Lotus Elan and Lotus Elan Plus 2 Forums

Did a search before I asked this, and didnt get a clear answer...

Does anyone know what parts I need or where I can get parts to convert to bolt on wheels. I am finding knock on wheels retrictive in choice and size.

Can aynone help? or list what I need from the brakers, cos I am assuming they must be ford parts?

Cheers

Doug

Doug

The only conversion I know of is to fit the Spyder conversion to the front. I have not heard of a bolt on conversion that will allow you to retain the triumph uprights. Spyder do a conversion that will allow the use of a standard ford hub. I don't know what upright they use. With regard to the rear wheels I know Spyder do a double wishbone conversion that allows the use of a ford hub but that requires a Spyder chassis.

My advice would be to speak to Andy at Spyder as your first6 port of call.

Regards

Andy

Didn't earlier & the non-SE Elans all have bolt on wheels?
Those hubs may be a bit difficult to source but there must be some out there.
The front ones shouldn't be too difficult, the donor Triumph's had bolt on wheels.
John

May be this is the way to go. What exaclty are the front uprights? are they triumph spitfire? what are the discs off?

Do you think there are spare bolt on hubs out there?

Cheers

Doug

Tony Thompson sells new bolt on hubs for front and rear, you also need to change the front stub axles as they are a different diameter for k/o hubs, these are available from TT or Rimmer Brothers (it is a standard Triumph item)

front upright is common to th spits, gt6, vitesse and herald.
If you can revert to the triumph hub pcd (front/rear) then there are a lot of wheel/ tyre options. in fact you can even revert to knock-on wires if tyou like (not sure about the offset?)
tim

Look on e-bay for Lotus Elan S4 and surprisingly (!?!?) it has bolt ons. I bet whoever buys it would gladly swap all the bits for knock ons.
Jim

Doug,

I am going through the same process. Do not be too optimistic about the selection of bolt on wheels. The Elan uses a 4 bolt 3 3/4 PCD wheel, which is not so commonly available from the wheel manufacturers now.

What you need:

Since you have knock off hubs, you have the large spindle, early Elans with bolt ons had the small spindle (.625/1.00 vs .75/1.06).

At the front, replace the KO hub with the appropriate bolt on hub. On eBay, ridgeliven (200039636159) has the iron hub. Check to see if it is the correct one.

The part number in the Lotus Service Parts List is 036C 6014 but with no indication as to the required spindle.

Dave Bean has the front hubs in both iron and aluminum. The iron hub for the large spindle does not have a part number in the catalog. The aluminum hub is 050C 7375.

The rear hub has a Lotus part number of 026D 0001.

Dave Bean has them in his catalog, although they are a bit pricey. I got two complete uprights off of eBay for less than half the price of the hubs, so check around.

Finally, is the question of wheel availability. As I said earlier, the availability of 3 3/4 PCD is not so good. 100mm, 4in or 4 1/4in is better.

At the front, if you get the aluminum front hubs from Dave Bean, they can furnish the hubs undrilled (050C 7001), 4in (050C 7400), 4 1/4in (050C 7425), or to your specification.

At the rear, on eBay, martingf (250043022492) sells aluminum adapters to convert the 3 3/4in PCD to 100mm PCD. Check with him to see if you can get just two of them.

Sorry for the US centric response, I live in LA.

Good luck, and let everyone know what you find. My email is david_harralson at hotmail dot com.

David
36/7988

This ia all great information, thanks! I will do some ebaying and have a ring round.

Cheers.