Lotus Elan and Lotus Elan Plus 2 Forums

OMG it finally happened an important piece dropped off, rather sheared off for a change. It went in the car park on full lock i think, but only heard it finally part company driving home.
Went into limp mode after having a quick look, and through misty eyes and no brakes took the back road home.
Initially thought somebody in the last 50 years must have perfected the art of essentially welding a stud back in place, to resecure the lower wishbone but apparantly that is not the case and at the moment advice is a replacement chassis.
I need help guys to make an informed decision:

1. Has anyone heard of a lower fulcrum pin being replaced on a chassis. Details please.
2. Car is mostly a Jan 68 +2 original with a sorted twink (18 months ago) new suspension all round and Sue Mattys solid drive shaft kit and poly bushes everywhere, if it is a new chassis, what one, Spyder or Lotus I have heard the Spyder chassis hardens everything up to the detriment of the ride and then there is originality to consider. Some outlets have recon/secondhands with guarantees, I do have to think about the budget.
3.Once a chassis is decided or not where to get it from, all the above work I did so is a chassis change home diy possible given time. Does anyone know of a blog or site or pictures, movie clips handy links that I can research to help make the decision.
4. Bottom line if i can't afford to change chassis or end up being in negative equity I can't justify it. The question is how far can I go, I have owned the car for the last seven years and used it nearly every day, every other week and I love it, million dollar question then FIX or BREAK, please advise gents, as objectively and without emotion if you can. Thanks a bunch

Hi,

Got to go out now but isn't this the device. Been rolling around ebay for months. As I recall there is stuff in the Lotus manual about using it.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/COOKES-HOLE-C ... 27c5c513a8


Mike

What Mike has said...plus check out this thread.

elan-f15/elan-chassis-now-that-not-right-t23322.html

The options & repair methods were covered fairly well.

Good Luck

Cheers - Richard

Hi

I've got a Spyder service exchange chassis on my +2. Some time so I had the front cross member crack at the lower wishbone mounts. Spyder use a through bolt to mount their wishbones. I got Spyder to repair and reinforce the damage. I would speak to Andy at Spyder to see if there is anything he could do to effect a repair. It's got to be worth a punt given the cost and labour required to change the chassis.

Good luck

Andy

As the other guys have posted, there was quite a discussion about replacing front pins a while back. IIRC that was aimed mainly at bent pins, but if yours has fallen off then it might be due to either a fatigue failure of the pin itself, or possibly general corrosion of the crossmember, which would be really bad news.

A fatigue failure would be fairly straightforward to replace and it would be sensible to check the others for cracks at the same time. But corrosion is another problem and would mean some structural repairs to the chassis. All possible, all straightforward stuff, but now you're heading off into serious enthusiast territory. Given where you are in the country I think it would be a good idea to talk to Spyder and see what they do these days; at one point they did offer a service exchange where the replaced the front crossmember on a chassis.

Is it worth it ? Only you can answer, but if you've used the car for several years and spent money sorting it out then I'd say yes. Changing a chassis isn't as big a deal as it sounds although if you have to pay someone else to do it for you it won't quick or cheap.

Balance the cost with the depreciation you've saved from not driving a modern car; 3-4yrs with something like a new MX5 and the depreciation alone would cover a new chassis, what do they lose, ?2k/yr ?

Brian

tpa49f wrote:I have owned the car for the last seven years and used it nearly every day, every other week and I love it, million dollar question then FIX or BREAK, please advise gents, as objectively and without emotion if you can. Thanks a bunch

You have answered your own question. Could you live without it? How much would a replacement vehicle cost that you would enjoy as much and have virtually no depreciation?

FIX!

Do try Spyder. Reconditioned chassis (frame!) is just over 1K with VAT. It is a DIY with some mates to help, even someone off this site may well be close enough to assist.

http://www.spydercars.co.uk/spyder_chas ... r_bars.htm