Lotus Elan and Lotus Elan Plus 2 Forums

1965 Elan S2
A look at the parts manual shows the upper bracket and the the list of parts mentions an upper and lower bracket felt.
My steering column bracket was very slack and opening it up I have a thin rubber pad in the upper part and nothing in the bottom half/shell.

What is the nature of the felt? How thick, could thicker rubber be successfully substituted top and bottom?

I also found loose on the column, a spring clip shown on this Triumph Herald parts supplier. Can somebody confirm this is not required?


Thanks in advance.

That looks like the indicator cancelling clip. It locates in a hole in the column.
Eric in Burnley
1967 S3SE DHC

The clip is an essential part of the upper column mount assembly, it is compressed by the upper and lower halves of the clamp and it's the clip that actually clamps the column. If it's missing or misplaced your column will be loose as you have found. If additional packing has been fitted to your clamp to make up for the absence of the clip you will need to remove it when you assemble it with the clip or you may crush the flimsy aluminium column.

This Triumph parts diagram shows the assembly a little more clearly although the Elan uses a unique Lotus upper bracket.

Roger,
Thanks for pointing that out. I don`t think I have one of those clips fitted on mine. I am fairly sure it has some soft packing doing that job.
Eric in Burnley

The bottom of clamp has felt between clamp and column tube. You can but the from triumph parts suppliers.
From my memory the clip does not relate to the upper mount, maybe wrong and happy to be set right!
Vaughan

vstibbard wrote:The bottom of clamp has felt between clamp and column tube. You can but the from triumph parts suppliers.
From my memory the clip does not relate to the upper mount, maybe wrong and happy to be set right!
Vaughan

There are two column clamps, the lower bulkhead clamp is felt lined, the upper dashboard clamp is where the spring clip is located and there is also a thin foam rubber lining in there. When I dismantled mine there was rubber in both upper and lower halves of the bracket and the spring clip was compressed too much and column tube had been crushed, after straightening the tube I found that the rubber was only required in one half of the clamp. Hence my comment above.

Are you sure the Lotus top mount uses this clip, not shown in Manual.

Craven wrote:Are you sure the Lotus top mount uses this clip, not shown in Manual.

P1030935.JPG

I am sure that my car has the clip and the OP found that his column was insecure without it so I believe that it was carried over from Triumph along with the rest of the column assembly, the Lotus redisigned upper half of the mount does not include any other means of clamping the column and to rely on just felt or rubber packing seems a bit hit and miss to me. I think the detail has just been omitted from the Lotus diagram. That said I guess nothing is 100% certain with a Lotus.

The clip is shown in the early Manual but cant remember if my S2 has one fitted.

Looks like fitted on some early cars then S1 S2.

Thanks everyone for the replies. I haven't been able to review my post as I've had major problems with my daily driver (and means of income).

So what I take from this is the springy clip fits into the upper half of the two-part bracket with the opening pointed down. Some felt is then placed in the lower shell of the clamp.

Yes the clip is fitted open end down but I found that with the thin foam packing in both top and bottom halves of the clamp the clip was compressed too much crushing the column tube. I ended up with the packing in just the top half which is what is shown in the parts diagram that Brian posted above. You might want to experiment a bit to make sure that you don't have the same issue.