Lotus Elan and Lotus Elan Plus 2 Forums

As the original owner picking the car up at Hethel, the caliper bolts were safety wired from the factory on my 69 S4 SE DHC. Came with the drilled bolts and wired. It is a Federal car (maybe safety wired just for the US?). Curious why it wouldn't also be on a Plus 2 or UK/ROW cars.

So, I continue to do the wiring as shown in the picture I posted earlier. Using the original drilled bolts.

They are wired on my Plus 2. I thought it odd the fronts weren't also wired..

They are wired on my uk Sprint, only at the rear.

I believe I read somewhere on here that the difference is that the front calipers bolt to a steel mounting and the rears to alloy and as the alloy can give and expands/ contracts differently with temperatures then they need locking.

After losing the brakes due to the rear caliper breaking away with one of the strut mountings when one bolt came loose soon after purchasing my Plus 2, I now always wire the rear caliper bolts.

TonyR

As they say, if all else fails.....read the manual.

Here are some photo?s of my rear brakes when stripped. They don?t use the strut bracket for clipping but have a separate bracket tie wrapped to the strut. The brackets look professional Lotus engineered brackets, but tie wrapped!

My guess is that it was done that way as those hoses are too short to reach the lug on the outside of the strut on full droop and someone bodged it with the tie wrapped bracket on the inside so the hoses would reach. I don?t think the original hoses had the wire wrap around them so they are aftermarket ones.

Just noticed, your caliper securing bolts are wire locked too.

Just checked the Lotus manual and mine is correct with the mounting brackets, but not with the tie wraps. It should be jubilee clips. It looks like it is a mod fitted to later cars.

It also appears to be the bracket for mounting the rear brake dirt shields which I don't have.

Looks like your car originally had the dust shields and someone has removed them and cobbled the bits together, leaving you with a set up that is neither one thing or the other. Either way the brake pipes should go around the outside of the strut, just depends on whether the joint to the solid pipe is on the dust shield or the lug on the strut.
If it?s well clear of the wheel, disc and driveshaft throughout the range of suspension travel, replacing the tie wrap with a jubilee clip is probably fine till you come to replace the flexible. At that time I?d look to rerouting the pipe to the early version as most people seem to have dumped the dust shields.

Mine does still have the shields, I failed to mention, and yes, the hose mounting is related. I'm considering removing the shields.