Propshaft Position Through Chassis Tunnel

[RAJ2628]

When I recently introduced the body to the chassis, I noticed that the fuel pump was in contact with the body footwell side wall. On further inspection there was also contact between the starter motor body and the sidewall.
I removed the body and noticed the starter motor was beyond the chassis frame at that point. During the process I have had the engine & gearbox in and out of the chassis a few times and an earlier photo shows the starter motor within the chassis frame. The mounts are the right way up and on the correct side (Straight Flange Inlet, Scalloped Flange Exhaust with spacers. Gearbox mounting spacers fitted. I began to look around the assembly and noticed the propshaft entered the chassis tunnel towards the drivers side of the channel. I am aware of the Diff offset but mine seems excessive.
I will go through the full suite of nuts and bolts tomorrow, loosen them off and see if I can better position the engine and gearbox to see if I can gain any advantage.
I thought I would ask for your views, It might be normal, but it seems off to me.
Any thoughts

[types26/36]

Cant help you with the engine alignment but if those two nuts that I’ve ringed are on the wishbone bolts then you have fitted them incorrectly.
The bolts should be fitted the other way round with the nuts in the forward position, if you fit the body with the bolts like that you will not be able to get bolts out if you want to remove the wishbones at a later stage.

[RAJ2628]

Well spotted I will change them, thanks.

[Davidb]

While we are all looking at the driveshaft-has anybody got a way to grease the front U joint? Even with the tip removed from my smallest grease gun it won't fit between the jaws of the yoke to reach the nipple. I realise since there is not much movement it is probably OK but...

[Lotusian]

Sounds like your engine is low on the inlet side.
As you’re certain the mount is up the right way, might it have collapsed?
You could post a photo in case that reveals something to someone here.
Ian

[RAJ2628]

Lotusian
I've put a couple of pics on a .pdf to keep the file size down.
The mounts are new and they are the up-rated version with extra rubber.
My instinct was that it might have been slightly higher at the inlet side with the starter motor moving toward the outer frame of the chassis. If it was lower the SM would tend to move (slightly) downward and toward the centre of the chassis. But it has made me question the mounts. Because they are new I assumed the issue was not there.
I took some simple measurements, one of which was the engine tilt angle using the LOTUS part of the cam cover as a convenient level point. My assumption was that if the mounts had no offset, the cam cover would sit level.
It measured 2.35° - high at the input carb side.
Looking at the Workshop Manual chassis drawing the chassis engine mounting points are 372.4mm (14.74") apart and presumably level. If the inlet mount imparts an offset of 10mm, that should produce a tilt angle of 1.5°.
My 2.35° measurement would need an offset of about 15mm.
OK thanks, I'll start there and re-check the gearbox mount orientation too.
Worth the post.

[Billmack]

Needs to be significantly higher on carburetor side and spacers on exhaust side between mount and block

[fatboyoz]

Hi David,
When I replaced my greasable universal joints, I swapped the grease nipples for longer ones that are long enough to get a normal grease fitting onto.
To gain access to grease the forward universal, I carefully measured the position of the universal grease nipple, and drilled a hole through the bottom of the chassis. The hole is big enough to fit the grease fitting through, and also sized to take a rubber blanking grommet.
Cheers,
Colin.










quote="Davidb"]While we are all looking at the driveshaft-has anybody got a way to grease the front U joint? Even with the tip removed from my smallest grease gun it won't fit between the jaws of the yoke to reach the nipple. I realise since there is not much movement it is probably OK but...[/quote]

[Davidb]

Thanks for that Colin--I should have thought of that when I was rebuilding the car shouldn't I?
I will see if it is possible to swap the grease nipple over but I suspect not. Since the driveshaft has no up and down movement and I thoroughly greased it when I installed it I suspect it is ok.

Back to regular channel.

[fatboyoz]

David,
If I recall, you can gain access to the front universal through an access hole under the centre console.
Cheers,
Colin.





quote="Davidb"]Thanks for that Colin--I should have thought of that when I was rebuilding the car shouldn't I?
I will see if it is possible to swap the grease nipple over but I suspect not. Since the driveshaft has no up and down movement and I thoroughly greased it when I installed it I suspect it is ok.

Back to regular channel.[/quote]

[Lotusian]

When I made my suggestion that the engine mount on the inlet side might have collapsed, I was thinking about the fact that your fuel pump is touching the side of the footwell.
I agree however with what do you say about the starter motor, and in any case the engine mount is clearly intact.
On my car, the glass bowl fuel pump was perilously close to the footwell, so I guess this is “normal“. I tried making a scallop in the footwell side, but was so concerned about this that I changed to a smaller diameter pump which does not have the glass bowl.
In view of what you say about the starter motor previously being within the chassis frame, it still seems to me that there is something not quite right about the engine mounts or their position. Do you still have the original engine mounts (or a set of new standard ones) which you could try?
Ian

[billwill]

Cant help you with the engine alignment but if those two nuts that I’ve ringed are on the wishbone bolts then you have fitted them incorrectly.
The bolts should be fitted the other way round with the nuts in the forward position, if you fit the body with the bolts like that you will not be able to get bolts out if you want to remove the wishbones at a later stage.

The bolts should be fitted the other way round with the nuts in the forward position

Ahem, that statement is a bit ambiguous. The A-Frame bolts have to be fitted with the heads in the INNER side and nuts in the OUTER ends of the bolts.

When the body is on, there is not enough room to remove the bolts outwards; they have to be removed by sliding the bolts towards each other.

[billwill]

While we are all looking at the driveshaft-has anybody got a way to grease the front U joint? Even with the tip removed from my smallest grease gun it won't fit between the jaws of the yoke to reach the nipple. I realise since there is not much movement it is probably OK but...

Have you tried a grease gun that has a flexible pipe as its 'nose'?

[Donels]

Well the chassis hasn’t changed and the engine hasn’t changed so that just leaves the new mountings, which have changed. So back to basics are they fitted upside down? Are the spacers fitted on the correct side? Remove mounts and check with the old ones. If necessary reinstall old ones and measure.

Your diff picture looks a bit odd. The propshaft and diff don’t appear to be in line or is it just the way the pictures taken?

[Lotusian]

Photo of my Elan, showing that the starter motor bendix cover (I assume that’s your problem area?) should be just clear of the outer face of the chassis.
Is one corner of your bendix cover correctly flattened (so as to avoid it protruding through the oval hole) and correctly orientated?

Photo also of the same area on my Plus 2:

Hope this helps.
Ian