the ready made one would 'blouse' over the oval fully. Rats.

[steve lyle]

Well, rats.

After replacing my torn CV boot, I considered making a post celebrating the fact that everything was working on the car. I didn’t make that post, thinking that it would be tempting fate.

Fate didn’t care. Today, while driving from Tulsa to Springdale, AR, I noticed that it got increasingly more difficult to shift. After arriving at the hotel, I found that the clutch master reservoir was empty. I filled it back up and bled it, and the clutch is working fine now. But where is the leak, and how bad is it?

I’m kicking myself for not checking the fluid level since the install 18 months and 5k miles ago. There haven’t been any symptoms until this latest trip. Hopefully it’ll hold together till we get home and I can dig into it.

[steve lyle]

Luckily, the leak was at the top of the bleed line where it seats in the bleed fixture that’s bolted to the rear exhaust manifold stud. A 1/4 turn or so and the leak stopped. Whew.