Elan Gear Sticks

[leedsj]

Incredibly my gearstick came off in my hand today whilst driving! Metal fatigue I guess - snapped clean in two.

Anyone have a spare one (or know where I can find one?) - I've tried the usual places (ebay, Susan Miller...)

Does anyone know if they were sourced from another vehicle (e.g. would a Cortina stick fit)?

Thanks

[pharriso]

4 or 5 speed?

[mbell]

It looks like a 5 speed to me.The stick is from a ford type e (rocket box), used in some cortinas and maybe capri's.

I was able to get one from lotusbits.com, as same stick used by some elite/eclats. I think there are some repo being made in turkey but with questionable quality, check ebay. Need to be careful with older sticks as the plastic balls are old and failing.

Make sure to put the gearbox into gear (4th) before removing the stick, the selector mechanism can separate if you remove the stick while in netural.

[gentry74]

search ebay for elan gear stick. There is one on there right now. Unknown if its same as yours. Hard to tell from your pics (And the ebay pics).

[EPA]

The thread on the Turkish sticks isn’t quite the same as the lotus box, it seems ok at first but doesn’t work.
What they do do however is come apart, the lower stick screws into the metal sleeve in the rubber bush. I put a thread on the lower part of my broken stick ( similar break to yours) and used the top half from the Turkish item which I screwed onto the newly threaded lower half and it works fine.
I have another version where I have used a new rubber bush from Lotus Marques and threaded both the inside of the collar and the lower original stick and screwed the two half’s together. It’s a bit tricky to get the old bush out of the original stick though.
I also sourced a new plastic ball from Lotus Marques.

I have attached pictures, the one pictured fitted to the gearbox uses the Turkish upper part of the stick screwed into the threaded lower half of the original which is in use.
The other two picture show the replacement bush from Lotus Marques threaded and then fitted to an original lower half and with a new plastic ball.
Ed

[The Veg]

I bought one of the Turkish levers. The plastic threads are completely too small and just drop right into the threaded hole. Maybe I can get a local machinist to reproduce the threaded bit in aluminium with the right size.

Then I bought one of the pricey 'racing' levers, I think from Burton but don't quote me on that. Nice metal threads but it will need to be bent to keep my knuckles from smacking the dash (since it's made to fit a Ford), and the ball is an inch higher than the original type, so it'll be higher effort. But seeing as the five-speed 'box I bought a couple of years ago only came with a poorly-improvised lever (and I'm in USA), almost anything is an improvement. But good grief, I've already invested a fair amount of money in those two levers and neither is ready to use! But the five-speed install is not a pressing concern at the mo' so there's time to deal with any improvement I can make to them.

[leedsj]

4 or 5 speed?

5 speed!

[gentry74]

I assumed...since the car in question is a +2 (correct?) that this shift lever available from rdent.com in the states would not be correct... but looking at the pics from other replies... now i am not so sure....

so.... just in case... here is a pic of one available from RD enterprises (http://www.rdent.com). Perhaps it can work for you....

[leedsj]

Fabulously Susan Miller has come to the rescue for not the first or probably last time!

Thanks everyone