sump bar

[elanbaby]

Treating my leaky sump gasket I decided to do it with the engine "in situ". I don?t have an engine hoist at hand and all the corresponding work to pull the engine just seemed too much to justify that route.
Believe me, getting out the angle grinder to cut off the sump bar (pic1) was not an easy decision as my Elans chassis is quite new. After cutting off the bar I noticed RUST (pic2) between bar and chassis. Not deep, but if left alone it may have well developed over the years. The chassis is not galvanised at this spot because the hot dip melted Zinc is too thick to get there. The acid to treat the chassis before galvanizing gets into this gap and unfortunately stays there. I flattened and cleaned the area from remaining weld seam and rust and brushed on 99% fluid Zinc (pic3). To take the load I then had a bar fabricated which looks pretty much original (pic4). The bolts are UNF with selflocking nuts. I?ll have the bar galvanized this week.
Any other views on this subject? Is this bar necessary at all? Did you leave the bar off? Or is there any other way to take off the sump with the engine left in. I know Spyder chassis? are built with a removable bar but I?m talking about the Lotus chassis here of course.

[types26/36]

.
Any other views on this subject? Is this bar necessary at all? Did you leave the bar off? .

Yes the bar is necessary, dont leave it off as the chassis flexes a great deal in that area. I also "modified" my S2 chassis cross brace making it detatchable.

[rgh0]

Jurgen
I did something similar on my Elan many years ago. I used a single much larger bolt but otherwise the same sort of modification.

The cross brace is absolutely necessary for chassis torsional stiffness. If you dont believe me jack up one front corner of the car and then try to remove or replace the bolts in the cross brace, if the bolt holes have been made a tight clearance fit you wont be able to!

I would put a washer on both sides of the bolts you have used, maybe a special fabricated one that has a hole for each bolt in it given their proximity. Your need to get a strong clampling load between the brace and the chassis and not rely on the bolts in shear through the relatively thin chassis otherwise the bolt holes will elongate over time. You may also wish to weld or braze a reinforcing plate to the chassis where the holes are also to reinforce this location and avoid future chassis cracking around the bolt holes but this is probably not critical provided you use washers and keep the bolts torqued up tight.

regards
Rohan

[elanbaby]

Thank you for comment and advise! Pic 4 that shows the fitted bar was just to make sure everything lines up properly. The bar is beeing galvanised at the moment and I will use very large and strong washers and high tensile bolts (UNF to keep Lotus british) to clamp chassis and bar safely together.

[CBUEB1771]

As a point of comparison, the equivalent piece on the Plus 2 is removable. Two bosses with a conical depression are welded to the frame. The bar has matching conical depressions pressed in. The depressions in the bar nest in the bosses to provide positive location. Single bolts pass through the centers of these conical features at each end. I think the bolts are 3/8" UNF. This would be easy to duplicate on an Elan but welding would be required.

[GrUmPyBoDgEr]

Russ,

I ditto that for the "Spyder" tubular frame.
High tensile bolts by the way
John

[elanbaby]

Finished my oil sump bar today
I made two exactly fitting washer out of quite thick, galvanised steel too (pic1). This clamps the bar tight to the chassis. Looks not far off the original one (pic2).
If anybody?s interested in this removable bar, I have had 4 sets made. Complete with high tensile bolts, self locking nuts. They fit exactly, I checked them all on my chassis. One is slightly stronger made of a square tube (pic3).

[elansprint71]

I read, only today, that Tony Thompson is producing 26r chassis with removable cross-members.

Not many people know that.

Pete.