Lotus Europa Community

Well bugger me. I've found it.
When taking my car out for a charity meet at the Classic Car Show last weekend, I again noticed this strange noise, but this time as it was early in the morning and nothing was going to be about, when I heard this noise, I just stopped immediately and got out of the car to AGAIN try and investigate what might be causing it and to my surprise, I found that what had been apparently coming from the back of the car was actually caused by the outer edge of the front R/H tyre scraping against front fold on the aluminium plate below the door.
This just now requires a gentle? tap to move it back against the wheel arch.
How annoying but at least that is another problem solved

Are you sure about this H? It is only the trim out of place?
Is the car tracking normally or pulling to one side?
Not wishing to promote "gloom and doom" H but I would have a look at the front suspension wear points - all good??

  Worked a deal with a friend for the use of his trailer.
    Repair the holes in roof.
    Fix wiring .
    Clean out dead possums.
    Pressure wash
   
  Can’t be to bad… it should be big enough to recover the S1.
 Dakazman

The seat belt anchor/jacking point bolts in.  It comes out via a cut out inside the sill, covered by the seat cushion.

I've never noticed the issue that is driving you crazy.  Have you considered increasing your meds!  All joking aside, I wouldn't worry about it.  It's still way better looking than an S2 sill.

Just to add a little to Bryan's post, I have recently thought about implementing a Ferrari style gate for my shift lever. I think in my case, sometimes when I think I'm pulling the lever straight back or strait up, I'm not really. When I first put my car on the road I would have trouble doing a 1 - 2 shift so I had to train myself to put a little pressure to the left as I did that shift. Lately I've sometimes had occasional trouble finding 3 when coming from 4. Again, I think it's that I'm not pushing the lever straight enough.

I agree with Bryan's assessment that shifts should be easy - palm or fingers.

I am on "Lotuswins's" team on this one H - stay with what you have and identify shifting problem.   
Is your box stiff in all gears or predominantly the change from 5th to 4th?
Out of interest is the gear change stiff from 4th to 5th?

Yes this does seem like a lot of work for something that does actually work OK most of the time, especially on upshifts.

The box is very stiff on all changes, quite precise but very stiff. When dropping down from 5th to 4th, if you go 5th .... neutral .... 4th it usually goes in OK, but if you try going quickly straight down into 4th, it seems as thought it hasn't gone through the gate into the 3rd/4th plane and you're trying to go where there is nowhere to go - a bit embarrassing when you are taking a paying passenger out on a charity ride.
I know this will sound like I can't actually drive my own car, and there probably is some of that I'll admit. When I first had it I took it to one of our Specialists for their expert opinion, expecting them to say "it's a load of "You-know-what" " but as he got out and came to me he said "Actually, it's one of the best I've driven" which deflated me quite a bit.
I suppose that I'll have to re-learn double de-clutching all over again and just take things a bit slower and get my down shifts sorted well in advance?

Thanks for these answers, I was hoping that after eventually finding a 'box it would be just a question of fitting it and adjusting the linkage a bit, but from what you guys have said it's so much more than that.
Ok now onto the next bit, rebuilding the engine!
H.

I have found that, all things being equal, if your top hat bushings at the base of the shift lever, any intermediate heim joints/rod ends, rubber bushings are in good nick, and the whole mechanism is adjusted as per the manual, then using deliberate movement of the shift lever through the cross-gate pattern (ie not 'diagonally' per se from 2->3, 4->5 or the reverse but 2->N->3 etc) works best, along with being cognizant that you've got 8' or so between your hand and the tranny mechanism.  There's lots of mass to move in the right direction, so give it a chance to.  It will NEVER be the snick-snick of the Elan box, but, precise movement (just takes a little practice) works pretty well, and you can get decent, reliable shifts out of her 99% of the time.

That, and like most things Lotus, a gentle, precise hand on the knob seems to work best.  I watch some of the online videos of testers grabbing and moving the shift lever like they're trying to stir concrete with a butter knife...easy on the equipment, guys.  Things last longer and stay in adjustment when you respect the limitations!  I can shift up with just my palm...and down with 2 fingers.  It doesn't take much when the mechanism is adjusted properly and the bits are up to snuff.

HTH