Lotus Elan and Lotus Elan Plus 2 Forums

Hi I’ve a lotus 5 speed box on my elan and today it got stuck in 5th as the gearstick had jumped off the selector. On investigation the acetal ball has disintegrated. Got the car out of gear but reinserting the stick.

Are the balls available or do you need to source a complete stick?

Thanks

Richard

Do NOT take the gear stick out with it in neutral, the shift mechanism can separate and then your in for fun removing the top cover in situte to reconnect it.

Technically the gear sticks are single piece and not designed for repair. But it can be done by destroying the bush that hold the two parts together.

I think lotus marques in Australia now sell the ball and replacement bush for the stick. These haven't been available and members have done there own repairs. I've posted a stl for of the ball on here and a few threads on people repairing there's.

I purchased a new bush from Lotus Marques which had a slightly larger inner diameter than the shaft on my gear stick. However I purchased a round threaded stud connector and used this to replace the steel insert in the bush and put a thread on the lower half of the gearstick. The top half of the gearstick can now be unscrewed from the lower half quite easily.
The replacement sphere that I purchased from Lotus Marques fitted perfectly
To be clear I have been experimenting to find a viable repair and the above appears to work fine but I also purchased one of the new Turkish gear levers that appear on EBay and although these won’t fit the lotus box I can now screw the top half of that stick into my original lower thus avoiding the need to repair the bush.

Picture 1 is assembled gearstick with threaded adaptations and sphere from Lotus Marques
Picture 2 is assembled stick using Turkish upper half
Picture 3 shows threaded adaptations
Please note the small rubber boot shown is also from the Turkish stick as my original was perished

Ed

When I fitted a new ball on mine I also threaded the top of the bottom piece (m10 thread same as the gear knob).

I then made an threaded insert for the upper section by welding nuts and washers together. I used 3 25mm diameter washers (top, middle, bottom) that are just smaller that the tube hole in the top. Then just normal silicone to fasten it in, using a jig to center it. The silicon avoids sizzle in the gear stick, but washer give minimal flex when in use.

I tried to repair mine a couple of months ago. I had the same problem, a 5 speed too.
I trawled the net and got a very good, hardly used Ford Escort one. Any Ford will do of that era.
The gearchange is so much better now. It mut have been falling apart for ages for me to realise what was going on.

Regards
Jeff 72+2 5 speed.

I buy a new one on motomobil.com
Perfect fitting

My gearstick broke today!!
Fitted my rebuilt stick and it works fine
See pictures which are in the wrong order but the first is with the rebuilt stick and the others show the broken one.