Lotus Elan and Lotus Elan Plus 2 Forums

For David











also

http://gglotus.org/ggtech/elan-5spd/elan5spd.pdf

John

I guess David must understand - I don't.

Come on,wake up Vernon...a home-made tool for removing the gear lever ball fixing,along with how to modify your gear lever and which " nut " to remove to reduce 5th/reverse "notchiness"

John

john.p.clegg wrote: which " nut " to remove to reduce 5th/reverse "notchiness"

John

John

That is new to me. Would you care to explain further. 5th / reverse notchiness , and the reduction of same, is of current interest.

Quite how using, what appears to be, a stethoscope on a stick helps is a mystery!

Vince

Vince
The bottom of the gearbox houses the spring detent for 5th/reverse,by packing it out you can reduce the " notchiness ",but not too much...you don't want it jumping out of gear.
as for the stethascope that's used to check if I'm still alive from time to time....

John

Ah, but how much is too much? That's the question. I'm often accused of going too far!

(Do you mean the big brass dome headed one next to the oil drain? It looks very important!)

It is important,it holds the car in 5th/Rev gear,as for how much is enough I'd take it out and count the threads,fit a copper washer with the thickness of a thread and see how it feels,repeat.

John

john.p.clegg wrote:Vince
The bottom of the gearbox houses the spring detent for 5th/reverse,by packing it out you can reduce the " notchiness ",but not too much...you don't want it jumping out of gear.
as for the stethascope that's used to check if I'm still alive from time to time....

John

Jumping in - rather than out : I've occasionally experienced a fifth difficult to get out of gear on a "professionally" rebuilt gearbox (from a low mileage gearbox). I've not used the fifth very often, only on highways then also because of that, with plenty of time to pull back to neutral.

Would a overly strong spring (or possibly missing/inadequate washer) be a cause of that kind of behavior? I guess one has to drain the oil every time one want to experiment with a different thickness washer...

I don't think one has to drain the oil,the spring works via a " torpedo" detent on the reverse/5th selector shaft and any oil lost would be minimal..

John

john.p.clegg wrote:I don't think one has to drain the oil,the spring works via a " torpedo" detent on the reverse/5th selector shaft and any oil lost would be minimal..

John

that sounds excellent news : I've scheduled a day on a 4 post lift to tidy up the underneath of my car later this month, I will gladly take advantage of it to give a close look at that spring in case it may help improving downshifting 5 to 4 and hopefully expending its use...

I've had a go but by 'eck it is tight!

I'll have to search for a better socket and employ my "persuader" bar.

My idea is to crack it off then slowly undo it a flat at a time, testing the gear selection until a difference is felt. The box is standing upright on the floor at the moment so now would seem an opportune moment to experiment.

I've just done this while I had the car in the air. My bolt wasn't particularly tight but box is in the car so easily to get leverage.

A few things to note for other considering doing this:
- It's a 5/8" washer
- Mine leaked some fluid, around 1hz of large drops after initial larger flow nothing to prevent you doing this
- The detent didn't drop immediately but did so you need to track if/when it drops, you don't want to lose it!
- Pretty straight forward job, re fitting slightly tricky due to needing to compress the spring to get teh bolt to start in the thread

My original copper washer was ~1mm, I fitted a ~1.5mm as that is what I had to hand. Feels a bit better but still a little stiffer than 1/2/3/4, weather isn't suitable so haven't given it a test drive yet...

I had a play and unwound the nut 1 flat at a time. The notchiness improved between the 5th and 6th flat. The gap to the existing washer was approx. 1.4 mm.

As John suggested in the beginning - one full turn!

Please bear in mind the tortious route from the gearknob to the selector, and the fact that all else could play a part in causing difficulty in selecting 5th/reverse...a little bit of play here and a little bit of play there all adds up..

John

john.p.clegg wrote:Please bear in mind the tortious route from the gearknob to the selector, and the fact that all else could play a part in causing difficulty in selecting 5th/reverse...a little bit of play here and a little bit of play there all adds up..

John

I'll be happy to take in and learn from any hint/advice, esp. regarding disengaging (which is what is more difficult/troublesome on my car) ...