Hello from a Lotus virgin

[Naildriver]

Hi. I've just acquired a 1971 TC, despite being 6'5"....but flexible. Being a renowned idiot, I tried to drive to Spa for the Classic. Got just the other side of Calais and the left rear bearing exploded a bit. At the same time, the handbrake umbrella came off in my hand....but it was fun while it lasted. So first question to you wise folk is: how do I re-attach the ball ended handbrake cable to the shaft of the handbrake handle? I can see that it locates in the shaped socket, but this is enclosed within the support tube. I'm sure I'm being an idiot, as previously mentioned, but please enlighten me!

Fell in love with a white Europa back in the early 70's and had to have one when I saw what a very nice German chap could make his do round Spa. Have several Allards, a Sunbeam Alpine and an A40 Farina, so slightly warped. Looking forward to learning about these great cars. Thanks for listening. Chris.

[4129R]

 

I will have a look at the hand brake mechanism to see what attaches to what, and how.

Can we see a photo of your T/C please, and know the chassis number?

6'5" !!! How the hell do you fit in, and get your feet to only hit one pedal at a time?

[jjbunn]

 

[Bainford]

  Welcome to the forum, Chris. We would love to see some pics of your Europa. Sorry to hear your road trip didn't pan out, but I can attest to what a great road trip car these are for the driving enthusiast. I drive mine whenever I can, and multi-day oad trips are my favorite. BTW, there is another member of the forum who is a 6'5" Europa owner (also named Chris, cooincidentally), though he is also the youngest member and therefore more supple than most. You must find it a bit of a squeeze.

Good luck with the repairs and getting the Europa back on the road. Keep us posted and let us know how you make out. Cheers

[BDA]

  Thank goodness you're flexible, Naildriver!

Ij I'm reading you correctly, something has given way inside the umbrella part of the handbrake mechanism in which case, you'll have to take it off and inspect it. Maybe this picture will help with that.

[StrawberryCheesecake]

Hi Chris - welcome!

I'm fairly new here, and also just bought my first Lotus. A mate of my dad had one on the 1970s and I've always wanted one really. It was the first car I was ever taller than. I'm not 6'5" by a good way, but I expect getting in and out of the thing to be tricky - I owned and rebuilt a Mini Marcos in the early '90s and used to roll myself out of that with my hand on the sill - half falling, half vaulting out. I'm a couple of stone heavier and a lot less bendy now

I digress... the natives round here seem to be friendly, so hopefully you'll enjoy the stay. I've picked up a workshop manual with the car, and the Twin Cam supplement from ebay, which seem to be well written with lots of cool old school drawings.

You can access online versions of the manuals on the home page, in case you haven't found them.
http://www.lotuseuropa.org

[EuropatcSPECIAL]

Hello and Welcome Chris. This forum is the best place to be. There is always someone who knows something. Lets have some pics please. The two Europa's that I had in the seventies are still both registered according to DVLA but don't know their whereabouts. Have fun
all the best
Stuart
 

[blasterdad]

 
At least you got to drive it, it will be a while before we get to drive ours for the first time...
And yes we love pics! Welcome. 

[Naildriver]

Well you asked for a photo, and this is the only one I've got! Not too flattering....

Thanks for the welcome and diagram. Took the handbrake uniy off and it went back together fine. Apologies for what must have been a tough of late night garage fatigue.

Now to get that rear hub nut off....

[jbcollier]

Read the manual carefully!  There is a specific locking compound to be used on the splines and it is extremely important you do so.  Use new hardened spacers. Do not over torque the axle nut.

[Naildriver]

So I now have the hub off.....I've just looked at the driveshaft at the gearbox end, looking for a pin to drift out. There appears now to be a threaded grub screw rather than a pin...is this a later upgrade? I can see that the hole behind the screw has marks that would indicate inaccurate drifting in the past. It looks like a 3mm hex grub. Can anyone shed any light? Thanks in anticipation.

[BDA]

From your description, it sounds like there is a grub screw (or 'set screw' as we say in the States) that tightens the u-joint to the tranny output shaft? That's very strange and certainly not a factory upgrade nor any "great idea" I'm aware of. The only use for that I can think of is that the u-joint has to be tight against the tranny. It is shimmed between the tranny and the u-joint so maybe he was using the set screw to maintain a firm 'set'. Even with that, there should be a roll pin through the u-joint and output shaft. I would go back to the stock setup.

The rear bearings are a weak point, but I heard more recently that the situation was pretty much fixed on the TC. The one thing you should make sure you have is a set of hardened spacers that go over the stub axle between the two bearing in the upright.

The half-shaft is not hardened (as it should have been). When you were talking about a set screw, I was wondering if your previous owner did what a machine shop guy did for me. After we assembled the upright and stub axle assembly, rather than use the D-washer and bend the washer up to lock the nut, he drilled an axial hole through the threads of the nut and the half shaft, tapped it and loctited a set screw in there. That nut is NOT coming loose.

There is a guy on ebay who makes an upgrade that uses hardened steel for the half shafts. It's not cheap, and I understand it takes a while to get them made, but it might be something to consider. There are also plans for modifying other half shafts (I think one is from a BMW, but you can find more about that here: http://lotus-europa.com/manuals/). For the record, I'm using my stock TC stub axles.

Good luck and if you get a chance, give us a picture of what you're describing in case I misunderstood you.

[EuropaTC]

As BDA says, a set screw isn't a later upgrade but just a modification by someone in the past.  The roll pin which should be there goes right through both sides of the UJ carrier and output shaft from the gearbox and if you've got the correct size then it certainly isn't going to fall out on it's own.

Before you pull it all apart, it's worth checking that the output shaft/driveshaft is shimmed properly so just grab the driveshaft and look for any movement at all at the gearbox end. You're looking for "in/out" movement and in practice there shouldn't be any. If it is solid, then make a note of any shims as you pull it apart. I usually pull them off and use a zip tie through the gearbox shaft hole to hold them and make sure I don't mix up between sides.

The roll pins aren't transmitting drive just holding the driveshaft firmly against the shims/gearbox bearings. The original ones on my car were an assembly of 2 pins, a small inner pin which expanded the outer one as you drove it in, and required a stepped punch to remove it. The later replacement was a single roll pin and the ones I have in now are just single pins.

When you come to put it all back together, on my car the UJ/output shaft will only go on one way to get a perfect alignment of the holes in both components, it's the way the splines are arranged. One way you get the full hole but if you assemble 180deg round from this you can only get a part hole. You can bash away at the pin to your heart's content but it don't go in....  ask me how I know 

Brian