1966 Lotus Elan FHC: The "Bought-not-Built" car

[MrBurgundy]

I dont think simon knows how to analyze numbers, nor can he hear. I think a shift light is probably his only option. Thank god he's not blind, otherwise he'd have to drive with a feeling stick out the window.

it 'all falls apart for him after 3 or 4

[DEV0 E30]

it 'all falls apart for him after 3 or 4

Simon: There are four lights.

[LateFan]

Simon, my buddy here just sold his ‘66 coupe to an eccentric buyer in rural BC. Transport driver was to drop it at the border station and the guy would come across the collect it.

Funny to help push it out of a garage and onto a trailer - it weighs nothing.


Makes an E30 look big.

[2mAn]

One of the final pieces of the puzzle revolving the Fuel System was the return line. I didnt want to make permeant changes to the fuel tank and I nearly found an 'off-the-shelf' solution from Moroso however it was actually a smaller OD than the Lotus, so a call to my favorite fabricator Kevan and he was able to make exactly what I needed for about the same cost.

I'm a happy camper with this. Thanks Chilezen


Once the hoses arrive, I can cross this off the list.


Hoping to get the final wiring piece done this weekend because I am quickly approaching a very busy summer and at the tail end of the summer season is a trip up to the Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion and I would love to take the Elan up there to stand out in a sea of Supercars...

[2mAn]

Only took another week to go from above to this...


Hoping Kevan will come through again with a solution to my throttle cable situation.

Stay tuned...

[Chilezen]

I both did and did not come through with a complete solution to the rabbit hole that is the throttle cable debacle.

Why Simon why

[2mAn]

Why Simon why

Lifes too short to have easy projects....

or something like that

[max.rodriguezzz]

Lifes too short to have easy projects....

or something like that

theres a certain joy that comes out of figuring out a solution for a situation you made more difficult for yourself, all while sharing your annoyance and frustrations with everyone else around you.

[MrBurgundy]

Lifes too short to have easy projects....

or something like that

life is to hard to make projects harder

[Northern]

11 days without an update? Simon must've become bored and sold it

[2mAn]

These next few weeks will have very little garage time, especially for this car... Everyone send Chilezen $treefiddy to inspire him to come up with a throttle cable solution. I showed him what I thought would work, but Im an old man who points and grunts... he's the youngbuck who has to do the actual hard work to come up with the sexy solutions... Once that throttle cable situation is figured out it should allow us to get the last few items crossed off the list so I can start working on the standalone configurations...

[Chilezen]

I have an idea or two but it's hard to commit to anything when I live 2 hours away from this car and I can't really build/modify something remotely when I don't have measurements. I just keep rewatching these videos to formulate the solution.. which needs more time to cook.

The arm off the throttle linkage wants to be pulled down, but there's limited space under there to route the cable that comes up from the far corner. There needs to be a bracket to hold... the cable itself, or an assembly to rotate/transfer the direction of travel to a more accessible location for the cable. Having a plate on the throttle itself might work to redirect the motion. Re-configuring the pedal-to-cable assembly might help. Making it all reliable, simple, possibly adjustable, and cheap, are also heavy considerations. Just bending the cable into position might be all that's necessary and I'm overthinking it. But for sure there needs to be a bracket mounted under the throttle bodies and the video I took doesn't give me enough info. My mistake.

Ideas welcome.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/pvGQupaPRidCeCAb9

https://photos.app.goo.gl/anMAwdGRzHqCqF2d8

[varg]

I'm not seeing the issue, what's wrong with that bellcrank linkage we saw earlier in the thread? It can't be adapted, running the throttle cable up and along the firewall, then turning 90° forward to go to the bellcrank? If the issue is getting the cable to take a 90° turn from the firewall to the existing linkage adjuster, a custom cable with a metal tube bend like you see on motorcycle throttle cables is the answer.

[2mAn]

Heres another pic of the Jenvey linkage, installed on the ITBs.



Sadly this sits too high and hits the hood, plus a few other issues so it was removed. As of right now, I am stuck with this piece of engineering and feel like it makes sense to find a way to use it as its a very well designed piece of engineering. So here are the two options my monkey brain is trying to find a solution with.
(1) Find a way to modify the linkage to sit lower and allow me to close the hood. Sounds simple, but it will require also modifying more items to fix the geometry that was designed into it.
(2) Find a way to mount the linkage in the footwell, to move the firewall pass through which currently goes into the engine bay Vertical and change it so its coming up Horizontal.

Heres a good head-on shot where you can see the cable and the old setup on the Webers

[BlackbirdM3]

Why not just use the Weber setup? The throttle bodies are effectively Webers, so, shouldn't the linkage interchange? That said, I've never been a fan of Weber linkages on anything. The Alfa setup seems to be the cleanest, but its a factory setup. Anything aftermarket, is a mess.