Lotus Elan and Lotus Elan Plus 2 Forums

Hello,

Looking for information on a quick release steering wheel for the Elan S4. My friend with bad knees is having a hard time getting in and out of his car. Once he is in the seat he has no problems driving the car. I thought a quick release wheel would be the answer. He was an SCCA driver for years so a quick release wheel would make him feel at home. If the hub moved the wheel back a bit that would be ok. He has owned the Elan since 1970 so it would be a shame for him to not be able to drive it. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Wayne

Most venders who supply the racing community have a sleeve and a removable hub to accommodate a removable steering wheel. They do require some welding of the sleeve to the steering shaft, which may require some modifications if he wishes to retain the covering between the dash and the wheel. One thing for sure, only purchase the splined sleeve style. The cheaper hex sleeves usually have a lot of slop between the wheel and the shaft.

Wayne,

I had a snap off steering wheel adaptor on a previous car. I don't know if one is available that fits an Elan, but as the steering column is from aTriumph you might be able to find something.

Richard Hawkins

Wayne,

I have a quick release adaptor on a couple of my cars purchased from Gary Schroeder (Schroedersteering.com). They use a bolt on multi-spline male unit on the steering shaft with a quick release female unit for the steering wheel mount. The multi spline design makes for a very nice tight fit, much better than a simple six sided design I tried earlier.

Schroeder's quick release adaptor is designed for a standard 3 bolt after market steering wheel. To fit my preferred wheel, which is a 6 bolt design, I had a machine shop make an adaptor from 1/2" thick aluminum (visible in the 1rst and 3rd photo).

I've attached a drawing of the Elan column which you may find useful when searching for a quick release should you not go with Schroeder. Elan column is 5/8" diameter 36 spline.

Try Caterham cars; lot's of the Caterham boys use them and I'm sure the Caterham uses a Triumph column.

In fact,here:

https://www.demon-tweeks.co.uk/Product. ... utm_medium

Jono, The Caterham upper column is shorter than the Triumph item.

Brian.
Edited to add :- Triumph column is 27" long, Caterham is 15 3/4" long.

ncm wrote:Jono, The Caterham upper column is shorter than the Triumph item.

Brian.
Edited to add :- Triumph column is 27" long, Caterham is 15 3/4" long.

OK, you have lost me there (not difficult, I accept). Why does the length of the column have any bearing on the type of quick release than can be used?

I used to buy mine from Rallye Design, they came with a splined slug to weld to the existing steering column (shortened to suit)

I think you can buy wheels that have a flat that you leave at the bottom when getting in or out.
Alan

Hi Steve, if you follow the link to Demon Tweeks in Jono's post you will see that it is for a quick release hub and a matching replacement upper column to fit a Caterham, not an adaptor to fit the original, hence my comment about the respective lengths.

Brian.

ncm wrote:Hi Steve, if you follow the link to Demon Tweeks in Jono's post you will see that it is for a quick release hub and a matching replacement upper column to fit a Caterham, not an adaptor to fit the original, hence my comment about the respective lengths.

Brian.

I have just had a look at Demon Tweeks, and I see that they have a variety of quick release fittings available, one which would appear to take the existing 15" Mota -Lita wheel on my Plus 2

Has anyone fitted one ? Does the horn work, ?

bitsobrits wrote:Wayne,

I have a quick release adaptor on a couple of my cars purchased from Gary Schroeder (Schroedersteering.com). They use a bolt on multi-spline male unit on the steering shaft with a quick release female unit for the steering wheel mount. The multi spline design makes for a very nice tight fit, much better than a simple six sided design I tried earlier.

Schroeder's quick release adaptor is designed for a standard 3 bolt after market steering wheel. To fit my preferred wheel, which is a 6 bolt design, I had a machine shop make an adaptor from 1/2" thick aluminum (visible in the 1rst and 3rd photo).

I've attached a drawing of the Elan column which you may find useful when searching for a quick release should you not go with Schroeder. Elan column is 5/8" diameter 36 spline.

That's quite neat.
I used a Krontec on. The steering column part is welded on. https://www.krontec.de/medien/qr.pdf
Obviously you don't need the full electronic connections.
Worth looking also at B-G stuff. They are well made