Lotus Elan and Lotus Elan Plus 2 Forums

Nice pics and a good looking seal ring.
No need to replace anything as undisturbed as that providing you can ensure even pressure onto it.
That is actually one of the advantages of foam - one can be a bit more relaxed about installation.

Thanks everyone,
Your replies and photos have been terrific. Based on this, I'll pull the heater box and if the sealing ring is still good, terrific otherwise I'll find some compressible rubber from somewhere.

Cheers
Paul.

Well I pulled the heater box and lo and behold, there was no sealing ring installed!
In addition, the front of the heater box (where it sits against the bulkhead) was rusted out.

That rather looks as if the plenum drain isn't working properly.
With a bit of luck the box will still come apart and allow cleaning up.
Personally I'd glassfibre repair it and reassemble.
I expect others would fabricate a sheet steel repair!

I've got the box apart. Had to dremel 3 of the screws... too rusted.
It was clogged full of leaves and dirt, I guess 50+ years of use.

The motor had leaves inside and so I decided that I should open that up as well. I seem to recall mention of people replacing brushes etc. while it's apart. Any pointers on where these are available from?

It's also not obvious how to get the brushes out, it's looking like desoldering maybe required.

Any tips?

MarkDa wrote:That rather looks as if the plenum drain isn't working properly.
With a bit of luck the box will still come apart and allow cleaning up.
Personally I'd glassfibre repair it and reassemble.
I expect others would fabricate a sheet steel repair!

Yes, I'll have to ensure that it's clean.

I'm also thinking about glassing up the box. One other alternative though is to rivet an aluminium plate in place of the rusted sections.

Paul.

If I remember correctly there are foam/felt strips on the end of the matrices to ensure that air flows through rather than around the core.

MarkDa wrote:If I remember correctly there are foam/felt strips on the end of the matrices to ensure that air flows through rather than around the core.

Yes, these disintegrated on touch. I'll be replacing them.

Hi Paul

I rebuilt the heater box on my +2 and for the gaskets I made my own out of EPDM rubber pond liner. In the UK this rubber comes in large sheets in 0.5mm and 0.75mm thickness for lining garden ponds. It comes in square sheets of different sizes and is used to line the hole that is dug in the garden to make the pond leak proof. In most cases the rubber ends up being trimmed and the left over bits can be , relative to a typical gasket size , quite large. I made my gaskets out of these left over bits. It is easy to cut with scissors and the old gasket can be used as a template. So an idea would be to see if you can get some offcuts from a garden pond supplier or installer.

I would have thought the required air hose should be available from most Auto factors

Hope this helps

Best of Luck

Bob

bob_rich wrote:Hi Paul

I rebuilt the heater box on my +2 and for the gaskets I made my own out of EPDM rubber pond liner. ....

Hello Bob, very ingenious

I found several rubber and foam tubular weather strip sizes that I intend to try out.

Cheers
Paul.

I thought that I would post some progress on my S3 heater box restoration.

The motor had always squealed when I first turned it on (put up with this for 30+years) and never wanted to run on the low power setting. I opened the motor up. After 50 years the casings were reluctant to come apart, but liberal amounts of wd40 on the spindle and tenacity paid off. There was a lot of dirt and debris inside.
Cleaned it all out, checked the windings and brushes...all ok. Had to remake the paper insulator that sits under the upper case. Obtained some electric motor oil and re-oiled the brass bearings. Motor runs smooth and quiet now.





Now on to rebuilding the heater box itself

When I rebuilt the +2 heater box I got all the materials, except the hoses from these guys via fleaBay: http://stores.ebay.com/rubbersheetwarehouse/

They sell rubber sheet materials, both solid and foam, in varying thicknesses, with and without adhesive. I've found many more uses for the leftover material while putting the car back together.

Bud English wrote:When I rebuilt the +2 heater box I got all the materials, except the hoses from these guys via fleaBay: http://stores.ebay.com/rubbersheetwarehouse/ ...

Thanks for the reference
Paul

It's the sort of job that once some should last another 30 years ?
Glad to hear that the motor is good and running like new
If (when) you get leaves etc inside then they can be munched by fan and blown through the little fascia vents.
I know this because for a couple of weeks after my son having the car for his wedding I got a deluge of dried rose petals whenever I turned the fan on!

Un balanced airflow?
Well the heater box is rebuilt and reinstalled, however I have noticed that there is a substantial inbalance in air pressure between the lhs and rhs! Like 2x.
I've verified that all of the hoses are free and clear. This is particularly noticeable at the face vent hoses.

Is this normal?
I've had this box completely apart and so I know that there isn't any blockages inside.
I'm a bit perplexed

Any thoughts?

Here a few before and after pics.