My Voigt 5-speed conversion
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.
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.
'69 Elan S4 SE
Street 181 BHP
Original owner
Street 181 BHP
Original owner
- 1owner69Elan
- Fourth Gear
- Posts: 886
- Joined: 16 Jun 2015
- Location: Napa, California
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.
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.
'69 Elan S4 SE
Street 181 BHP
Original owner
Street 181 BHP
Original owner
- 1owner69Elan
- Fourth Gear
- Posts: 886
- Joined: 16 Jun 2015
- Location: Napa, California
@ 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
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
Tim Bartlett, Sprint 183K
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My72Sprint - First Gear
- Posts: 47
- Joined: 17 Sep 2018
- Location: Sacramento California
1owner69Elan wrote: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:
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:
Spacer to place saddle at correct height:
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.
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innesw - Third Gear
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- Joined: 23 Aug 2009
- Location: Scotland
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