Tor asked:
>Could anyone please tell me what you found out about alternate
>transmission for the Elan. (It was Rod who recomended me to ask questions
>about such things here, after I posted a message to the Lotus-cars list
>about suitable 5 speed gearboxes)
Obviously, we need a FAQ on this subject! Any volunteers? ;-)
Tor, there is much information available about this, in the chapman-era
archives. Read on, for information on how to recover these files:
> I'm sure that y'all are wondering how to actually use this message
> archive. Well, it goes something like this:
> Step 1: Send a message to Majordomo@autox.team.net with:
> index chapman-era
> in the body of the message.
> You will soon receive email back from autox.team.net, with something
> like this in the message body:
> >>>> index chapman-era total 62 -rw-rw---- 1 root mailadmin
> 31340 Feb 12 06:37 chapman-era.archive.9702 >>>>
> chapman-era.archive.9702 is just a file name, of one of the
> chapman-era archive files. (Later on, there will be many files in
> this list... when I sent my index request, there was only one.)
> Step 2: Send a message to Majordomo@autox.team.net with:
> get chapman-era chapman-era.archive.9702
> in the body of the message.
> In case it isn't obvious, the syntax of the above command is just:
> get (list) (filename)
> "chapman-era" appears twice in this command, because it is both the
> name of the list, and the first part of the name of the file.
> You will soon receive email back from autox.team.net, with this:
> >>>> get chapman-era chapman-era.archive.9702 List 'chapman-era' file
> 'chapman-era.archive.9702' is being sent as a separate message. >>>>
> Next, you will receive another email from autox.team.net, with the
> text of that archive file. It may be quite long, and if your mail
> server has a message length limitation (as mine does), it will
> probably convert the thing to an attachment.
> Et voila!
Meanwhile, as a quick blurb on 5-speed Elan 'boxes, here's a copy of an
old message that was posted to Lotus Cars many moons ago:
> There seem to be a lot of people around the world interested in Elan
> 5-speed conversions. The cat's meow, WRT originality and "heritage",
> would (I think) be the Jack Knight three rail 5 speed, but they are
> now, apparently, unobtanium. Recently, I've found myself wondering
> if Jack Knight would do a small run of these things. If someone
> approached him, politely (translation: with cash money in hand)
> requesting an order for 5 or 10 of them, would he bite? I don't know
> whether the original tooling still exists. There *would* seem to be
> an aspect of "from the frying pan into the fire" here, though, with
> regard to long term maintainability.
> Spydersport have a ZF 5-speed conversion they have been selling to
> customers using Spyder Elan frames. I have seen pictures of this. It
> is truly an elegant looking installation. I still want to find out
> what donor vehicle this comes from. Someone here suggested the
> Bedford CF van, a while back, but I really have no idea whether this
> is correct.
> There is a surprisingly long list of *other* 5 speed transplant
> surgeries that people have performed on Elans, with varying degrees
> of success, including using the Ford T9, the Toyota T50, and
> (according to an unconfirmed rumor) an Alfa Romeo 'box. The
> all-alloy 5-speed out of the Alfa GTA has a superb set of ratios, and
> I've often wondered whether it would fit. There has even been mention
> made of the possibility of fitting the 5 speed out of the original
> Datsun roadster.
> My tentative, and highly personal, conclusion is that the Toyota T50
> may be the best compromise available, for us here in the States. It
> has an alloy case, is readily available (and dirt cheap) from the
> Japanese market engine importers, has an acceptable length from
> bellhousing to shift lever (within 2 inches of stock) if you can find
> the short tail housing, and has close ratio gear sets available, from
> about three manufacturers.
> There is, of course, always the +2S 130 5 speed, as well. This is
> certainly the easiest swap to obtain the correct bellhousing for,
> other than the Jack Knight three rail!
Tor, let us know if you are interested in researching one or more of
these items... I'm still trying to drum up interest in creating dossiers
on each of these various 5 speed gearbox options.
Regards,
Erik Berg
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