Lotus Elan and Lotus Elan Plus 2 Forums

Hi All,
May I pick your brains on a problem I'm having dismantling the LH inner steering ball joint on my S4 Elan?

A recent MoT 'advisory' highlighted minor play in this joint and I'm trying to dismantle it to re-shim. Whilst it would be much easier with the rack removed from the car I really want to complete the job with it in the car as I have limited time and don't want to drain/remove the TT rad etc.

I have removed outer ball joint, gaiter, and have 'flattened' the locking tab washer. I just cannot loosen either the inner locking half-nut, or the ball-joint cup nut.
All is currently soaking in Plus Gas but there is little corrosion (the gaiter is intact & there's plenty of grease around).

I've been pretty robust in my attempts to free either nut, but with no success. Any thoughts greatly appreciated (or should I just go to the gym & get stronger!).

Inner lock nut now free... Cup nut still resisting all efforts. Now soaking it in PlusGas whilst I recover (well, it is lunch time in the UK).

Should these nuts be so tight? I resist using adjutables whenever possible, but I don't own a 1 5/16 spanner, and doubt that it would be long enough. The biggest adjustable and the biggest Stilsons I posess have only just managed to shift the lock-nut.

3 nuts involved, locking back ? nut when backed off the long ? nut? with its shim adjusting nut should just unscrew as a pair from end of rack.
https://duarte.vg/lotuselan/Section%20H%20Steering.PDF

Job done! I just needed bigger muscles to udo the lock-nut. Once I unwound the sleeve nut and cup nut, as a 'locked' pair I popped over to a very good local garage and they separated the two. I just wasn't using enough force, or long enough levers. After the additon of two .002" spacers, there is no play.
Thanks for the info on removing the sleev and cup nut as a pair.