Lotus Elan and Lotus Elan Plus 2 Forums

Alan
Don't stop him now,he's just getting into his stride....

John

I've decided to remove the diff now rather than wait.

I feel that I may come to regret this soon.

Jon
If you do fancy putting in an access hole then there are some very neat (and cheap) marine style screw hatches available on ebay.
You may need to cut an alloy backing ring to stiffen the glass.
Random supplier - no connection etc

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre ... 2001039582

They come in larger sizes if needed.
Mark

Good idea, I'll think about it. Needs to be carefully located, being round, to get the best access to the tree and filler hole. I might have a go once I have the diff out. Cutting a 10cm round hole might be difficult.

JonB wrote:I've decided to remove the diff now rather than wait.

I feel that I may come to regret this soon.

Well done you are a brave man or a masochist time will tell but you will have plenty of support from us. Go for it.
Alan

I've never had trouble.
A long post on your pinion thread.

I cut a hole for diff access in my S4 and used as others have done a circular dinghy buoyancy hatch. I think it was about 5" diameter from Ebay, and used some black sealant. As has been said, checking oil level and handbrake tree is so easy now.

Hey ho, I`m also in the process of changing the rear wheel bearings and outboard driveshafts on my Plus 2 with Spyder hubs. So far all went good, got it all out, first got the wheel hub off with the aid of the SJ-type puller, then with a copper hammer driven the outboard driveshaft out. Now, the outer wheel bearing remained in the Sypder hub. Do I have to drive it out towards the wheel or towards the diff? All circlips are removed of course. Also I wouldn't mind any hints for the reassemble procedure. Thanks!

cheers
Matthias

The outer bearing drives outwards to be removed. There should be some cutouts in the seat it sits against inside the hub, accessible from the inside to use a drift to drive it out.

For reassembly press the inner bearing onto the shaft using the inner race. Then press the shaft and inner bearing into the Hub using the outer race.

Fitting the outer bearing is the tricky bit to avoid damaging the bearings and it needs to to pressed both on to the shaft and into the hub at the same time without loading the inner bearing

I support the shaft and press on the outer bearing to the shaft using the inner race while heating the housing with a hot air gun and tapping the outer race as the inner race is moved in to avoid overloading the bearings


cheers
Rohan

Thanks Rohan!
Do you think it makes sense to take the hub off the car? So far I've done the disassembling in situ.

Much easier with Hub off car !

rgh0 wrote:There should be some cutouts in the seat it sits against inside the hub, accessible from the inside to use a drift to drive it out.

Ah, these might be hidden behind some grease that is left in the hub. I tried to punch the bearing out from the inside outwards and may have hit onto the seat instead of the bearing. Hope I haven't damaged something yet

So the procedure is:

1. prepare the new outboard driveshaft with the new inner bearing (and dust cover+circlip of course) with freezer heat and so on... until it's ready to be installed.

2. refit the two big circlips inside (the middle of) the hub

3. press the outer bearing in the hub from the outside and try avoid damaging the bearing as you described. Then refit the dust cover and big circlip on the outside.

4. Press the new driveshaft in and refit it's dust cover and circlip

Right?

To press the outer bearing home on the car, I use a 6 inch piece of scaffold pole squeezed oval in a vice. The idea is to contact both the inner and outer race of the bearing, while clearing the taper of the stub axle. I filed the oval surface to make sure it was flat and making the simultaneous contact on both races.

Then apply some bearing fit and blows with a club hammer on the pole does it for me. I have a sledgehammer ready in case the bearing stops moving but have not used it so far for the 3 bearing changes I've done over the years.

Dave Chapman.