Restoration of 2358R

[literarymadness]

Wow! I must say I'm a little shocked. Your contributions to the forum have been incredible and insightful. Congrats on a job well done and I hope you get what you're asking for the car.

[SilverBeast]

Wow! I must say I'm a little shocked. Your contributions to the forum have been incredible and insightful. Congrats on a job well done and I hope you get what you're asking for the car.

He should do if this https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1973-Lotus-Europa-Twin-Cam-Special-Complete-Original-Barn-Find/274050503383?hash=item3fceaed2d7:g:2wkAAOSwittdoxx7&redirect=mobile auction is anything to go by!

[Dan C 2624R]

Glen,

I looked at my speedo connection and I also have interference.
Mine is 1973 and 2624R.  Pictures are in third also.

Single zip tie on the frame corner hold the cable secure(?) or at least in one place.

Dan

[Certified Lotus]

Hi everyone, sorry to be off line for a while but there has been a lot going on. I sold my 64 Elan S1 to a really nice Lotus Enthusiast who deserved the multi year restoration and award winning car I built. Then I bought a 2005 Lotus Elise for "future use".  I think I have a buyer for my 65 Elan S2 and i'm finishing up some details on my Europa before I post some national ads to sell it.

So, the subject at hand...….the Europa TC.  I have a short list of things to complete on it that I am working through. One of them was to attach a clip at the rear transmission bracket to hold the speedo cable away from the shift tube when I'm in third gear. Bruce made the suggestion and I executed it (Thanks Bruce!).  Seems to work very well.

Today I went to Bill Thomas' Garage Club to have the Europa weighed as inquiring minds wanted to know (inclusive of me).  Bill does a fair amount of race prep on Lotus cars so I knew he would have a sophisticated scale system.  He is a very knowledgeable guy on all things related to sports cars so you can always learn something.  While Bill was preparing to lower my Europa on the scales he noticed the right rear wheel had a movement to it. He brought to my attention that something was amiss and should be looked at. Odd I thought, I just had the car on the lift last weekend and had gone over everything (typical of my first 1000+ mile detailed review of underneath the car with spanners).  Never the less, he went about setting the car down on the scales and I got a couple of photos of the read outs regarding total weight, corner weight and weight distribution. The Europa had a half tank of gas and all other fluids topped up, the spare tire with aluminum wheel mounted in the front, a fire extinguisher, but no luggage tray in the rear.

Over all, the Europa weighed more than I expected by almost 100 lbs at 1512 lbs.  But the balance of the car was where I expected it to be.  All good and no complaints from me.

Then we pulled the right rear wheel off to see what was up. The hub was loose, which really surprised me. It was ok to drive home but I wondered how that happened. Once I was home I put the car on the lift, removed the wheel and bent back the metal washer holding the axle nut in place.  I was able to take the hub off with a few taps of a hammer. That should not have happened. I went back to my photos to confirm I put Loctite on the axle splines (yup) and that I had torqued the nut to 150lbs (yup).  Odd.... I cleaned the inside of the hub and the axle splines with brake clean and a wire brush, dry fit the hub on the axle shaft and looked at all the clearances. Went back and read the manual and looked at the part manual. Everything seemed in order. I reapplied the Loctite on the splines (twice as much this time) and torqued the bolt to 150lbs, securing it with the bent washer and then bolting on the wheel. The cure setup is 1 hour and 7 hours for full cure. So I will let the car sit over night before I do a full road test.

Well, its really a race car for the street. Need to pay more attention.

Man I love driving this car! 

[BDA]

Glad you found that before you had a problem! That could have been a really bad problem!

[literarymadness]

Certified:  Thanks for weighing your TC!  Lotus measured kerb weight with gas tank empty but all other fluids topped off.  Kerb weight for a Fed spec TC was 1650 lbs and 1665 lbs for Fed spec TCS 5 speed.  15 gallons of 93 octane petrol is 96 lbs.   Figure a half-tank 45-50 lbs.; 30 lb. spare; and 5 lbs. for the fire extinguisher.  Your TC is in reality is down to S2 weight.  Ours cars have almost nearly all of the same weight savings, so they are similar weights.  Except, I have the 2 brake servos (25 lbs.) and you don't, but I have a lighter battery (4 1/2 lbs.).  Actually, I don't know the weight of your battery. but if it is normal TC battery it is over 30 lbs.

[Bodzer]

That is a beautiful car! Well done and thanks for the info. I’m only pushing mine around the garage at the moment but I’m amazed how easy it is to move than the Elan.

Thanks for the photos.

[Certified Lotus]

BDA, no kidding that the loose hub was detected early on.

L/M my battery is an Odyssey PC925 which weighs 23.8 lbs.

Bodzer, thanks for the complements.  We should have connected when I was in Ireland last month!

It bothered me that one of the photos was sideways so I ended up reposting most of the photos to get one correct. So if your wondering why they are now in a different order you know the reason 

[tedtaylor]

Certified (Glen), i'm concerned about the speedo cable.   if it were me, I think i'd be happier with the very temporary touching in 3rd gear as opposed to the multiple bends/kinks you have there with the bracket.   seems to me much more friction and wear points in those bends as opposed to a more graceful straight line.   I suspect you'll have premature cable failure with that forced positioning and the chances of failure much less leaving it hang and just the occasional bump of the shifter tube in 3rd gear.
just my 2 cents.   time will tell....

[jbcollier]

Agreed.  You need a slightly longer p-clip so it's not forced against that bolt head.

[Certified Lotus]

Ted, I was thinking same, but the last speedo cable broke at 247 miles. We will see if this install works better. By the way, if your driving back roads (and not highways) your using third gear a fair amount.

JB, I had installed a longer clip and it caused the cable to be right at the third gear location. I think I might move the clip to the other side of the trans mount. That should provide a longer curve.

[brucelotus26r]

If you look at my picture I drilled and taped a bolt on the bottom far corner of the trans mount to keep the cable as straight as possible.

[Bodzer]

BDA, no kidding that the loose hub was detected early on.

L/M my battery is an Odyssey PC925 which weighs 23.8 lbs.

Bodzer, thanks for the complements.  We should have connected when I was in Ireland last month!

It bothered me that one of the photos was sideways so I ended up reposting most of the photos to get one correct. So if your wondering why they are now in a different order you know the reason 

Hi Glen,

Don’t worry, I’m due to start flying to Newark and Philadelphia soon.  I’ll come over to you! I’ve go to see that Europa in the flesh before you move it on.

Regards,

Pete

[EuropaTC]

Hi Glen,

On the subject of loose hubs I'll take a wild guess and say there wasn't enough Loctite to fill the gaps between the spines/hub.  When I have to remove mine it needs a propane torch and a hub puller to get the hub moving and even then it's a slow job. 

I looked through my photos and found this one from when the car had drum brakes. It's taken just after the hub came off and you can see how much white residue there is on the splines (heat degraded Loctite). It's there as a gap filler so when the hub goes back there's so much in there that the Loctite oozes out of the end and needs cleaning off the threads before putting the washer on.

Even so, coming loose at such a low mileage is odd. The spacers shouldn't be an issue at that mileage but was the thin, folding part of the lock washer deformed ?

Brian

[Certified Lotus]

Brian, thanks for the photo and comments. I suspect the reason it came loose was either loctite was old and not functional or I didn’t put enough of it on. This time I put much more (new) loctite on the splines.

The bent washer was intact and holding the nut in place. But it seemed to need another half turn to tighten it. I know I had torqued the nut to 150 lbs. The only other thing I can think of is it might be possible a bearing wasn’t full seated and it finally seated with the torqued nut and some driving. I’m doubtful this was the cause as I used a hydraulic press to seat the hub bearings and checked them afterwards.

I read somewhere to check these nuts after 100 miles when you have replaced the bearings. I am guessing this might be a common problem?

Never the less, it’s all back together and will get some miles on it to check the assembled result.