Lotus Elan Central

As some will know, I have a very slow total rebuild of my lady on the go....

In the 10 years since I joined LEC I have managed to deconstruct 90% of her and am (thankfully) gradually beginning to piece her back together...

Front end, the longerons, prongeron, rad mount, support struts, bulkhead and other bits have been stripped, integrity checked, dinitrol'ed and rebuilt using exactly the same original shims. The (water) rad has been re-cored and fitted, the oil cooler re-cored and ready to fit in a refurbed housing and the charge cooler is with a specialist as we speak for re-core (the original leaked on pressure test and the single (factory) vein is being replaced with a triple vein that should be much more efficient).

I'm currently working on a full suspension (front) rebuild. Managed to save one raft (lower wishbone nearside and trailing arm) but the offside is shot to bits (apart from trailing arm) though I'm hopeful that with the help of a local engineering company, the bottom plate can be removed and rewelded.

...I have learned a massive amount so far on my journey and have hundreds of photos of some of the more challenging issues that I have faced (and overcome!!!) but when I try to upload, I'm met with a 512k image limit. In this day and age, most simple camera pics are 1.5 - 3 mb in size and I simply don't have the motivation to resize every picture to 'fit'.

I would love to be able to share some of my stuff, which I truly believe would be helpful, if not inspirational to others rather than just 'sucking' info and advice from the forum.

I'm desperately hoping that there is a way I can upload my pictures to help make sense of some of my future ramblings.

Help!!

I also have a couple of cars that were down to bare chassis and now going back together. It seems to be an endless dark tunnel...

There has been mention of a LEC facebook page for pictures but people like me that don't do social media would never gain from your suffering.

If you have some that you want resized, I have an easy way to do it and would be happy to resize any that you email to me and I would send you the smaller version.

My email has no file size limits and I have some extra time available most of the time, so if you want to put them on LEC, then let me help by resizing them to the 1024x768 limit.

Check your email

steverob30 wrote:..... In this day and age, most simple camera pics are 1.5 - 3 mb in size and I simply don't have the motivation to resize every picture to 'fit'.

I use http://www.fotosizer.com to resize my pictures - the free version is more than enough to do everything you need (and you can do large batches if you want/need to).

steverob30 wrote:Check your email

Got it and sent back. Sorry, yard trimming took priority this afternoon.

Check YOUR email.

Unbelievable! just started rebuilding lower tca's after full treatment and realised some clown has re-bored one of the trailing arm socket screws to m11 diameter! can't get an m11 socket screw for love nor money. any suggestions for a shim/spacer??

JC, still trying to get to grips with my new Mac and file manipulation. Have received all the pics you converted with sincere thanks and am gradually building a new post....

I really don't mind people potching, but butchery of EXTREMELY expensive replacement parts is just stupid!!/Users/steveroberts/Desktop/IMG_1087.JPG Removed/Users/steveroberts/Desktop/IMG_1086.JPG replacement/Users/steveroberts/Desktop/IMG_1088.JPG comparison

If I had hair, I would have just pulled it out. Ok, I resized the images but they were too wide. I turned each image and that was fine. Then met with "your message contains too few characters".

after an extremely frustrating day wrestling with fused bushes, rust, dinitrol, and a few beers, I'm done!

Hope the images upload. they really aint that special!!

Just to say, img 1 is the replacement, img 3 is what was eventually removed and img 2 is the difference....

I don't see any M11 bolts from any of my suppliers. Are you sure it isn't a 7/16" bolt?

The better solution is to use a helicoil or nut-sert to restore the thread to the correct spec.

If you tell me which pictures you want posted, I can put them up for you. If you want to put captions, just send me a text file with a table like 1s: "Right Side View"

Here's the O/S lower TCA (UK car) fully restored and ready to fit. All bushes removed, housings polished and blanked off before treatment. I used flag rust converter after grinding away the majority of the rot. 24 hrs drying time, then dinitrol 447 to give me at least some protection from the roads and salt (during winter). Dinitrol isn't cheap but I will happily let you know how it performs when the lady is back on the road!!

Brit-Car-Nut wrote:I don't see any M11 bolts from any of my suppliers. Are you sure it isn't a 7/16" bolt?

The better solution is to use a helicoil or nut-sert to restore the thread to the correct spec.

If you tell me which pictures you want posted, I can put them up for you. If you want to put captions, just send me a text file with a table like 1s: "Right Side View"

I think, in someones "wisdom' that's what has happened. I was just worried that a helicoil might not prove strong enough with the forces that it will encounter.

Which bolt is it in this picture?

Hang on J, just off to the garage to get my print off!!!

OK, its A100W7088F. (75 on the service notes). I've got a replacement of the original but its 1 mm smaller in diameter than the one that I removed. looking at the lower TCA it does appear that at some stage, there has been a 're-drilling' to open up the hole aperture to fit an 'odd' bolt that someone had laying around.

Honestly, I would get a new 7/16 -20 x 4.5 inches Socket Head Bolt and a matching nylock nut and keep going.

To reduce the hole back to 10mm would require getting a sleeve made up that has a press fit in the TCA. Then you are still faced with the hole in the strut being oversized.

They are available over here for under $7.00 The tensile strength is 170,000psi.

You could probably use a 4.25 inch length too

Steve - John (B-C-N) is correct - it isn't a clown, it was Lotus!

The early cars were built with M10 bolts, but it was decided along the way that bigger would be better.

M11 doesn't exist, M12 would be too big, but 7/16" is ideal.

Item 75 in the parts book is listed as either M10x110mm or 7/16 X 4 1/2".



I got a pair from Ebay when I did mine - but make sure that you get ones of the correct tensile strength - they have a different 'scale' to metric bolts, so you won't always find an 8.8, 10.9 grade etc..... (and obviously, you'll need nylock nuts to match)

Edit - try these 2 sellers....

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/UNF-7-16-Hex- ... HLvXz8Sujw

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/UNF-High-Tens ... zLg3S-8rmg

(the self-coloured ones are 'harder' than the bright zinc plated - grade 8 (or "S") as opposed to grade 5 ("A") )

Good stuff as usual Dave. I'm pretty sure I can find 7/16" bolts on the Plus 2 suspension so not surprised Lotus chose that size when they wanted something better than M10. (7/16 " sits on the 'meaty side' between M10 & M12 at 11.11 mm).

Just a little bit of info' you may find useful some time in the future - M11 bolts do exist !

I found M6 thread for oil pickup pipe into alloy block on my Subaru was a bit duff and thought M7 would fix it. Found tap sets for M7 available but I'd never ever seen M7 bolts but Google found BMW use M7 and I got some via ebay that worked a treat & while looking I saw that BMW also use M11... e.g. BMW-Torx-Bolt-Screw-M11x1-5x100-mm-Grade-12

so made a mental note that BMW use M7 and M11 .... very unusual ... and people complain about Lotus doing odd things ... Better not get me onto Whitworth thread forms ....

M11 do exist but are used mainly for head bolts and studs where I could find them. Nothing 4 1/2" and outrageously expensive. There are even helicoils for M11, but they are to fix blocks where the head bolts have pulled out of a block.

Phil: I wouldn't want to use the BMW bolt for the suspension as the bolt is fully threaded so at least 50% of the OD is missing and the threads act like a file over time and elongate anything they contact. Those are main cap bolts which probably have dowels or rings to keep the cap centered so the bolt is only clamping and doesn't come in contact anywhere except the head which has a short shoulder to compensate.

Okay, I now accept that M11 DO exist, and in the same way any thread can be cut bespoke to needs (at certain expense!) - and it wouldn't be impossible to get a 110mm bolt made up in M11 to do the job (but it wouldn't be cheap)....

... the point I was trying to make is that it isn't a 'common' size which can be purchased over the counter - and certainly Lotus didn't bother (and why would they) when they could easily get hold of an imperial bolt of a similar size.

This is one of the few applications on the Elan which uses Imperial bolts (the other main one being the rear calliper bolts) due to availability.

The big clue when you find them is that they are generally self-coloured, not Bright Zinc Plated, and have an 'odd' spanner size - whilst a 16mm spanner may work, but seem a bit loose, you really should be using a 5/8" AF tool (15.88mm).

Often, an Imperial bolt will have a similar size head to a Metric one, and one set of spanners will suffice, but it may not budge a tight bolt/nut without damaging them....

.... 1/2" AF approx equals 13mm, 7/16"AF ~ 11mm, 11/16AF ~ 17mm, 3/4"AF ~ 19mm etc

dapinky wrote:Steve - John (B-C-N) is correct - it isn't a clown, it was Lotus!

The early cars were built with M10 bolts, but it was decided along the way that bigger would be better.

M11 doesn't exist, M12 would be too big, but 7/16" is ideal.

Item 75 in the parts book is listed as either M10x110mm or 7/16 X 4 1/2".

suspension bolts.pdf

I got a pair from Ebay when I did mine - but make sure that you get ones of the correct tensile strength - they have a different 'scale' to metric bolts, so you won't always find an 8.8, 10.9 grade etc..... (and obviously, you'll need nylock nuts to match)

Edit - try these 2 sellers....

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/UNF-7-16-Hex- ... HLvXz8Sujw

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/UNF-High-Tens ... zLg3S-8rmg

(the self-coloured ones are 'harder' than the bright zinc plated - grade 8 (or "S") as opposed to grade 5 ("A") )