Lotus Elan Central

by **chrisfairhead** » Fri 22.06.2007, 12:17

when this happened to me I visited my local cycle shop and bought a tandem rear inner break cable which was long enough to replace the exising cable . Also 2 screw on cable locking blocks. I removed the entire assembly from the door drilled out the plastic end piece on the window end otf the cable. remove the cable and measured the lengths of cable either side of the locking block in the winder in the end of the motor.Slid on the locking block tightened the screw then ground off the head and part of the body so it would fit in the existing slot in the winder, rewound the cable in the winderand then reran the cable pulling it tight through the hole in the end of the plastic end piece on the window .I fitted the second block to secure the end of the cable.I then reassembled the mechanism in the door. Cost £2.40 plus a lot of time compared with £140 for the new assembly.

by **Enright** » Mon 22.10.2007, 01:53

My driver's side window seems to clonk, jolt and jam.
The sliders are fine - I've taken out the whole assembly and greased the tracks, but it still makes some horrible noises then jams.
I reckon it won't be long before a cable snaps.
I know how to remove the "Lotus bow", but is it easy to gain access to the cable reel?
Also, do you need power to keep winding the reel in each direction while working on it?

by **TheBard** » Mon 22.10.2007, 03:27

Dismantling the reel is easy, undo the centre screw and watch the plate pop off and greasy cable go everywhere. :shock:

The bugger is reassembling the thing afterwards. :oops:

You can do the whole lot without power, but test your motor, and then test the bow assembly outside the car before refitting, it saves on swearing when you realise something still isn't right.

I'd suggest the following course of action, and start early on the weekend;
1. Remove the window bow
2. Disconnect the motor from the pulley housing, and check the motor works smoothly in both directions (do this in the car whilst removing bow).
3. In a clean area (where it is easy to find missing parts) check how the center slider moves and how the pulley is spinning. (with the motor removed you should be able to slide it up and down.
4. Try a squirt of lubricant on the pulley cable near the housing then manually slide it in and out (by working the bow) a few times.
5. If that doesn't fix it, have a cup of tea, you'll need all the strength and patience you can muster for the next bit.
6. Remove the center screw on the pulley plate, keep the plate closed with a couple of clamps (Example of clamping and fixing)
7. Carefully take the housing lid off and watch greasy cable unspool very fast.
8. Clean everything, regrease everything, reassemble everything.
9. Remember for the pulley to work it must be wound clockwise on one side and anti-clockwise on the other, so it pulls and pushes...otherwise it won't do anything at all.
10. Test everything works. Test on the bench manually, then test again on the car and make sure the motor moves everything properly, otherwise return to step #1.
11. Strengthen the original enclosure as shown in step #6. Otherwise the small screw holding the pulley housing shut will fail in a few months time and it'll unspool inside your door (speaketh the voice of experience)
12. Post on LEC your experiences, and come back and shout for help if it still doesn't work.

Good luck!

Ian

by **Enright** » Mon 22.10.2007, 07:28

That is a fantastic detailed reply - thanks very much for your help!

by **Dico** » Mon 22.10.2007, 15:29

And if all else fails....
http://lotuselancentral.com/forum/viewt ... 2&start=80

I've heard he may do discount ;-)

by **Enright** » Mon 22.10.2007, 20:29

Um, don't suppose anyone has the overall measurement of the cable do they?

by **Ekapol** » Thu 25.10.2007, 07:10

Enright wrote:That is a fantastic detailed reply - thanks very much for your help!

Ian's writing saved my live few times already.

Enright wrote:Um, don't suppose anyone has the overall measurement of the cable do they?

Please check page2 of this thread. :-)

by **Enright** » Fri 26.10.2007, 20:21

Oh sorry ( :oops:

), don't you just hate it when people do that?!? :roll:

Thanks Ekapol.

Right, I'm off down to the bicycle shop tomorrow morning - wish me luck guys!

by **Enright** » Sat 27.10.2007, 16:09

This morning I bought 2 of the longest cables that the local bike shop had. They were 1.8 metres, and 6 of the screw-on cable locks (one for each end if required and one for the middle).

Then I removed the motor/cable assembly and dismantled it. I'll tell you what, that moment just as you snip the end of the cable off and you think "I've well and truly buggered it - no going back now!" is pretty scary.

The method I used was to wind the motor fully so that the un-frayed end was unspooled, then matched up the new cable to it. This left about 4 turns on the other side of the reel.

Then I removed the reel and the rest of the old cable, and fed the new one into it's place from the slider (so that the nipple thingy on the new cable fitted into the slider). I fed it through the hole in the centre of the reel, put a cable locker in there, put 4 turns of cable round the reel and completed the rest of the route.

I used another cable locker at the bare end of the cable in the slider, and pulled the cable through until it compressed the springs a bit. Then finally I connected it to power and operated it back and forth a few times, adjusting the tension to the correct amount through the cable locker. Note that leaving one end with the solid end left me with 2 spare cable lockers.

Materials have gone up a bit since chrisfairhead did it - it cost me a fiver per door! Will the bank account stand the extra expense? :lol:

But it's now as smooth as silk! Well chuffed. Thanks all for the pointers everyone.

by **Dave Eds** » Sat 27.10.2007, 17:31

nice one Enners!

by **Ekapol** » Fri 02.11.2007, 18:26

Enright wrote:

But it's now as smooth as silk! Well chuffed. Thanks all for the pointers everyone.

Right on Neil. Good job! :smt023

by **TheBard** » Mon 05.11.2007, 01:28

Welcome to the window club :-D

Glad it all went well!

Ian

by **nitroman** » Wed 07.11.2007, 19:05

Ran across this. No personal experience with them. http://www.regulatorusa.com/

by **surfboardfiller** » Fri 25.04.2008, 11:25

How do you get a new slider on to the rail? I don't want to force it, as that may fracture the crappy plastic slider and then I'd be back at stage 1 in a few months time.

If anyone who has actually done this, then please let me know.

Cheers,

Phil

by **Enright** » Fri 25.04.2008, 13:28

Phil, don't get "that sinking feeling"! :roll:

(sorry, couldn't resist)

I don't think there's any forcing that needs to be done. IIRC, from your picture above the slider needs to be rotated through 180 degrees, then it should just rest on the upper part of the rail, between the two pulleys. The lower part appears to have no other function apart from strengthening. The tension of the cables then holds the slider in place.

Does my description make it clear?

by **surfboardfiller** » Fri 25.04.2008, 14:24

Enright wrote:Phil, don't get "that sinking feeling"! (sorry, couldn't resist)

I don't think there's any forcing that needs to be done. IIRC, from your picture above the slider needs to be rotated through 180 degrees, then it should just rest on the upper part of the rail, between the two pulleys. The lower part appears to have no other function apart from strengthening. The tension of the cables then holds the slider in place.

Does my description make it clear?

No, not very clear.

I think the white plastic slider fits over the edge of the rail, but it doesn't 'rest' on the rail. The old one did just 'rest' there, but that was because it was broken.
I bought a new slider and don't want it to end up like the old one. I know plastics quite well and can see this is quite inadequate to be flexible enough. I may heat it (to elasticise) if I do have to force it.
I may just cut the stopper off the top of the rail to slide it down. :roll:

by **Enright** » Fri 25.04.2008, 14:50

Aha, that photo makes it much easier to give better direction!
The slider is the wrong way round, and it's not supposed to fit into the U shape of the channel.
You need to rotate the slider so that the circular plug is still facing upwards, but so that the square bit is on the right instead of the left.
Then you'll see that the slot in it (which looks like a letter "r" in the above photo but which will now be reversed) is neatly hooked into by the left hand part of the U shaped channel (vertically up from the pulley pictured above).
You know what? Here's a better idea - I'll just show you!

by **surfboardfiller** » Fri 25.04.2008, 15:57

Err, I don't think so. what I really want is someone who has done this before and understands my question. :banghead:

surferphil wrote:How do you get a new slider on to the rail? I don't want to force it, as that may fracture the crappy plastic slider and then I'd be back at stage 1 in a few months time.

If anyone who has actually done this, then please let me know.

Cheers,

Phil

by **Enright** » Fri 25.04.2008, 16:25

Sorry Phil, my mistake.
I have done it before but my memory has obviously faded a bit. :oops:

by **surfboardfiller** » Fri 25.04.2008, 16:48

It was the 'how' to get it on I was after, rather than the 'where'. :wink:

I managed to get it on, but I did crack one of the lugs off. I get the impression the slider is slid on one end before the wheels are stamped on. :roll:

What a crap piece of design work! :evil:

Cheers any where! :wink:

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