Lotus Elan and Lotus Elan Plus 2 Forums

Hello,

with my Elan +2 is the few months ago the speedometer failed. Now in the winter I went to the bottom of the matter. The Speedocable and the Speedometer itself are so far in order. If I let the transmission spin with the starter with the car raised, the soul of the Speedocable does not move.

I now had the guess that the shaft does not connect right with the speedodrive on the gearbox. Now I have noticed that the shaft can be turned freely when it is engaged in thegearbox.

Is that right? I think normally the shaft should not rotate by hand. Does this mean that the speedodrive on the transmission is broken?

Does anyone know about the matter?

Hello.
You are correct, the output shaft of the angle drive should not turn by hand.
You will have to drain the oil from the gearbox and remove the angle drive to check it.
I hope that is the problem. I believe they are available.
Eric in Burnley
S3SE DHC

The angle drive seems to act like a mechanical fuse for the speedo system. Was the speedometer needle bouncing before it failed?

If so, make sure you check for any indications of binding in the cable or speedo itself. The cable can be removed from the sheath at the speedo end and lubricated with grease before you reassemble. I bought two right angle drives before I figured it out.....

Regards,
Dan

On my classic's I regularly remove the cable from its sheath, clean them with solvent, and coil them up in the bottom of a 5 gallon pail with oil in it to soak overnight. Saves the transmission output from extra work. It can be done by loosening the cable nut on the back of the speedo and sliding the drive cable out. When refitting a little care must be used to get the square lined up.

Kurt.

if the angle drive is broken you can take it apart and repair using an old bit of inner cable.
Alan

I chased this sort of problem. Checked the speedometer and cable with an electric drill and all was well. When I checked the angle drive, off the cable, I could rotate the spindle and see to output rotate. However, when the angle drive was hooked to the cable and the electric drill was attached to the spindle, the speedometer would not register. The spindle had come loose in the angle drive. My local speedometer shop made it right.

Hello, thank you for your answers. As it looks we with me the problem also in the angle drive lie.

Can the angle drive be removed with the gearbox installed in the car?
I think it will be difficult to solve the schruabe with which the drive is attached. But I could not look at it today unfortunately.

greeting
Egbert

elan+2s wrote:Hello, thank you for your answers. As it looks we with me the problem also in the angle drive lie.

Can the angle drive be removed with the gearbox installed in the car?
I think it will be difficult to solve the schruabe with which the drive is attached. But I could not look at it today unfortunately.

greeting
Egbert

Hello Egbert,

Yes, it can be removed with the gearbox still in the car. If you need room for tools, you can removed the crossmember bolts to lower the gearbox a few inches. Expect some oil may leak from the opening.

Regards,
Dan

remove in place 7/16" or 11mm spanner. No oil leak if car is horizontal.
Remove staking in Angle Drive and remove broken cable. Make a new replacement from length of old inner cable.
Easy job and assemby + restake disc/cover back in place.
Alan

Quite a lot of oil came out of mine. Enough to make me wish I had drained it.
Eric in Burnley

imho You don't need to extract the Plastic Wheel or the part with an "o" ring.
It's just the Right Angle Drive which has a 7/16" AF screw which holds the forked plate in place to stop the Right Angle Drive falling out.
imho If you see it's the short length of cable in the drive broken it's best not to look any further
Alan

Alan, yes I see what you mean and I agree,
Eric

The angle drive should simply unscrew from the gearbox just as the cable unscrews from the angle drive with no loss of oil at all & no need to remove the retainer fork. This thread may help
lotus-gearbox-f37/speedo-cable-t23468.html

Regards, Tim

hi Tim yes you are 100% correct.
Thanks for jogging my memory
Alan

This thread lotus-gearbox-f37/speedo-angle-drive-t15817.html gives a description of how to dismantle the angle drive. Once apart, the quill can be tapped out of the spiral drive gear with a suitable sized parallel punch. It consists of a short length of speedo cable with a square on the end crimped into a steel sleeve. I have had two drives where the cable (quill) has simply come loose in the steel sleeve & once disassembled, I have gone round the sleeve with a dot punch in 3 or 4 places & 'Staked' it to tighten the cable/quill. You can then re-press the assembly back into the spiral drive gear & reassemble the angle drive. Both are still working fine, one has done thousands of miles now. On another where the cable had actually broken, I followed the same procedure, but drilled the remains of the cable/quill from the sleeve, & found a scrap speedo cable of the correct diameter & with the correct square on the end, Chopped it to length, then staked it into the sleeve. Again, that one is still working. The 'quill' that Caterham cars sells is just the cable, not the sleeve, so you still have to drill out your old cable & stake the new in, so exactly the same work involved, but you have the ready made cable/quill in the correct dimensions.

This picture shows the spiral drive gear with the quill in situ

This shows the spiral gear with quill removed

And this is the quill & steel sleeve


Regards, Tim