Lotus - Loads of Trouble, Usually Serious

This is an update on my 1968 Elan Plus 2 - and describes some of the bodges I've uncovered as I get the car into a reliable and trustworthy state. I had replaced the handbrake pads last year and I’d found that a previous owner had hammered one of the pads in place because the pin that the pad slides on and which holds the mechanism onto the caliper was not pressed in enough. The shaft is shouldered, with thick ends to fit in the caliper, and a narrow middle for the handbrake pad to slide in and out on. In my case the pad had been hammered in place over the raised end of the shaft, which meant it wasn’t working very well (if at all!) and the new pad wouldn’t fit. so I had taken off the caliper and cleaned everything up, before reassembling and putting it back on the car. 

When I got round to actually making the handbrake work, I couldn’t live with the festering rustfest that was the rear brakes. I decided to replace all of the various odds and sods which make up the mechanism, and give the handbrake levers a bit of a spruce up (Silver Smoothite - you cant beat it). And then I decided to refurb the calipers which were also rusty, and of course that meant replacing the seals and pistons….

There are four pistons in total, two per caliper. Three of the pistons were quite rusty and in need of replacement but one was in good nick. Turns out that the good one was stainless steel and the other three were chrome plated mild steel….

So another bodge - who in their right mind would replaces one piston? I had ordered four new stainless pistons and new seals so all the pistons were replaced, and they are all back in now, bled and working, I’ve added hazard warning lights and tomorrow will be wiring in an indicator beeper as I can’t hear the flasher unit going and the warning light is small and dull so I keep on driving around with an indicator going…. not a good idea but at least they work! So I'm taking the car out for local runs while maintaining social distancing to bed everything down and shake out any more problems. So far so good, she is behaving herself, and looking really rather nice in the sunshine.

And here she is parked up in picturesque Hartley Wintney - shame about the pet shop sigh!

Anyway, keep safe everyone.