Plus 2 decision time

[JJDraper]

Stu, yes the ebay item is pretty much what I bought and then had refurbed. The flange from my old diff was swapped over and a shim washer added to preload the crush spacer a bit. The shop that did the work knew what they were doing as their bread and butter work is racing gearboxes and diffs. With the correct workshop - 2hrs labour plus parts (new bearings & seals). Surely there must a Ford model that used the diff in North America?

David, the Alps must have been a popular destination for Elans & +2s this year! See my account in the gallery..

Ian - back to the original thread. The most expensive part of an Elan or +2 rebuild is likely to be the body. You can do it yourself, but it is time consuming, but you have said this is a long term project. If you are going to tackle the body, condition of the bodywork on your chosen car is pretty irrelevant and you may get a mechanically sound, but cosmetically tatty car cheaply. If you do not want to do a 'full monty' body job, get the best you can and pay the premium. In terms of what to go for, the variants are covered in detail in some other threads mentioned previously.

Have fun!

Jeremy

[paddy]

Just found this ebay seller with new 3.54 CWP:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... _821wt_889

Not cheap

Paddy

[Elanintheforest]

I seem to remember that the Jeep Cherokee with Dana axles uses the same 3.54 crown wheel and pinion....maybe worth checking out if you're in Canada where there may be a few more Jeeps than RS2000s !!

Mark

[terryp]

Does anyone know the amount of trade off in the acceleration/torque for a 3.55 diff?

Terry

[Iyarno]

Thanks everyone.

@stu thanks for the link, very useful hadn't found that one.
@dave, been the Alps this year too, off again to the Black Forest soon. Good to hear it can be done without loosing your hearing.

Will take on board the options for the 5 speed and ratio adjustments. At least it seems like there a few options available.

So how many purists are out there? Should I modernise the running gear over time or keep it as Lotus intended. I guess the latter will be worth more in the future?

Anyone going to the Knebworth Classic Car show this bank holiday?

Ian

[kstrutt11]

Wrt to acceleration times, your tractive effort in a single gear will be reduced by the change in ratio (ie if your current diff is 3.7, 1 - (3.5/ 3.7) = 0.05 or 5%.

This is not the whole picture though, the longer gearing may allow you to stay in a lower gear for longer which consequently increases the tractive effort and acceleration at a given road speed.

Kevin

[summerinmaine]

I seem to remember that the Jeep Cherokee with Dana axles uses the same 3.54 crown wheel and pinion....maybe worth checking out if you're in Canada where there may be a few more Jeeps than RS2000s !!

Mark

I have an older Jeep truck, and IIRC all Jeep differentials were sourced from Dana. Don't know where Lotus sourced theirs (other than the fact that it was shared with other vehicles), but it's certainly worth the investigation. If it helps any, the Parts List indicates that the proprietary part no. for the CW/P is 118 E 4209.

Edit: A further complication arises because, IIRC the Dana transition from the large to small carrier is between 3.73 and 3.54, so you might find that you have the wrong carrier to fit the desired gearset.

That said, simply buying a CW/P is only the beginning of the expense; the expertise and cost resides primarily in the assembly/adjustment and this is a task not to be undertaken by the inexperienced nor the faint of heart.

[bg109685]

Hi Ian,

Can I turn your question round a bit...

Why are you buying the car?

To rebuild it and keep, an investment to make money or a weekend toy...

I picked up a bit of a basket case from ebay a couple of months back, a black badge 1970 +2 S, for a reasonable price. The car had sat since the early 80's without running and the body has been badly abused. My father, a retired mechanic, summed it up well when he said "you got what you paid for and you now a question of how much you want to put it back on the road..."

Once you answer my question you can you sort your budget / decide what state of vehicle you need to look for. All of the previous advice is spot on, all I would like to add is a question of motivation. Basket cases are rusty bolts and lots of new parts, is this something you can face? There are lots of unfinished projects where good intentions weren't enough.

Just to put things in context, one old mechanic, a dizzy cap / leads / rotor arm / plugs / leads + 2~3 hours = one old car running after 20 years!!! A big smile on two faces...priceless (as the advert says).

Taking the body off at the moment, carbs and rad came off tonight.

Please think carefully about what you want and just how much effort (and money) it take to put something back on the road.

Brian

[Iyarno]

Thanks Brian, good to hear your story and I hear your point.

I'll be doing this for myself and not to sell on. I've done it before about 10 years ago with my Mk1 Golf (which I'm struggling to let go of) and it was a love hate thing - love becuase it's a great sense of achivement when everything is sorted, and hate because I get scared of using it regularaly and looking at my bank balance. I'm a lot of a perfectionist and a little of a purist, so the Elan (which I'm still looking/saving for) will be looking original with a handful of modern touches to make it useable on a daily basis.

I've figured out pretty much what I need for now, and that's a good honest running project, which I can drip feed money into each year. I grew up in Norfolk (in fact the same village where Colin Chapman lived) and I always said I'd own a Lotus one day...

[Jason1]

ave a butchers at http://www.elanregistry.org/guide.php#plus2

I prefer the early cars but the later ones ave more comfy seats. I think the early cars look cleaner.

Jason (formerly off of East London)