Lockwood Dials

[Monty]

I think Monty was able to fix this the same way he fixes all his problems.....with a knife (tee hee ).

don`t forget the drill

Don`t know why lockwood didn`t match up the locating holes but a cordless drill soon sorted that out

[Nige]

I saw the Metal Monkey dials on Nige's car and thought they look really nice.
But made from slabs of steel! How silly.

To be honest they are so thin they must weigh at least 5-10 grammes more than the plastic originals or the Lockwoods.

Anyway Phil thought you would have had a state of the art multi function display by Stack or the like in there, one dial to do everything seems like the best weight saving option to me .

[surfboardfiller]

I saw the Metal Monkey dials on Nige's car and thought they look really nice.
But made from slabs of steel! How silly.

To be honest they are so thin they must weigh at least 5-10 grammes more than the plastic originals or the Lockwoods.

Anyway Phil thought you would have had a state of the art multi function display by Stack or the like in there, one dial to do everything seems like the best weight saving option to me .

Yeh I'll probably go for a Stack, but I don't want to get bogged down with the compatibilities between the Elan and the stack unit. I want this cat sprinting first.

[Candles]

Having replaced all the gauges myself, if I were you I would simply grab the stock binnacle and throw it out.

There is SO much wire kicking around the car for speakers, alarms, seat belt warnings, washer bottle warnings etc etc. All you need is a big tacho, which is one wire from the ECU (already fitted) and will work out of the box from the gauge company!

If you do want a speedo, I have a VDO GM hall effect sensor in the gearbox speedo drive, and that drives an Autometer speedo, again via a wire.

Candles.

[Bolsom]

Having just bought the main dials from Mattdon with Vauxhall fitting instructions and now read this thread through. Would anyone be kind enough to email me a scan of the Lockwood fitting instructions please. I can't see how you can fit the dials without removing the needles other than by cutting a slit at the bottom of the dial by the needle. The needle mounting looks larger than the hole the shaft goes through. I guess I will also need to fabricate some adhesive washers fit under the needles. I want to be as clued up as possible before I attempt this fiddly job.

Thanks

Colin

[surfboardfiller]

The Lockwood set should come with adhesive washers that fit under the needles (to block out the light). The kit is actually shite; the holes don't line up with the locating lugs on the unit. I had to take the smaller dial needles off to fit the faces and then had to bodge the fitting so the needle points to the right part of the face as the rev range is completely different.

The dials are obviously for a different car and rebadged as 'Lotus Elan' dials. I contacted lockwood about this but like most companies who produce poor products - no response. I suppose you get what you pay for £28 is perhaps too cheap for a quality product. Its a shame as they look quite good; they just don't fit the Elan SE.

I'll see if I still have the instructions but they are not good.

[surfboardfiller]

There is SO much wire kicking around the car for speakers, alarms, seat belt warnings, washer bottle warnings etc etc. All you need is a big tacho, which is one wire from the ECU (already fitted) and will work out of the box from the gauge company!

If you do want a speedo, I have a VDO GM hall effect sensor in the gearbox speedo drive, and that drives an Autometer speedo, again via a wire.

Candles.

Sounds great are there any compatibility issues associated with using a different speedo? I fancy an Elise Stack unit do you think this will work? or be a wiring nightmare?

[Candles]

The pulse train from the GM sender is a standard cadence/speed. The speedo came factory calibrated to accept it and is within a few mph according to GPS. If it wasn't, there is a calibration mode anyway. I would imagine an Elise speedo would either recognise a standard pulse train or be able to accept calibration.

[Elanlover]

The Lockwood set should come with adhesive washers that fit under the needles (to block out the light). The kit is actually shite; the holes don't line up with the locating lugs on the unit. I had to take the smaller dial needles off to fit the faces and then had to bodge the fitting so the needle points to the right part of the face as the rev range is completely different.

The dials are obviously for a different car and rebadged as 'Lotus Elan' dials. I contacted lockwood about this but like most companies who produce poor products - no response. I suppose you get what you pay for £28 is perhaps too cheap for a quality product. Its a shame as they look quite good; they just don't fit the Elan SE.

I'll see if I still have the instructions but they are not good.

These dials are for the Vauxhall and the thinking at the time (so I understand) was that the speedo cluster was the same therefore the gauges and dials were the same as well. There are slight differences among the dials, faces and locating lugs/holes. Probably slight changes made to differentiate them as Lotus specific - not uncommon. I found this out also when getting the Metal Monkey dial faces done for the car. All the speedo cluster gauges were slightly different in their mounting lugs/holes which Metal Monkey corrected when I sent them the OEM dial faces. As Monty said above tough, a drill bit can make them fit.

[surfboardfiller]

As Monty said above tough, a drill bit can make them fit.

It doesn't change the rev range though so the dials don't actually match!

[Elanlover]

It doesn't change the rev range though so the dials don't actually match!

True. The MM dials match though as they were based on the OEM markings and have the proper redline of 7200 rpm marked as well.

[Paul.P]

Having just bought the main dials from Mattdon with Vauxhall fitting instructions and now read this thread through. Would anyone be kind enough to email me a scan of the Lockwood fitting instructions please. I can't see how you can fit the dials without removing the needles other than by cutting a slit at the bottom of the dial by the needle. The needle mounting looks larger than the hole the shaft goes through. I guess I will also need to fabricate some adhesive washers fit under the needles. I want to be as clued up as possible before I attempt this fiddly job.

Thanks

Colin

Colin, if i remember right, they slide up the needle & over the round bit in the middle, they definitely fit without removing the needles on the main dials, although the 3 small dials do need needles removing & there position should be marked before carefully pulling off. There should b some black washers to cover the gap left behind the needle stem, when dial are in place, Oh, don't forget to remove the old dials 1st ( some of us didn't ), & once removed you can compare the mounting holes & adjust as neccessary.
The rev counters were identical to the originals, but the speedo only read to 160mph ( lotus 170mph ), but we had proved that with 16" wheels the speedo actually was more acurate.
With a bit of care, these can be made to fit just fine, & at £28 are a right steel, if you want better quality go for the metal monkey ones, but be warned, the dials have to be removed on those, & apparantly can be a pig to get to read right upon replacement.

[surfboardfiller]

The rev counters were identical to the originals, but the speedo only read to 160mph ( lotus 170mph ), but we had proved that with 16" wheels the speedo actually was more acurate.

The rev is not identical. It is at least 500 rpm out.

But if you are driving Miss Daisy, then you would not notice, but then you would not really need a revometer or a speedo.

[Bolsom]

Thanks for the comments everyone.

I don't know if the dials are actually Lockwood but they are white with black numerals which will read easily in the dark interior when wearing sunglasses. I find the standard black with red numerals useless.
I think I will take the old dials off by cutting them at the bottom of the needle shaft. I can then use them as a template to drill holes to fit as necessary. The holes for the needle shafts are not cut anyway, so I can cut them just large enough to slide them over the needles and then make washers to reduce the hole size to prevent the light showing.

Cheers

Colin

[surfboardfiller]

Sounds like a great plan Colin! Post a picture when you are done?

[Bolsom]

Just seen the last post.
I am not too bothered if the rev counter is marginally out.
I do not do track days and seldom rev to 6k and although I do keep an eye on it I can hear if I'm overdoing it. How often in normal road use do you change gear by looking at the rev counter?

Colin

[surfboardfiller]

Yep, the rev counter is more relevant to me than the speedo, though the speedo takes president for cameras.

I generally know what speed I am doing to the mph, but I regularly push the Elan to the limits (sometimes beyond) when safe to do so. Which is something I have done with all my cars/bike. Always been frustrated by cars without a rev counter, but fine with a truck without a speedo!

I do know where the rev limit is but I haven't learnt the full range yet. I'm not a dangerous driver though and I have never seen top speed in my car.

[Paul.P]

True. The MM dials match though as they were based on the OEM markings and have the proper redline of 7200 rpm marked as well.

Em, my dials appear to have 7200 marked in solid red & they came from the group buy, & they have Lockwood written on them, they may of changed them, also on the odd occasion i drive on the limit, the rev limiter is my indicator.

[surfboardfiller]

Yeh and it's in the wrong place.

[Bolsom]

Paul,

My dials do not have Lockwood on them, but appear identical otherwise. The redline starts at about 6800 revs. as per the standard OEM.

The Lockwood set has all the dials. Do you know if the 3 small dials are sold seperately anywhere?

Colin