Lotus 2004 ELISE Service Notes page 212

Lotus Service Notes
Steering rack
assembly
To Remove/Replace Steering Assembly
1. Remove the nut securing each track rod end to the steering arm, and use a ball joint splitter to separate
the joint.
2. From inside the footwell, match mark the pinion shaft against the u/j yoke to aid steering wheel alignment
on re-assembly, and remove the pinch bolt.
3. From inside the footwell, remove the two M8 and M10 bolts securing the rack housing.
4. Draw the housing forwards to disengage the intermediate shaft u/j, and manoeuvre the assembly out of
the chassis crossmember.
5. On re-assembly, check that the correct rack height setting plate is fitted. For the standard ride height of
130/130 or 135/135, the '6 notch' plate A111H0017 should be fitted. Fitment of the wrong plate (identified
by the number of notches in the vertical edges) will result in an incorrect bump steer characteristic and
degraded handling. The plate is secured to the chassis by a single pop rivet.
6. Feed the rack assembly into the chassis crossmember and engage the pinion shaft into the lower u/j with
the match marks aligned. If a new assembly is being fitted, follow the 'Steering Wheel Alignment' proce-
dure in sub-section HG.2.
7. New fixing bolts for the steering rack housing are precoated with thread locking compound. If existing
bolts are to be re-used, wire brush the threads before re-applying a suitable thread locking compound and
torque tightening the M8 bolts to 22.5 Nm, and the M10 bolts to 45 Nm.
Steel reinforcement channel (bonded)
Height setting plate
Section HG
M10 fixing bolt
M8 fixing bolt
Pop rivet
Chassis
crossmember
h54
Page 11