Engine Mounts Follow Up

[mark030358]

Gents,
A follow up on my engine height problem.

Well it turned out that the aftermarket ones I bought are absolute rubbish. When bolted back to back using the four block mounting holes the is approx 8mm difference in the height between an origional unit and the repro units in relation to the chassis mounting holes.
If someone can tell me how to add a photo to this site I will galdly post one. If you fit repro ones beware that you may damage your bonnet.
cheers
Mark
ps went to another supplier and his were just as bad.

[marcfuller]

Rather than seeing them, it would be much more helpful to know which suppliers are selling the "absolute rubbish" mounts.

[matnrach]

It may be relevant or not but I have a +2 and wanted to change my mounts. When I changed one side for a new repro one, the engine was around 8-10mm too high on one side. It is only when I just rebuilt my engine that I found that the 'original' ones were wrong on both sides. The supplier did indeed sell me the correct ones.
So the morale of my story is that there are several different types of mounts!
Hope this is of some help.

[types26/36]

I could be wrong but I have only ever seen two types of eng.mounts
1. the original Ford type (from Anglia)
2. the raised type
It depends on what model and what engine is fitted as to which engine mount is fitted to where.
I stand to be corrected but I believe the plus 2+'s should have two standard mounts with Weber,Delloto or Stromberg engines.
The small Elan with Webers/Delloto's should have the raised one on the carb side and the standard one on the exh side.
The small Elan with Strombergs I think should have the two standard mounts.
The mounts do sag with time so comparing a new on to an old one will show a difference and to what degree will depend on its life.
Brian

[mark030358]

Gents,
The problem with the repro to the origional is that the bracket which mounts to the chassis is cast way too low in the steel block, thereby lifting the engine. After fitting the origional ones my height dimensions are comparable to tho quoted by Brian.

As for suppliers, all I will say is that they do a good job in trying to keep our cars on the road, however some parts are not upto snuff.

cheers
Mark

[M100]

I can only agree, there is nothing worse than substandard or out of spec parts being offloaded for years to owners as happened with one or two major UK based specialist suppliers in the 80's.

If I ever chance by any dodgy parts then the supplier, local club members, Club Lotus and the mailing lists get to hear about it. Holding back info like this is just plain crazy and does no one any service be it owners or ultimately the suppliers.

I've a couple of Lotus sourced engine mounts on the shelf but as soon as they are planned to go on the car (the existing ones are maybe 10 years old now and probably on their way out) I'm ordering new ones to compare against these - its a headache I can do without and i'm well pi$$ed off at having to do this but there is NO way i'm buying ANY engine mounts from now on, either from Lotus or from the specialists without a 100% comparison as its a bad job to do once especially if you have oversized hands but even worse to do twice because someone is covering a suppliers back.

:angry:

[nebogipfel]

Hi All

Without wishing to start an argument here I do understand Mark's point of view.

My own favourite supplier and I have had quite a few conversations about this problem. She freely admits that some of the parts available are sub standard but the alternative is often sadly no part at all unless you are lucky enough to find old stock on a shelf somewhere.

The newest Elan is now 30 years old and we are actually quite spoilt for parts availability compared to many other marques.

Many suppliers (mine included) are constantly trying to source new or alternative supplies of difficult parts but sadly the situation can only get worse as time goes on. The collapse of Lucas will certainly have an impact on Lotus bits!

Another possibility is for suppliers to commision the remanufacture of certain parts and my own has, and is, doing so, but the cost is often prohibitive and it is therefore a huge gamble - will enough units ever sell to recoup the costs?

I do think the responsible supplier should tell you if items are sub standard and leave the choice up to you and certainly not stock useless items

[M100]

John, I guess a few of us know your supplier from the "she" reference But i'd still buy from an honest supplier that states clearly up front if there is a problem. Just by chance I was catching up on the main Yahoo mailing list and it would appear the mounts in question are from somewhere not a million miles away from Melton Mowbray which is very suprising to say the least.

I'd hate for someone to spend a boat load of money on a respray and close the bonnet only to have the cam cover split the fibreglass because someone is selling parts that are plainly not fit for purpose. But by now that someone, given the market and manufacturers of Lotus parts is probably every single source (except maybe one!) for engine mounts.

It begs the question, why make them in the first place if they are plainly no good?

Stories like these justify in my own mind me hardly ever scrapping any old Lotus bits

[mark030358]

Gents,
As I said before its not worth berating parts suppliers they are here to help (and make a profit). I bought the first set of badly casted mounts from TTR then drove to CN and those were just as bad.
Told by CN that there is only one chap in the UK who makes them, so if his are wrong then they are all wrong.

But maybe a bad batch? who knows?

cheers
Mark

ps my favorite suppliers is SM, she has been really helpful, pleasant and above all patient.

[type36lotus]

I second that on working with Susan Miller.

[nebogipfel]

We must all be members of the SM fan club

M100, I suppose to some extent suppliers have to assume the parts they are supplying are OK until we try to fit them and possibly tell them otherwise. (Certainly those without in-house workshops)

I buy more or less exclusively from SM because she strives to supply at least servicable parts and tries to help or at least give you a refund when they are not.

We all know of companies who only care about getting their hands on your money!

[hatman]

Susan Miller is an absolute star and we're extremely fortunate to have her in the Lotus world. She should be cherished, venerated and, most importantly, bought from by all Lotus owners. I think that about covers it.

[mark030358]

Gents,
As I dont have a web site posted a picture of origional and aftermarket mounts in the yahoo groups photos section. Can you guess which is the origional mount?

cheers
Mark