Should i fit a brake servo to my 1968 S3 elan?

[gazzamuffin]

Hi all !

Im considering fitting a brake servo to my 1968 S3 elan, can anyone advise if this is the right thing to do?

if so were to put it? (pictures would be greatly appreciated)

The body of the car is off the chassis at the moment so its the perfect time to fit one if i should.

thanks

Gazza muffin

[rgh0]

Fitting a servo is very much personal taste. Do you like a modern light pedal? Or do you prefer something easier to modulate but requiring more foot pressure. Both legitimate options just personal preference.

The brakes work perfectly with or without a servo just require more or less pressure. The pressure required can be further fine tuned by selection of servo boost ratio and master cylinder

cheers
Rohan

[types26/36]

As said it is a personal choice if you like a servo or not, I like them and have them on my cars but each to his own.
Here is a pic where it is mounted on S3 cars, the other picture is the bolts/nuts securing on the the underside.

[garyeanderson]

It may be a personal choice but the amount of posts by folks that have had problems just seems rather high. To add another point of failure or just one more thing to have problems with just doesn't make sense to me. If its not broke then don't break it, Just drive and grin.

Gary

[types26/36]

but the amount of posts by folks that have had problems just seems rather high. Gary

Yes but that is the folks that have the problems.....I wonder how many people that dont have problems with the Servo so dont bother to post?

[Elanintheforest]

I agree with Gary. I much prefer the feel of the brakes with servo, but having had 3 brake systems fail on 3 cars in the last 18 months, each due to a servo fault, I'm going for no-servo and softer pads.

Remember that the servo was an option for the standard Elan.

Mark

[Foxie]

When I had to disconnect the servo on the Plus 2 due to a leaking seal I found it impossible to lock up the front wheels (in the dry) no matter how much weight I put on the pedal. So I just wasn't getting max stopping power.

I wouldn't be without it

but the amount of posts by folks that have had problems just seems rather high. Gary

Yes but that is the folks that have the problems.....I wonder how many people dont have problems so dont bother to post?

[elancoupe]

I've had a servo on my car for a very long time without issues.

[Galwaylotus]

Hi all !

Im considering fitting a brake servo to my 1968 S3 elan, can anyone advise if this is the right thing to do?

if so were to put it? (pictures would be greatly appreciated)

The body of the car is off the chassis at the moment so its the perfect time to fit one if i should.

thanks

Gazza muffin

Don't.

[bast0n]

I wonder how many people dont have problems so dont bother to post?

Me - but I have posted! Never had a problem.

[garyeanderson]

but the amount of posts by folks that have had problems just seems rather high. Gary

Yes but that is the folks that have the problems.....I wonder how many people that dont have problems with the Servo so dont bother to post?

Clearly I don't know as I have never had a servo in an Elan. That said, a search of "servo" brings up 674 hits
http://www.lotuselan.net/cgi-bin/search ... oom_sort=0

servo problem = brings up 319 hits
http://www.lotuselan.net/cgi-bin/search ... oom_sort=0

If I were you I would spend some time reading and get some other views. I don't pretend to know If they are good or bad but I did drive a plus2 that I sold to Bill Fralick. I never drove it when I owned it, I bought it site unseen for $2300 thinking I was buying a "parts car" boy was I bummed out when I set eyes on it and knew that the Plus2 was far to nice to have my parts car so I sold it to Bill and he restored it. I drove it once after that and I didn't like the feeling at all. As a mater of fact not being used to it , It scared the shit out of me as it was slow to react compared to the manual brakes in my S2 that I was used to. If you have never driven an Elan with a servo, find someone that is willing to let you drive their car and see if you like it, Likewise drive an Elan without a servo. There seems to be a RED Flag waving and maybe you need to observe that, If you decide to install a servo, then have problems, you may get the same first 4 lines as a reply from me.

o.s. - The servo was standard on the SE I believe, does anyone know if it was available by itself as an option on the non SE models?

Gary

[Foxie]

If you have never driven an Elan with a servo, find someone that is willing to let you drive their car and see if you like it, Likewise drive an Elan without a servo. There seems to be a RED Flag waving and maybe you need to observe that, If you decide to install a servo, then have problems, you may get the same first 4 lines as a reply from me.

o.s. - The servo was standard on the SE I believe, does anyone know if it was available by itself as an option on the non SE models?

Gary

And be very aware that there were different versions of the same servo fitted to the Elan and the Plus 2:

Lockheed/Delphi part no. LR17818 with a slave cyl bore of 11/16" in the Elan with a boost of 1.90:1, and
Lockheed /Delphi part no. LR18221 with a slave bore of 5/8" in the Plus 2 with a boost of 3.00:1

They are indistinguishable on the exterior.

Don't ask me how I found this out

[Foxie]

Sorry, I logged in here under a previous existence

If you have never driven an Elan with a servo, find someone that is willing to let you drive their car and see if you like it, Likewise drive an Elan without a servo. There seems to be a RED Flag waving and maybe you need to observe that, If you decide to install a servo, then have problems, you may get the same first 4 lines as a reply from me.

o.s. - The servo was standard on the SE I believe, does anyone know if it was available by itself as an option on the non SE models?

Gary

And be very aware that there were different versions of the same servo fitted to the Elan and the Plus 2:

Lockheed/Delphi part no. LR17818 with a slave cyl bore of 11/16" in the Elan with a boost of 1.90:1, and
Lockheed /Delphi part no. LR18221 with a slave bore of 5/8" in the Plus 2 with a boost of 3.00:1

They are indistinguishable on the exterior.

Don't ask me how I found this out

[elancoupe]

o.s. - The servo was standard on the SE I believe, does anyone know if it was available by itself as an option on the non SE models?

Gary

I am not the original owner of my non SE car, but as far as I can tell, the servo looked to be an original item, along with the 3.55 diff.

[UAB807F]

Im considering fitting a brake servo to my 1968 S3 elan, can anyone advise if this is the right thing to do?

Hi, well, that's a nice, uncontroversial topic to start a Monday morning with

As some of the other guys have said, it's all down to personal preference. My car is an S3SE & I bought it in the 70s with (presumably) the OEM servo fitted. I can't remember when it happened, but I do remember it failing and how hard it was to stop the car. I replaced it with a s/h one (shoestring maintenance in those days) and that failed as well. The next move was to buy a new one, no doubt it wasn't the correct ratio as the original servos were no longer available then but it worked ok and I had no problems.

But last year I took it out. Why ? Several reasons, one of which was that I decided to move to dual-circuit brakes and that would have meant installing another servo as well. Given that in the intervening years I have had problems with the servo valves sticking over winter now that the car isn't used daily, I decided I didn't want 2 servos to sort out and hence decided to try it without.

It does take more pedal load but it's no big deal and I do think there's more feel to the brakes, so that's a plus. Personally I always wondered why the Elan had a servo, it's a light car and I can't help but think it was a fashion/marketing move at the time. Incidentally you don't need a servo for good brakes or light pedal loads, when Lotus introduced the Elise in '96 that came without a servo and the brakes are excellent.

Personally I'd build the car and try it without. If you find the pedal pressures too high then it is very easy to slot one in, mine was mounted on the wheel arch in front of the radiator as shown in the photos. The manifold will already have a take-off for the headlamps and mine simply had a T piece to give the feed to both servo & headlamps so installing one later on is no hassle.

Brian