Gearbox filling

[stinkerstag]

My first ever Elan task to check the gearbox level has ended in misery.
I finally found the speedo drive & removed the retaining plate but the drive won't budge. What do i do next? Steve

[M100 TWO]

use a small paint brush to make sure there is no grit around top of drive use a small screwdriver around opening to remove any muck and give it a wiggle it will come out

[Doug]

someone's got to get rid of all the crud/grout down there that's accumulated -- do it yourself or pay a mechanic to do it . . .

[Monty]

My first ever Elan task to check the gearbox level has ended in misery.
I finally found the speedo drive & removed the retaining plate but the drive won't budge. What do i do next? Steve

+ it`s difficult to check the level, once u remove the speedo cable, i`d drain her and give her some new fluid. IIRC 1.9 litres (uk)

[Sy V]

Monty

A Litre's a Litre wherever you go mate. And, I think that's a bit high...

[Sy V]

...see here:

http://www.lotuselancentral.com/repair/transaxleoil.htm

"two quarts" (US) = four US pints (@16 fl.ozs/pint) = 64 fluid ounces

(two quarts (UK) = four real pints (@20 fl.ozs/pint) = 80 fluid ounces)

Actually Monty's figure is pretty damn good:

64 fl.ozs x 28.41 = 1818.24 grammes - 1.81824 Litres (universal)

Christ, that was an effort at 02:54 a.m!

[Oliver]

Can`t add much to that. Only done it once so far when i replaced all the coolant hoses. Took about 5 hours last time. I reckon i can do it in 3 next time! I used Castrol SMS-X. Worryingly i only had 1st and 2nd gears after doing it, i dropped a socket into the gearchange mechanism.

[DeeAitch]

Just don't drain the oil until you are sure you can get the Speedo cable out
Whilst we are on the subject the 'D' shaped plug that sits above the drain plug - that's item 35, P1 Sect 47.03 of your nice Parts list is definitely threaded. Looks like the same thread as the drain plug to me. Watch this space for confirmation if I manage to get it out will need a special tool tho'

[Monty]

Pinky 1`s gear box has the filling plug just above the driveshaft (see pic) when we had dico`s gearbox out noticed there`s a blanking plate and was wonder if it was threaded and could be replaced with a bolt?

[wilcox]

what helped me was adding Sonax teflon additive for gear boxes. Had to empty and fill the gearbox twice before I finally succeeded

[DeeAitch]

Took the 'D' shaped plug out today. It is the same thread as the drain plug and uses the same size 'O' ring

[Doug]

now all we need is a volunteer to go and refill the gearbox thru the top and when the level is set just right then remove this plug and see what happens . . .

hopefully nothing runs out (or only a few drips) and then put yer finger in there and see the level is right up to the bolt

if this happens then we have the answer

then the alternate way to change the tranny fluid goes like this: you'd have to jack the car to drain the tranny and open the fill plug, put car back down level with filler hose into filler hole, fill until the level is up the the fill hole, then jack up left front of car (to raise the fill hole more so nothing runs out) and re-insert the fill plug from underneath . . .

[DeeAitch]

I'm just going to jack up the car to a nice angle and bung in 1.9 Litres of Redline's finest