Lotus Elan and Lotus Elan Plus 2 Forums

Hello all.
To get straight to the point: How the hell are people managing to fit the mini style brake light switch (which seem to be the only type available) into the back of the pedal box. Even with bending the connectors out of the way there is not enough room to maneuver it into position.

Does anyone have any advice on how it is done without removing the pedal box, please?

Or know where to buy an original switch?

Thanks

If you can't find one over there:
Ray at r.d. enterprises ( http://www.rdent.com/ ) has them. Ref. 36M6154 $9.50

+2?

I think I removed (filled off?) a little bit of the threaded section which was just enough to get it in the hole and thread it in.

I just fitted this one on my +2s 130 the other day - just bent back the terminals, it was a bit tight but went in fine. Don't screw it in to much, it was causing my brakes to lock on as wasnt releasing the pedal enough.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/391824750187

On my Plus 2 (a very early car) which came in about 13 boxes of bits with the sales pitch 'its all there, a complete car!' was it ####. All I had was the pedal box assembly. As I had no brake switch at all, or any reference as to where it went I mounted a motor cycle type pull switch on a small fabricated bracket fitted to the pedal box bolts with a spring attached to the brake pedal fulcrum, Works a treat. Bob

Bob, The early plus 2 uses a pressure switch, mounted in a muliway union in the brake lines. on a RHD car the union is attached to the chassis under the steering column. You may already know this and chose a different method to achieve the same result.

Hi Wotsis, I discovered that after I had made up and fitted all new brake lines, I did find a brake light switch and a mounting plate in one of the boxes. This looked familiar and as I had previously rebuilt a Series Landrover, Thats what the switch and plate was in the box. Presumably cross contamination while the +2 was in bits, some 40 years, I have found a few odd bits, that I cannot identify from the Lotus parts manual. I was not going to disturb all my new brake pipes so I used the motor-cycle pull switch, it works fine and is unobtrusive, tight up against the pedal box. As a tip, when I made up the also missing handbrake rods I used Landrover series clevis's and pins these are spring loaded and will stop the dreaded brake rod rattle. Bob

I fully understand having to work it out as you go along.. if you've still got unidentified bits, I bet we all love a quiz.. Adrian

Thanks guys. Doesn't look like the original smaller, rounder one can be bought anywhere. I will try again, but think I will need the hands of a 9 year old chinese factory worker to get it into place. If not will have to bite the bullet and chop it down a bit but thought I would probably damage the thread doing that and it wouldn't screw in anyway. Let's see what happens.

Before cutting down the threaded part of the switch run a nut down the threads, cut off the excess then run the nut off and any dodgy threads at the cutoff are restored