Lotus Elan and Lotus Elan Plus 2 Forums

When i changed bushes, to remove i just slide a hacksaw blade through the hole. Connected the ends of the blade back to the hacksaw frame and sawed carefully, no problem.
Fitted new bushes in a vice.
Alan

MarkDa wrote:Jon
I reckon that you may find the wishbone bushes pretty damn tight.
I couldn't shift mine and when I took them to a garage the press went well over 10T before they popped.
New ones should go in with a vice I suppose - but I changed to poly bushes.
Mark

Hmm, sod that for a laugh. I think I will leave them for now and slap Hammerite over the wishbones. Maybe try one to see how it is? I could use a drift... but I am not convinced they need changing. I mean, what's the worst that can happen? It's not like those pesky trunnies locking up and causing the threaded ends of the upright to shear off, is it?

Worst case, clunking noise and bad tyre wear! To be honest they didn?t look that bad from the pictures I saw

Yes if it drives ok leave them - not mission critical as they can't disconnect completely; or can shaft move enough on Spyder chassis?
Anyway let MoT tester check them with a bar - or maybe not bother with exemption coming up!!
Flak jackets ready!

You're moving along nicely.

Ha, moving? Nope, I'm stationary in the garage on stands going nowhere!


At least I'm having a bit of fun. With you guys!

Right. Got a new set of trunnions from MEV, complete kit with all the seals, including the upper dust seals (which were not shown in the picture, so I ordered a pair from somewhere else, grrrrr - another fiver gone).

I cleaned the threads on the uprights and trial fitted the trunns. Offside is OK, but nearside has ~1mm play at the opening if I rock the trunnion left to right (lateral). Don't like the look of it and have heard of poor quality trunns like this. I doubt if the EP90 will take up the slack. What say you all? Odd it's the nearside unit, this is the side that gets wet all the time driving through puddles by the curbside. I am wondering if the upright is ruined. Threads on both sides have a thin layer of surface rust...

Is there any play in the up/down or should it be in/out direction, this is what an mot inspector would test for. Check you have screwed the trunnions on enough turns, not sure of the approved number but I screwed mine on fully then backed them off half a turn or so, so that the trunnion aligned with the wishbones. Having a trunnion one turn further unscrewed made a big difference in the amount of play from side to side. Is there a measurement you can make of the overall upright and trunnion length to check it?s screwed on the correct amount, does anyone know. I?m on holiday at present so can?t check my manual.

I guess if stuff isn't in the picture it's not included!
If your uprights are both the same size and in good condition you might question the new stuff.
I've found MEV open to discussion if parts not 100%.

Well the problem is time. I would like the car back on the road by next Tuesday for the Club meet at Bolney. This is looking rather unlikely!

There is no up/down movement that I can discern, it is just rocking side to side slightly. I have turned it all the way in then backed it off 1/2 a turn. Other thing of note, the NS trunnion does not screw in as far as the OS trunnion, now this seems very suspicious to me. But, like I said, there is rust on the threads of the kingpin, so I may be looking at wear there. I will check with a micrometer, see if NS and OS threads match diameter wise. I hope I do not need new uprights, these will be expensive... ..plus the more money I spend, the further away I am from sorting the back end halfshafts (with CVs).

A previous discussion here .....
lotus-suspension-f42/help-trunnion-trouble-t14101.html

Yes, that is the discussion that led me to mention it. Let me get a more accurate set of measurements..

Oh god, this is not a "Dry Blackthorn day".

I have just dropped my digital micrometer in a khazi full of pissy water. Slipped out of my pocket while I was spending a penny.

Oh dear, sounds like you may just have spent lots of pennies!
Will be interested in what you discover as to why one trunnion seems to screw on more than the other

Jon, hope it doesn?t end up needing new uprights, but just for info I found one of the Triumph specialists was recently advertising uprights that had a standard type ball joint at the bottom rather than a trunnion. Can?t remember which one or whether it was intended for road or track use, but just more info if you do have to replace an upright