Lotus Elan and Lotus Elan Plus 2 Forums

mac5777 wrote:Hi all,
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Pictures of the tools and my elan with the new stripe.

Thanks, Sarto

Sarto:

I lust after your FHC! To me, everything an Elan should be. Very much like the first I saw at 16 in Springfield, Massachusetts. That one was an S2.
GP

Seaandmoor,
I had sold out of the three eared spinner tool and now have them available again. I have taken a little off the tips to see if they will work with the alloys. It still seems hard to believe that there are no rings or shims that protect the softer alloy wheels from the hard spinners. Have you found a solution yet on the spacer or rings?

Sarto

Oh Hi again Sarto,
Thanks for your interest.
I'm not sure if I've quite got a full solution yet... I've got one trashed wheel unfortunately but the bright side is I'm able to practice on it!
The response to email and telephone enquiries in this country is enough to drive one round the bend - one has to ring many times and no-one ever calls you back; a real british disease.
Any way, I haven't actually got any additional (or thicker) thrust rings yet but it is looking as though I might in the very near future and I'll try those and let you know how they go.
Otherwise I've made some small 'adjustments' to the spinner tool since I last emailed you which is certainly an improvement - together with a changing the thrust rings (when I receive them) this should give a safe clearance between the tool and the wheel spokes.
I'll take some photos of what I've done and post them after the weekend as I'm very busy work wise at the moment and the weather is awful over here.
cheers Seaandmoor

I had the same problem, and Sarto now has a shallower version that he sent me. It now works fine without scratching the spokes on the Lotus alloys...

Hi guys,

That's a most interesting tool you made.
Myself I've been using this wooden tool, that's available off the shelf,
for the 2 eared lock nuts.
Been thinking about making a 3 eared one for the Elan.
It's about an inch thick plywood that is used as a material

Hi Leo, I already tried to make a wood three eared spinner removal tool.
My panasport wheels did not have the room or clearance to make it work. And I still had to beat the spinners on/off Not knowing if I just beat on to much torque or not enough. By using a socket and a torque wrench or a breaker bar I could control the tightness. This thread has a closeup picture of my panasports showing how close the spinner comes to the wheel.
Try hitting this Jaguar spinner with a hammer with one ear up near the body and the other ear down in the mud some late night. Hard to get the right torque and get a good swing without damaging something. But with a 1 inch socket and a breaker bar it is easy to stay in a good leverage angle.
If you can design one that works, please post it. New ideas are always welcome.

Sarto

Hi, I recently purchased 4 of the lotus alloys (plus 2), but one is a spare and as such is slightly different, but If anyone out there has one to sell I would be very happy to hear form you.
Thanks
Glen

Well, I thought I'd jump on this resurrected thread and ask Sarto if there's a similar tool in the works for the Hex nuts with Panasports. Its a similar situation with the spokes. The leveraging tool for removal of the nut needs to be bent to clear the spokes, but then leverage is lost. And easy to slip off the nut and nick a spoke.
Thanks,
Greg Z
'72 Sprint

Hi Greg,
Ray at R.D.Enterprises http://www.rdent.com/ has one in his tool section. I can see why it might hit the panasports wheels. He also sells the panasports and he might know if his hex nut tool will work on them.
I thought of making a tool that would not have a metal to metal contact to no avail. It seems like it could slip off easily under torque. It would have to have a double bend real close to the hex part to off set the arm, missing the spokes. But it would still have a metal to metal contact and still might slip off. In my option it was a stupid US safety idea that the spinner ears would hurt someone that close to a spinning wheel going down the road. Maybe someone has the real reason for the hex nut requirement.
Here is my two eared solution for the Elites type 14s and MGs Triumphs and others and the larger Jaguar sizes that works well with the green older jaguar pictured in my earlier post. I believe Ray at R.D. Enterrises will be handling them soon. Ray also handles my Elan spinner tool and you can see pictures in the Business and vendor listings for $130.00 US and 63.75 GBP Can you believe the Dollar?

Sarto

Thanks Sarto. Yes, I'm sure that tool will hit the spokes. I've a couple of variations of the tool and they both give problems. However, I plan on cutting one up for a prototype I have in mind, sometime in the future.

Thanks,
Greg Z

Greg,
PM me, I have an idea that will work for you and not hit the spokes and still get a good torque angle and a possible method to protect the chrome.
Lets talk before you cut one up.

Sarto

Hello
I've been thinking about buying one of Sarto's tools and he's not sure whether the tool works with a standard Lotus Alloy the type used on late 130/4 & 130/5 cars such as mine
Has anyone any experience on using the tool on this type of wheel?
Thanks

Terry

Hi Terry and all lotus 10 spoke alloy users. This weekend at Mike Ostrov's tech session, I was finally shown a Lotus alloy wheel. Mike and I were amazed that it did not have any hard protective rings.
A few points
the alloy surface was flat, not beveled.
the spinners are beveled and since the wheel at Mike's did not show any damage from the spinner, a flat spacer that was beveled to match the spinner makes sense.
Must mean that either the spinners for that wheel are made with a flat surface like the two eared type spinners or a spacer or ring was designed to fit our three eared spinners. Here are some photos of my Panasport wheel and its center shaped hardened metal that matches our spinners. I used an old spinner to set up a system to pre-torque the leather into shape. Notice the spinner matches the Panasport's center. Without a spacer on the alloys the spinner will only hit on a small cutting edge of the spinner and will not have adequate surface to spread the torque to the wheel. It is hard to believe that the manufacturer did not supply a matching spacer to fit our Elan spinners. Otherwise, over time, the harder spinner will eat at the softer alloy and not hold its torque.
Terry let me know what your spinners look like for your wheels. Maybe a spacers, not built into the wheel, came separate with the wheels and over the years, lost.
Thanks for any input.

Sarto

PS Another type wheel that was shown by corserrep--maybe the spacer will work on the our alloys

Hi Sarto,
NOW you see our problem!

All our spinners are bevelled just like the one in your photo BUT none of us have the spacer as shown in your Panasport photo.

Accordingly the reason why the tool grinds on the 10 spokes before it is torqued up. Someone needs to come up with a machined spacer that fits inside the Lotus 10 spoke alloy wheel which will set the spinner (and the tool) away from the spokes.

Anyone?
Thanks and best regards,
Seaandmoor

Hello again, Seaandmoor
The spacer need not be built into the wheel as it would self center as the spinner tightens and will match the shape of our spinners. Someone should make up the rings. It should not be a big deal or even costly. It seems like a must, even if my tool is not used, the cutting edge of the spinner against the alloy's flat surface should be corrected.

Good to hear from you again. If a spacer can be developed or located that corrects the problem, PM me and I'll get you back to square one again.
Sarto