Lotus Elan and Lotus Elan Plus 2 Forums

Finally got around to changing the oil in my gearbox & diff.
See: viewtopic.php?t=49562&f=37&start=15#p360452

Just as well that I did really as there was very little oil in either casing.

Here's a small intruder for Rohan.

Waiting on a camshaft, so started gearbox reassembly...

Just about finished up all the little projects for the car before taking off for the 1200 mi trip to LOG 40. Including:

- Replaced the wiper gear boxes. I was losing blades and getting random blade parking. Now solved.
- Epoxied in some metal plates, drilled and tapped to hold down the shift lever gaiter.
- Removed all bullets in the interior harness, replaced with Mate-n-Lok connectors, making it easier to remove and install the dash.
- Installed threaded inserts in the dash panel for the trim pieces and bonnet release.
- I had previously put in footwell lights, but the drivers side weren't attached, now they're screwed into wood block epoxied to the underside of the dash top.
- When I installed the 5-speed, I cut the radio antennae when trimming the carpet around the shift opening. Now the antennae is spliced.
- The heater fan would whine for 20 seconds or so on starting up. I rebuilt the heater box, and disassembled and oiled the fan motor. Now it purrs...
- I recentered the steering shaft turn-signal reset thingy, so now the signals cancel correctly.
- After multiple attempts, I think I've finally adjusted the bonnet latches so the passenger one actually holds the bonnet down at speed.
- The passenger door had sagged a little, requiring it to be lifted to latch. Adjusted so that it closes easily.
- Adjusted the front suspension coil overs to give another fraction of road clearance.
- Replaced the brake fluid, an every 2 year ritual.

Last thing on the list is to replace the tires. General Altimax RTs. They're supposed to arrive tomorrow.

Well done Steve and good luck on your trip. Looking forward to hearing your thoughts on how the 5 speed box works out.

billwill wrote:Here's a small intruder for Rohan.

hahaha

cheers
Rohan

Ran a few errands.

Love it! Well done!! D

Booze carrier!

Removing the somewhat mysterious cutout. Or should I say fibreglassing in the cutout. Not finished yet obviously.
Note the early edition device it is sitting on…






Nice lumber truck and beer transporter!

Test drove my 6 week old new left knee.
Happy with the knee, but what’s causing mild coughing backfire in the Dellortos around steady 4500rpm?

Started in earnest addressing the "casualties" from the LOG 40 trip. I've got a couple of weeks to get these done before heading off to the the Brits in the Ozarks show in Fayetteville, AR.

First up - the passenger door window mechanism failed. The cable didn't break, but it did come off the lower rear pulley. I figured this would be relatively easy - last year I rebuilt the driver side, using Alex's clamp bolts, so I had the cable, his bolts, and just needed a new set of pulleys and the fuzzy strips at the top of the door. Those came in from RDE yesterday, so I got started.

Of course, it wasn't as easy as I thought. I couldn't get two cables through either clamp, so I must have used both large hole clamps on the drivers side. And when I tried to drill the hole out a size larger, I actually broke the bolt. Argg. So I was left with reusing one of the old clamps. I did my best at guessing how to put 6 ft-lbs on a nyloc nut with an open end wrench. So far, it seems I guessed right. I frayed the cut ends and dabbed them with epoxy, so if I was a little light on the torque, maybe they'll hold.

It took me maybe 2 hours to get the door lock mechanism hooked up. Does anybody have any tips for getting the outer latch push button actuator rod hooked up? That was the long pole. Here's my hint - DO NOT try to do this after installing the window lift motor. Do it before. That was probably 1:45 of my problem. Confession - I ddn't even try to hook up the door lock rods. I never lock any car where entry just requires a knife, anyway.

Two more jobs to do. 1) When I rewired the car, I somehow made it so I only have brake lights when the parking brake is on. So I have to sort that out. 2) It seems like every long trip I run into a situation where the exhaust pipe hits the road. With the Voigt 5-speed there isn't much space under the tranny for the pipe, so it ends up basically pushed up against the transmission support, transmitting vibration into the cabin., So I'm thinking I need to fab up a better support than the plate that Voigt provides - something that goes up into the tunnel even a 1/2" would do it.

steve lyle wrote: Voigt 5-speed there isn't much space under the tranny for the pipe, so it ends up basically pushed up against the transmission support, transmitting vibration into the cabin., So I'm thinking I need to fab up a better support than the plate that Voigt provides - something that goes up into the tunnel even a 1/2" would do it.

the RHD folk are lucky as they can notch a tunnel in the body beside the chassis for the exhaust. Which doubles as keeping passenger weight low!

steve lyle wrote:Started in earnest addressing the "casualties" from the LOG 40

2) It seems like every long trip I run into a situation where the exhaust pipe hits the road. With the Voigt 5-speed there isn't much space under the tranny for the pipe, so it ends up basically pushed up against the transmission support, transmitting vibration into the cabin., So I'm thinking I need to fab up a better support than the plate that Voigt provides - something that goes up into the tunnel even a 1/2" would do it.

Steve, I’ll remind you that I had this same problem, especially with the TTR large bore (race systems) exhaust. I got around the problem by using the standard transmission support (actually used an upgraded, stronger version from TTR). I rotated it 180 degrees and then dropped it 3/4” with some aluminum spacers. Just gave me enough room for the exhaust. Not sure it buys you 1/2 inch but it was just enough in my case such that there is no contact or rattling/vibration.


Uses existing threaded frame holes and transmission saddle. No frame drilling or fabrication needed except for the spacers constructed from aluminum bar stock. And just longer bolts through the spacers are needed. Positions the transmission in exactly the same place as the Voigt mounting plate but with a little more clearance for the exhaust.

Alternatively fit some sacrifical skid plates either side of where it grounds. I ought to do the same on mine now that there are "speed bumps" everywhere. New tyres gave me an extra 5 mm clearance!

I had never done a voltage drop routine to find an electrical problem before, but I found a gremlin in my Seven that way yesterday. The problem was the battery running down. The first thing I did was to pull a Kubota alternator off the shelf and swap it for the one in the car. Voltmeter verified its operation. But the battery was not seeing the voltage. So I did the drop analysis. From the alternator pos to the battery pos I lost three volts. Then I went segment by segment, and lo and behold, the Longacre cutoff switch was minus three volts! In retrospect, the easy thing to do would have been the drop test first, but it was not in my bag of tricks then. Is now! John