Lotus Elan and Lotus Elan Plus 2 Forums

I'm in the process of dismantling an Elan gearbox for my Manual transmission class at my community college. One of the requirements of the task is to measure the clearance between the synchro ring and the speed gear for wear. Unless I missed it, the Tech Spec section does not show the specs. Anyone know where I can find the spec?

Joji Tokumoto
Fallbrook, Ca

Some manufacturers give a spec others don't - just relying on a visual inspection. The ridges at the top of the grooves still need to be sharp to adequately cut through the oil film and achieve fast gear syncronisation. Ford don't give a clearance spec for the 2000E box. It becomes fairly obvious though when you compare new and worn rings side by side.

Compare the 2nd, 3rd and 4th gear baulk rings against the 1st gear one which is normally unworn, the clearance is measured with a feeler guage between the parallel radial faces of the gear and synchro ring, bad explanation but I hope it makes sense to you.

I check them visually looking for peaks to the lands between the grooves and then check with a feeler guage, in fact thats untrue I can do it by feel (the resistance) and with my bare eyes.

The above was when all the baulk rings had come out of the OE Ford suppliers factory, with modern pattern parts they probably wont even have any grooves!!!

Lotus workshop manual suggests ?Twisting? the two parts together, they should lock as to resist turning by hand.

Thanks for confirming that there are no readily available specs on the OE Elan gearbox. For reference the synchro clearances on my box are:

1st gear - 0.040"
2nd gear- 0.045"
3rd gear - 0.036"
4th gear - 0.050"

I'll do a visual of the grooves in the rings and other suggestions call it good.

Joji Tokumoto
Fallbrook, Ca