Sudden Grinding Sound From Rear Wheel

[alan.barker]

Lotus49,
You should feel a little play on front wheels.
None on back wheels.
The lotus alloy wheels should have big Nuts to secure them not spinners.
Spinners are for steel wheels only.
Alan

[alanr]

Assuming you have the correct jack in the boot for a +2 you don't need blocks of wood or anything like that at all for what you are trying to do. Blocks of wood etc will only be needed using a trolley jack and if you are doing more intensive work, but for your purposes they are not necessary.
For a simple jack up and change wheel etc. a +2 has four jacking points, two each side of the car in the sill. Just insert the jack and jack up as you would do changing the wheel on any other car.
See pic for +2 Jacking point.

Alan.

[rgh0]

Lotus49,
You should feel a little play on front wheels.
None on back wheels.
The lotus alloy wheels should have big Nuts to secure them not spinners.
Spinners are for steel wheels only.
Alan

The 3 eared spinners came on alloy wheels also at least they did on my 73 Plus 2 . The "Nader" nuts were just a USA and maybe European ? implementation as far as i am aware.

cheers
Rohan

[alan.barker]

Attention if the metal beams inside the Sills are in good conditipn.
They are often rusted out and need replacing.
Best to do as advised with wooden blocks
Alan

[alan.barker]

Lotus49,
You should feel a little play on front wheels.
None on back wheels.
The lotus alloy wheels should have big Nuts to secure them not spinners.
Spinners are for steel wheels only.
Alan

The 3 eared spinners came on alloy wheels also at least they did on my 73 Plus 2 . The "Nader" nuts were just a USA and maybe European ? implementation as far as i am aware.

cheers
Rohan

On my last 1973 +2S130/4 they were nader UK Car
Alan

[Lotus49]

Yes, where the hoist is positioned will work with a simple square block of wood and trolley jack, If using a trolley jack you can alterntively postion it under the outer ends of the front cross member rather than under the body, both work

cheers
Rohan

Thank you for your help. Is the alternate position you mentioned above the section in front of the transmission but behind the oil pan? This would be for jacking up the front of the car, correct?

[Lotus49]

And don't forget that the left hand wheel spinners have a left hand thread i.e. you turn them to the right to loosen.

Mike

Noted! Thank you.

[rgh0]

Yes, where the hoist is positioned will work with a simple square block of wood and trolley jack, If using a trolley jack you can alterntively postion it under the outer ends of the front cross member rather than under the body, both work

cheers
Rohan

Thank you for your help. Is the alternate position you mentioned above the section in front of the transmission but behind the oil pan? This would be for jacking up the front of the car, correct?

It is in front of the engine oil pan where the front lower wishbones connect to the chassis for jacking the car at the front

cheers
Rohan

[billwill]

It seems that you are so inexperienced with this car, that your first actions should be not physical at all, but educational. You need to learn more about the car.

Fortunately a section of this website was started some time ago to put the accumulated information in a wiki (that's a document created by many persons)

Though the wiki on this site still has problems, it is one of your best bets to start reading about your car. Try to get hold of a service manual, which will contain the information you are currently looking for.

I suggest you start with the wiki link at the top of this page. it leads to
https://lotuselan.net/wiki/Lotus_Elan_Wiki
Then read as much as you can about your car. In particular look at the Parts diagrams which draw the component parts of your car. Then going by the numbers and the lists below you will find the names of the various parts of the car.

In Rohan's description above about jacking up the car he is referring to the strong points of the body, these are the corner points where rear wheel arches finish, just in front of the rear wheel and the corner where the back-end of the front wheel arch meets the floor of the cabin, just to the rear of the front wheel. These 4 points are fairly strong even though they are fibre-glass. You can jack up any given wheel by putting a jack underneath the nearby strong point, BUT... many jacks do not have level tops and you do not want any piece if a metal jack causing a hole in the fibre-glass so you need to put a small flat piece of wood around 5 to six inches on the sides and about 3/4 to 1 inch thick, in between the top of the jack and the fibre-glass body to spread the load evenly. Even with your lack of wood-skills you should be able to find or make something suitable.

The old scissor -jacks supplied originally are still good enough for this task, provided that they have not rusted away, BUT never get under any car which is on jacks alone. you should always jack it up, place axle-stands underneath & lower it back onto the stands. ans then make sure it is stable, before you consider crawling under any car.

[Sadbrewer]

[quote="billwill"]

It seems that you are so inexperienced with this car, that your first actions should be not physical at all, but educational. You need to learn more about the car.



That is definitely sound advice....also remember the old saying
''a little knowledge is a dangerous thing''...followed by 'I wish I'd bought the workshop manual before I took things apart'

[Lotus49]

Yes, where the hoist is positioned will work with a simple square block of wood and trolley jack, If using a trolley jack you can alterntively postion it under the outer ends of the front cross member rather than under the body, both work

cheers
Rohan

Thank you for your help. Is the alternate position you mentioned above the section in front of the transmission but behind the oil pan? This would be for jacking up the front of the car, correct?

It is in front of the engine oil pan where the front lower wishbones connect to the chassis for jacking the car at the front

cheers
Rohan

Noted. Thank you.

[alanr]

Personally I wouldn't jack a +2 up anywhere on the fibreglass, with a wooden block or not!
I have round pad indentations in my car floor areas in exactly those positions, created by muppets who clearly did not know what they were doing, and using a 2 post lift exactly as you show in the photo have lifted it in the past using what are supposedly stronger fibreglass points.

Alan.

[h20hamelan]

so, where the chassis to body mount areas on the underside by the wheels are considered strongest?

[billwill]

The 'strong' points I am trying to describe are clearly indicated in this photo of lifting an Elan with a two post lift.


to be sure, this shows a two-seater Elan not a plus 2, but the description would be the same:

[512BB]

' I did not realize these were aftermarket wheels'

You have misunderstood my comment Lotus 49. Always good to know someones actual name by the way. I did not say that your wheels were aftermarket, I was commenting that I hoped you had an aftermarket tool, such as the one I have pictured, to tighten and undo the spinners on your car. Even I would not attempt to use a hammer in your situation, as the ears of the spinners pass very close to the ribs on your alloy wheels, and it would take just one misplaced whack for damage to occur. Plus, even a lead hammer will damage chrome spinners over time.

There are smaller derivatives of the tool I have pictured, ie the Lionel 'Messi' tool, but I cannot find that one at present to show you. The brown one however, is the Rolls Royce of spinner tools, period. Sadly, no longer available.

The third picture I have put up shows what I believe Lotus intended alloy wheels to be retained by, for the above reasons, and it is very rare that you see a +2 fitted with spinners, in the UK at least.

When you get round to looking at the fit of your wheels, it should be noted that NO lubricant of any kind should be applied to the threads on the hubs or spinners. They should be completely dry.

And the last thing to note Lotus 49, is that everybody has their own opinion on how things should be done on here, as you can see, and you will just have to sort the wheat from the chaff

Leslie