Lotus Elan and Lotus Elan Plus 2 Forums

Cheeser wrote:Excuse me but I think we drive on the correct side of the road and if you drive iconic British cars, then you need to understand which is the nearside of the car!!

And I bet you use oil in your trunnions, too!

Fun weekend pulling bits out, culminating with engine and gearbox today thanks to some help from my son (home from college). Not easy-peazy, but definitely easier to work in the Seven bay than the Elan bay. Similar angle of the dangle.

Pulled the rear axle and shocks all around, as inspecting the dampers and determining their needs was one of my intended winter projects. Very pleased to find what are likely the original Armstrong dampers, given the 11/64 date codes on each - so plan to have them tested and rebuilt if I can find someone to do it. Porter Racing has been recommended - anyone else?





With those out, next project is to begin disassembly of the gearbox to check on all of the internals and, if necessary, rebuild. I'll also pull apart a spare I acquired a little while ago while doing it, in case I need bits. They appear to be similar age, both T3 marked. Are any of the markings on these gearbox cases date codes?

The markings between the ribs are the date codes. Here are some examples. Format
is year, month, day. So, the bottom example is 4=1964, M= December, and 4= the 4th of
December. The letter "i' is not used. Good reference here:
http://automotivemileposts.com/ford/for ... mbers.html

Thanks Greg. My gearbox from the 7 was built in February 1965, and my spare just a few months earlier in June of 1964. In trading emails with another member, I also learned there are date markings on the tailshaft extension (both of mine we made in late 64).

I noted these markings on the box from my 7 - I presume the CR identifies it as a close ratio box originally (still is based on counting the teeth). My spare has the standard ratio for Sevens.



Overall, the inside was extremely clean and looked really good. Baulk rings have lots of life left and selectors showing minimal wear. The only real issue I noted is a small, distinct area of previous corrosion on the layshaft - but the roller bearings look very good. Possibly it sat is ne position for a long time? Or the bearings were replaced but not the layshaft, and it just hasn't been used much since?

I see similar surface failures on many old layshafts, while the rollers appear not to suffer damage. I think its due to normal wear on the layshaft roller running surface not corrosion.

Time to replace both the shaft and rollers

cheers
Rohan

Thanks Rohan. I'm pulling apart a spare box at the same time, and was lucky to find a layshaft that looks almost as if it hasn't been used at all - possibly a previous rebuild that just sat (the person I acquired it from got it as an "extra" with a used elan purchase decades ago and it has just been sitting since.

Both boxes are early, 17mm driveshaft and drawnut/separate 1st gear bushing gearboxes. The Seven, as expected had a close ratio gearset - the spare a standard (for the Seven) gearset, so a pleasant bonus to have options as well as some spare bits that are in quite good shape.

Have gotten the engine torn down, and in addition to the known weak valve springs found some light scoring in one cylinder wall, a little pitting in another, and some scoring on the crankshaft and bearings in a couple places. Tentative plan is to bore the cylinders to 82.5mm for new pistons, regrind crankshaft, replaces valve springs, and skim the head - but first will have it pressure tested and examined to make sure there aren't any hidden issues or reasons a boring isn't possible.




I think I mentioned in an early post in this thread that a letter in my files written by the 2nd and longest owner (30+ years from the late 60s) indicated he'd thrown a rod at Sandown in his only time on a track and rebuilt the engine after having the block repaired. On teardown, I found that was #3, based on block wall welds and corresponding damage to the sump. Looked pretty durn violent! Glad I have a backup rope seal sump, as the original has been well abused!

83mm pistons on order, and found some 125e con rods. Once the pistons arrive, hopefully in the next week or so, the cylinders will be bored and things will begin to go back together.

While waiting, have been getting other bits cleaned, tested, rebuilt and ready. Dampers and coils tested in spec, so cleaned up and back together.



Dynamo rebuilt and painted, and sump cleaned up and painted.

Hi, Henry. Very creative spring compressor. I suggest you bench test the dynamo. I do them all the time and then don't forget to polarize it. Not a good idea to have the electrons moving in the wrong direction. Cheers. Mike.

Mike Ostrov wrote:Hi, Henry. Very creative spring compressor. I suggest you bench test the dynamo. I do them all the time and then don't forget to polarize it. Not a good idea to have the electrons moving in the wrong direction. Cheers. Mike.

As you can see, I actually rebuilt 2 dynamos (1 off the car and 1 of 2 spares I had for parts). I read somewhere that Lucas would run them as a motor for 20 minutes when new to bed in the brushes, so did that as an initial test, and both ran quite smooth and quietly. Haven't tested for voltage output, yet, but will - and will polarize before it goes in the car. The compressor rig worked quite well, though a 3 or 4 rod would work better as the springs do want to try to bend a bit. Fortunately they are light enough that they could be lined up easily by hand (and with a safety cord just in case)

New Carillo pistons arrived today from Tony Ingram, so we can finally commence on boring out the cylinders to match. Looking forward to getting the rebuild moving forward!

What spec are you building the engine up to? What cam are you planning on using? In researching a rebuild spec for my S2 Seven, a number of sources indicated that a dish in the piston was worthwhile with pre-cross flow heads together with well ported head. Out of interest did Tony raise it as an option when buying the pistons?
Piston are on my list to purchase, having sourced most of other components.
Cheers
Vaughan

Vaughn, other than the bore my intent is to keep it to the original Cosworth 1500 spec, which per an early Historic Lotus Newsletter is pretty basic:


No, Tony did not raise the option of a dished piston, but he knew I was keeping it standard and not pushing for racing/high performance mods. When we had to go the custom piston route (due to non-standard bore), he highly recommended the CPs as his go-to for many, many years with really good results.

Thanks Henry,

Mines standard spec now and its a fun tractable engine.

V