First meeting

[spridget]

This is the picture of the first meeting between my very shy toys

Well, I have made my first small trials with the +2, great pleasure, but probably a few tunings will be required.
I 'll have a lot of questions to ask !

Franck

[1964 S1]

Greetings Franck, It is good to hear your first small trials were a pleasure, time to knock wood. Where are you located?
The +2 and Frogeye look like friends...
We're ready for your questions.
Eric

[spridget]

Eric, thanks for you kind message. Well my english is poor but I'll try to explain a few question :
- How to adjust idle on the Webers ? I only know the SU 's !
- I've discovered a switch to put the cooling fan on, is it a original fit ?
- Wich kind of hammer do you use to unscrew wheels ?
- Which pressure on tyres ?

Many thanks for your help

Eric, I'm leaving in France in Orleans about 70 miles from the south of Paris

Franck

[billwill]

The hammer has a dual head, one side is copper, the other a softer material such as nylon.

Type pressures for the 2-seater (probably similar for the +2)

For sustained speed below 160kph
Front 1.26 kg/cm2
Rear 1.60 kg/cm2

For sustained speed above 160kph
Front 1.69 kg/cm2
Rear 2.04 kg/cm2

Those are quotes from the manual, they suggest tyres: Firestone F100 or Goodyear G800 (with tubes) or Dunlop SP Sport (with tubes). I don't know which of those tyres are still available.


~~~~~~~~~~~

for Webers, The Idle adjusting screw for the air is the throttle stop screw an external screw on one of the carbs, it determines the place where the throttle lever rests when closed. It is fairly obvious.

The four mixture control screws are the ones nearest the cylinder head. They are open screws with a spring on them. Use something like a colortune spark plug to set them. Or if you are not used to adjusting idle mixture, leave them alone and find someone who does know how to do it.



The balance between the two carbs is set by the funny spring loaded screw thing that joins the two throttle levers together. Generally to set this, you use an air suction meter (manometer) to ensure equal suction into the trumpets of both halves of each carburettor or as close to equal as you can get it.

Adjusting the throttle stop screw is the LAST of these operations to do, Set it to idle at about 800 RPM.

~~~~~~~~~~~


Your cooling fan manual switch is probably not original and if there is also a thermostatic switch the manual switch should be wired across it..... You use the manual switch in traffic jams as early as you realise there might be jams, hopefully to stop the engine getting too warm.

[billwill]

See also this thread in the Elan section.

viewtopic.php?f=14&t=21226&view=unread#unread

[Elanintheforest]

Franck, you were obviously destined for Elan ownership when you bought the Frogeye....that car was one of the inspirations for the Elan. Just look at an Elan with the headlamps raised, and look at the grill. The Elan also nearly had the BMC A Series engine, until the tie up with Ford came along, and the twincam / Lotus Cortina ideas were developed.

A great pair!
Mark

[types26/36]

Franck, you were obviously destined for Elan ownership when you bought the Frogeye....that car was one of the inspirations for the Elan. Just look at an Elan with the headlamps raised, and look at the grill. The Elan also nearly had the BMC A Series engine, until the tie up with Ford came along, and the twincam / Lotus Cortina ideas were developed.A great pair!
Mark

Mark have you been inside my head when I was a youth I had a Frogeye, could not afford an Elan so fitted a Lotus badge in place of the A.H. badge .....girls did not know the difference
(I'll see if I can find a pic later)

[Robbie693]

Tyre pressures for the Plus 2 are 20psi front 24psi rear standard, there are also slightly higher figures in the manual recommended for sustained high speeds but I don't recall those at the moment. Will check in the manual later.

When I bought a spinner hammer from Paul Matty years ago it was a lead one but the copper/nylon one Bill mentions would probably make less of a mess of the spinners..

Cheers

Robbie

-edited, see below

[spridget]

Many thanks Bill for those precious advices.

- OK for the hammer, I?ll have a look on ebay, Moss and classic part?s shops, is there a better brand ?
- Tyre pressure, these quotes seem very low, I wonder if the modern radial tyres like the Yokohama fitted on the car doesn?t need higher pressure
- The Webers, I?m very tempted to try to do it myself, but it be will more reasonable to find someone who does know. Just have to set the idle, according your explanation, I?m surely able to do it myself !
- For the fan, it appears that the earlier cars haven?t got electric fan but a mechanical one. My car (number 302) had probably an agitated life during those 42 years ! so currently there is an electric fan but no thermostatic switch. The best is I think to come back to a mechanical fan an to keep the electrical one for the heavy traffic jam

I?ll study the link you gave and probably a lot of other threads

Mark, Brian, you?re right in the few books about Lotus I read, it was often mentioned that the Sprite inspired the genius ! I?m sure the next time the Elan will open his eyes to charm the frogeye !
Sure girls don?t know the difference, it quite more true nowadays ... the frogeye is very efficient
Nice frogeye Brian with a pretty hard top

I manage the french sprite and Midget club, I do try to maintain the website up to date :

http://spridget.free.fr/


Robbie, do you use these pressures with modern tyres ?

Thanks all, you're really friendly

to be continued !

Franck

[Robbie693]

Hi Franck,

Actually I got those figures slightly wrong (it was off the top of my head), actual figures from the manual are:

Speeds below 100mph

Front 20psi

Rear 24psi


Speeds above 100mph

Front 26psi

Rear 30psi


Yes I do use them and they seem fine, these are with standard size (165/80x13) tyres. I don't know if these would change with tyres of a different size.


Cheers

Robbie

[Jason1]

Hi

A link for hammer below.

http://www.frost.co.uk/item_Detail.asp? ... ame=Copper & Hide Hammer&catID=&frostCat=&frostSubCat=&subCatID=

Jason

[billwill]

I can't get your link to work, but if Franck does a google [copper hammer] it leads to lots of possibles.

You want one that weighs around 1.5 to 2 kilos I think.

[types26/36]

I can't get your link to work,

Jason's link works for me....Bill maybe your computer needs a tune up....I believe PC world will change the oil & plugs for you

[billwill]

Weird it works if you click it as is, but not if you include the whole thing typed out.

[Fred Talmadge]

Weird it works if you click it as is, but not if you include the whole thing typed out.

That's how it's suppose to work! This website truncates links, notice the ... in the middle. That's why copy and paste doesn't work.

Also my first sport car was a Bugeye Sprite (as Americans called them) and isn't an Elan just a more sophisticated Sprite?