Help!! Broken rear wisbone mount!!!

[handi_andi]

Back on topic, the pictures of the failure are quite interesting and looks like the parent material has been ripped out. Anyone got any idea why?

Andy

[batfish]

Vassilis

Not good to see your problem with the rear suspension pick up point. I would suggest the best way to fix it is with the body removed, you can remove a body in under a day and then the chassis is easy to get to. Grind off the galvanising around the damaged area but use a suitable mask as I understand that galv can give of cyanide gas when ground. You can then fabricate and weld in a new pick up point and replace the body. 1 day to remove the body, 1 day to carryout the repair and 1-2 days to replace the body.

Regarding Denso tape I would not want it near my car, very messy stuff. Its used in civil engineering to protect threads on things such as buried pipe connections or holding down bolts, photo is of a motorway gantry base with 32mm dia bolts wrapped in Denso prioir to burying.

Good luck with the repair

Andy

[GrUmPyBoDgEr]

That Bracket looks like it should do the job
Spring rate & dampers made need some adjustment though.
(Sorry about that Andy, Vassilis )

Cheers
John

[rgh0]

I had a similar failure on my plus 2 about 15 years ago. The stitch welds cracked between the bracket and chassis at one side the bracket, it then flexed until it broke through the small hole in the top of the bracketand half the bracket came free.

I removed the chassis and made up and wleded in a new bracket. I then had a close look at the rest of the chassis and discovered rust along both sides of the base of the backbone where the sides weld to the bottom closing plate. i ended up selling the chassis to some one who had a damage chassis who wanted to use the good sections from it and buying a new spyder one.

cheers
Rohan

[GreekS1]

Hi all!

Thanks for all your replies.

Well, as the garage where I have taken the elan and in which I do all the work on the car is closed for summer vacations, I can only wait until they re open on August 24! So at least I have time to organise the work we will do on the car.

I will probably take the body off and I am doing some reserch on that at the moment. While the body is off I will also change the cluch release bearing and add grease niples to the steering and mail driveshaft which is unaccesible with the body on.

Is there any other work worth doing while the body is off???

Andy, I think the work will take more than 3-4 days mainly because I will have to fabricate the bracker and I will only have access to its oposite (inroder to copy it) once the body is off. My big concern is that we get the geometry right. We must make sure it is welded in the exact same position it was before...


I was also thinking about upgrading to a spyder rear suspension. The one they have here:
http://www.spydercars.co.uk/pg5_spy_el_+2_r_s_c.htm


Has anyone done this? do you think its woth it?

well these are my thoughts for now...

Vassilis

[GrUmPyBoDgEr]

Hi Vassilis,

it's good to hear you have a plan of action especially that you've decided to fabricate a new bracket yourself.
I think trying to get one from one of the chassis suppliers would be almost impossible for many logistical reasons.
I would make the bracket of thicker material as shown in that super reply from Australia.
Whilst you're at it, why not put a new stronger one on the other side as well?
You & all of us have learned from your bad experience.
The original design is bad, putting the weakest part in a position where it is so difficult to repair.

Ref. Geometry:
I have a suggestion.
Before you remove the old bracket mark up horizontal & vertical datum lines at known distances from the centre line of the existing bolt hole.
When you fit your new bracket you will be able to position the new bolt hole by measuring from those previously marked lines.
You will at least achieve the same position as before.

Ref. Spyder rear suspension:-
I fitted it during my rebuild & didn't like the "look" of the very different wishbone lengths.
The top wishbone is very short & it looked like it would induce large camber changes.
So I took the system off & fitted the original system just modified with adjustable platforms & 2,5" Springs.
I'd like to say here that I never drove the car on the Spyder suspension nor did I do any measurements, I just didn't like the "look" of the set up; purely subjective.

Cheers
John

[GreekS1]

Thanks for your very helpful sugestions John.

As ive said in an older post my elan was runing too low at the rear. It had a negative camber angle larger then the one recomended in the manual. I measured the whishbones and as they where of standard length the only thing I could think of is that the previous owner used shorter springs. Now however, when I saw the area had been rewelded, I am beggining to suspect and other things such as the mounting points beeing tampered with to give this negative angle! This might seem ulikely but you never know.. I will order new springs but I cant seem to find the length of the original ones in any manual in order to check if shorter ones have been fitted. Does naybody know this by any chance?

BTW I contacted a known supplier of Classic Lotus parts and he said that no component of the Lotus chassis is available seperately and that Lotus doesnt recomend repairs to the chassis and that a new one should fitted. He quoted GBP4-5k for the job including a new chassis ... Seems a bit steep for a bracket !!

Vassilis

[GrUmPyBoDgEr]

Yes,

"Oh Sir you will be needing a new Chassis"
is the sort of reply that I would have expected.
You will have the satisfaction that your new stronger brackets will be much better than the ones on a replacement chassis.

Good luck
John

[GreekS1]

Hi all!

Well we finally started work late on Monday and by doing a couple of hours a day we managed this late last night!!!

http://i727.photobucket.com/albums/ww27 ... C04991.jpg

http://i727.photobucket.com/albums/ww27 ... C04987.jpg

Must say it wasn?t very difficult and the info gathered here and from Club Lotus proved invaluable!!! So thanks to all and the club!!

This is the damage in all its glory!

http://i727.photobucket.com/albums/ww27 ... C04998.jpg

http://i727.photobucket.com/albums/ww27 ... C04999.jpg

The funny thing is the rest of the chassis is impeccable and very clean. It remains a mystery why this happened like that!

So long as the chassis is out, we will carry out the following:
New
Temp control valve
Disc brakes ? pads
Rear springs
Alternator and neg earth conversion
Clean speedo, horns etc
Restore-repaint cam cover
Install ?new? Motorola with Ipod connection
All suspension bushes
Cluch release bearing
New LHD headlights
Lube everything!
Brake ? cluch fluid ? collant

So it seems we got our work cut out for us!

Vassilis

[GEORDIE]

Hi GreekS1 IMHO re-place the chassis or you will always have a doubt about the repair to spoil your fun while thrashing around.