Any ideas?

[persiflage]

Asked out of general interest.
Does anyone have any idea of the meaning and significance of this tag found attached to gearbox casing bolts. 1972 Sprint.

[trw99]

None!

Though it looks more Ford than Lotus. May be worth asking on a Ford forum?

Tim

[StressCraxx]

It’s a Ford tag that is coded to the version/bill of materials for that specific gearbox, bearings, synchros, etc.

[gjz30075]

Could '2 D 04' be a date code?
2 - 1972
D - April
04 - the 4th of April

[draenog]

Previous discussion of tags and gearbox identification:

https://lotuselan.net/forums/viewtopic.php?f=37&t=20184&start=

This mentions A, S and AB suffixes but no AE?

[draenog]

Another previous discussion:

https://lotuselan.net/forums/viewtopic.php?f=37&t=34181&start=

AE is present on all the tags, so it looks like AE is the suffix for the Lotus application (E for Elan?). It also speculates that the other numbers/letter is a date in the Ford numbering scheme (edit: in fact it was gjz30075 who suggested it both times).

[davidj]

this is the tag from the gearbox fitted on my 66 S3 SE

It is a bit unclear on the photo but it reads

2820 ED
6 J 28

so I guess the date is 28th Oct 66.

[pharriso]

And mine from my February '72 build Sprint:

So 1J 21 is 21st December 1971, makes sense with the build date.

Other stampings (2821E, AE & FOB) consistent as OP.

[smo17003]

Happy to be corrected, I believe that the FOB on the tags is Ford of Britain.