Spyder chassis, engine too low

[robertverhey]

There have been many posts about engines being too high, fouling bonnets etc, and ways to lower them. My problem is the opposite: on refitting my carbs to my s3, with new Spyder chassis fitted, I find that the engine is actually sitting too low, so that the carbs foul on the passenger footwell.

I am using the standard ford Anglia mounts both sides, fitted inverted in the "fail safe" way, as instructed by Spyder. The mounts themselves are new, no sag and the body is sitting fine on the chassis......has anyone encountered this before? Short of elongating the holes in the mounts, I can't see any way to remedy this. What a pain.

Any advice would be welcomed.

[Peter +2]

Hi.

I fitted a Spyder chassis some 20 years ago, and that car is now gone. I recall the the attachment sequence is: Chassis, Spyder Fixed Engine mount brackets, Lotus Flexible Engine mounts, Engine. It looks like from the photo you have the middle bit reversed. Or it could be a different design to my old chassis.

Peter

[rgh0]

You should have 2 short angled spyder suppled arms that run from the mounts bolted to the chassis to the engine... I don't see them in the photos do you have them fitted??

cheers
Rohan

[robertverhey]

Hard to get a good photo from above so here's a couple taken from underneath looking from the front. I think I've got the order right, and think all the bits are there.....

[rgh0]

Your Spyder engine arms are black - mine were red so easier to see!

The installation looks OK. Are they standard mounts -- If you have the high lift mounts that would make it to low as they are inverted?

Are the arms identical ? I think the are a little different each side on my Plus 2 but I would need to measure. I will check tomorrow morning - watching the GP now !

cheers
Rohan

[Bud English]

Looks like you are using the old mounts. You might try new. While waiting for my new motor mounts to arrive, I fabricated the mount adapters for my zetec conversion (the mounts bolt to the frame like your Spyder setup) with sound looking older mounts. When my new mounts arrived nothing fit and I had to remake the adapters.

[Pistacchio sprint 72]

I will do the same observation. Normally the spider parts are red. Your engine arms are black. Are u using the correct spider parts?

[marklowe]

Hi,
On the original Lotus chassis the right hand engine mount is different to the left, it?s higher and so tilts the engine to give the carburettors clearance. I imagine this would be the same with the Spyder chassis.

[TroonSprint]

No, the Spyder chassis uses two identical engine mounts as was stated early in this thread - the cheaper Ford Anglia ones. What are handed though are the special angled brackets. One is longer than the other and on my chassis they are clearly stamped "NS" and "OS" for near-side and off-side, referring of course to a RHD car. NS is the left one and OS is the longer right-hand one under the carbs. It raises that side of the engine by about half an inch.

The angled brackets are meant to be fixed directly to the engine, and the rubber mounts go between the brackets and the frame. As a Lotus novice I learned all this from Brian Buckland's book.

Mike

[robertverhey]

Thanks all for advice so far. As far as I'm aware these are the correct parts, I recall that one was stamped "L" and the other "R", and I'll whip the right hand side one off today and double check I haven't switched them by mistake. I'll also take some measurements between bolt holes, maybe someone has a set they can verify these measurements against.

It's stretching my powers of logic, but I THINK that if I use the "special" Anglia mount inverted instead of the standard one, inverted, this will actually lift the carby side the same way it does on an original chassis. Solution may be as simple as that, but it means all the books and instructions are wrong (in my case, anyway)

[rgh0]

Hi Robert

I checked my mount arms today and the RH mount arm is about 15mm longer than the LH one. I also did a trial assembly with the high lift special engine mounts just to get how its works straight in my mind and yes they will add another approximate 12 mm to the assemble height if you still more engine lift

The RH mount arm is on the left in the photo and the high lift special engine mount on the extreme right in the photo (rotate the photo 180 degrees to get the orientation in the car correct!!!)

cheers
Rohan

[robertverhey]

Ha sounds like we spent the day in a very similar way Rohan

I removed both Spyder mounts and compared them, yes about 1.5cm difference. But with standard Anglia mount (as everyone including Spyder tells you to use both sides), it definitely hits the top of the footwell. With the hi lift mount it's perfect, I can get my finger under the carb and there's no bonnet clearance issues either.

Go figure

Thanks all for assistance, this thread might help others in future.

Another day closer to turning the key.....

[normand]

This is getting confusing, surely the so called high lift mount is the one with curved sides and becomes low lift when inverted to fit the spyder chassis, from the photograph you have fitted this curved mount in the correct inverted position an thus it will be lower than using the straight mount inverted.

[robertverhey]

Yes I know it's confusing, I needed to actually do it to understand. The combination of turning it over plus the fact that it's mounted to the chassis, not the block, represents two negatives which create a positive!

[normand]

Robert I cannot agree with you here is a picture of the two types of engine mount in the orientation they should be on a spyder chassis ie upside down compared with lotus chassis, the square sided mount would lift the engine by 1/2 inch or more wouldnt it? Norman