Lotus Elise S1 Service Notes page 55

Section BN
BN.7 - DOOR BEAM & HINGE
The door shell is bolted to a hollow section extruded aluminium alloy door beam, hinged at the front end
to the 'B' post, and carrying the door latch mechanism, via a bracket, at its rear end. The front end of the door
beam is welded to a second extrusion, which together with a pair of steel bushes, forms the rotor of the door
hinge. The hinge stator (or hinge bracket) is bolted to an outrigger on the chassis and houses two maintenance
free plastic bearings inside of which the rotor bushes pivot.
Door hinge adjustments
i)
ii)
In order to provide for adjustment of door shutlines, the door hinge may be adjusted in two ways:
Height of the hinge, its fore/aft position, and the pivot axis angle (to control the front/rear height align-
ment) may be adjusted after slackening the hinge bracket fixing bolts. The tapping plates for these bolts
are linked in vertical pairs and are captive, but loose, within the chassis outrigger, and allow for some
vertical movement. Horizontally slotted fixing holes in the hinge bracket allow for fore/aft movement.
Slotted shim plates fitted between the hinge bracket and chassis, allow the in/out door front edge align-
ment to be adjusted in steps of 1mm, and by varying the shim pack at the top and bottom pairs of fixings,
the vertical alignment, as viewed from the front, may be adjusted.
Chassis
outrigger
Door
restraint
Hinge bracket (stator)
Door beam/hinge rotor
I T CH
Ensure that the clamping load of the hinge bracket to the chassis is not corrupted by the shim plates
bearing against the body. If the surrounding body stands proud of the chassis door hinge outrigger, use a
suitably cut down shim plate to act as a spacer between the chassis and the adjustment shim pack or hinge
bracket.
Door beam pivot bearings
The door beam hinge uses two self lubricating plastic 'top hat' section thin wall bearings, pressed into the
hinge stator bracket. Inside each bearing, is fitted a 'top hat' section steel rotor bush, clamped to the door
beam extension by an M10 cap head screw threaded into the door beam.
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