Elan S4 Saggind Doors

[ianclarets]

HI CAN ANY BODY HELP PLEASE i am new to lotus owning and trying to find information on replacing/repairing the cup bobbin in the drivers door sill causing movement up/down in the door. on strip down on the door i have found that the cup bobbin is worn in the sill but thy nylon ball in good order. i know mick miller stocks the cup bobbins but not sure how to tackle the job in hand any advice please THANK YOU IAN

[types26/36]

Ian,
Go on to the mailing list of elan.net and search the archives starting with message 21441 this has been discussed a few times.
Brian

[worzel]

Hi

I can only tell you how I tackled this- others may disagree with my approach.

Since you have to cut out the worn bobbin you need to ensure that the replacement ends up where the original is. I simply stuck masking tape on 4 sides of the bobbin and drew a line along the vertical and one on the horizontal- the cross ending up exactly in the middle of the bobbin.

Cut out the bobbin and clean up the underside of the sill to give a good key for the fibreglass. Feather out the edges of the hole on the upper surface for about one inch or so. What I did next was to take the new bobbin and laminate a collar of fibreglass about one eigth inch thick all round it to give something to sit against the underside of the sill.

Next I used fibreglass bridging compound (you have to be quick using this because it sets rapidly in warm temperatures), applied a skim under the sill, spread a thickish layer over the upper surface of the "collar" of fibreglass on the bobbin and using a suitable wedge under it held it in the correct position with reference to the masking tape.

Once set start bonding properly- clean up both sides of the bobbin- and build up the layers underneath using conventional one inch matting- to cover about one/one and a half inches around the bobbin. Once set then you can finish off the upper surface neatly. Fiddly job but not rocket science. Leave for a couple of hours before refitting the door.

Hope this helps.

John

[bvt]

I have seen a temp repair.....
grinding out the bobbin socket hole a bit to rough it up and filling with plastic metal and an impression put in it with a nylon bit that it fits perfect when the plastic metal goes off...
that was the general gist but only as a temp repair as the guy didn't want to pain teh sills.

would obviously wear out again but he deemed that the car was only going to do 1500 mile sa year so the doors would not be used much.

[elandoc]

Hi
I had my passenger door fall off. It turned out my navigator was using it to lever herself out! I did a quick repair by packing out the nylon ball adjuster with washers. So far, it's stayed rock solid - better than before with no play.
Patrick