Pop up light mechanism

[jono]

My Plus 2 restoration arrived as boxes of bits and a stripped down shell (not a good idea )

I am however making progress and have alomst completed the running gear and attentions are now turning to the shell. I am confused regarding the pop up light mechanism however as all I have is 2 lights pods and boxes and boxes of bits, including a new vaccuum unit, 2 springs and and old vaccuum unit with a hole in it!

My car is a May 1970 S and I am not sure if it would have had the failsafe system or the other version. The workshop manual deftly avoids showing how the lights are fitted and actuated

Presumably there must be a bar connecting both lights so that they open in a synchronised fashion?

So, 2 questions for the collective knowledge:

1 Which system would my car have had?

2 Would anyone be kind enough to post up some pics of both system so I can understand how they go together and what bits may be missing from my kit of parts

Many thanks folks!

Jono

[Ross Robbins]

Hi Jono,

I can't take photos right now as I am 1,500 miles from my car, but my car is a February 1970 Federal version with fail safe headlights that rise lazily after several hours if no vaccuum and yes there is a bar/rod that connects them so they operate as a pair. If no other photos have come by Sunday when I get home I will take a few snaps. Remember that my S is a Federal car...your results may vary.

[curly type 26]

Hi Jono you should have non fail safe, dont mind being corrected but i think fail safe was introduced on u/k S130 plus 2s but dont know year. (just happen to have 2 new Exell headlight lift motors if you wish to go electric) Curly 1964 26Rr

[ppnelan]

Section M15/M16 of the Workshop Manual and (better still) section BD of the Parts List show how it all fits together.

Matthew

[mikealdren]

The failsafe has a bar that connects the two housings and it runs from a single vacuum activator, the earlier cars had an activator for each light.

Mike

[alaric]

Hi. It just so happens that I've just taken my light pods out of the car to do a little more fibreglass reinforcement, so I can take a set of photos for you when I pop out to the garage this afternoon. As mentioned above there is indeed a connecting bar, and you may well have it amongst the bits. I bought my car in boxes too. As you say it's really tough going as you've no idea where the box of rusty parts go, and the manual really doesn't help that much. I've a smaller box now, but hopefully have identified most of the parts.

I'll get a post uploaded later today. I'll be reassembling it all fairly soon - hopefully this evening - so should be able to provide a couple of snaps with it together too.

Sorry - should have added that mine's a '72 S130, with failsafe set up. I'm not sure when they swapped over but the parts list should tell you that.

Sean.

[bcmc33]

Jon,

See link - http://www.rdent.com/manuals/index.html

> Elan +2
> Body
> Pop up HL

Then see what you can make of that.

[alaric]

Hi. Just come in from the garage - not a bad effort this evening! I've got the pods back in with the connecting bar and the headlamps fitted. Here are some photos of the parts. I'll post a pic of them fully assembled tomorrow.

Sean.

Light pod

The pods and connecting bar on the floor

vacuum pod with springs and actuator ready to fit to lever on connecting bar

[jono]

Many thanks for all your comments guys, really helpful

I obviously have the non failsafe system.

Cheers.

Jono

[davidj]

One way of identifying which light actuator you have is to look for dimples on the nose floor. The non failsafe design will have two dimples moulded in the fibreglass below the light holes to locate the vacuum units; the failsafe design does not have these and the vacuum unit is mounted on a metal plate.

However, my failsafe car had a none failsafe nose fitted in the dim and distant past which confused me for a while!

D.