Lotus 2004 Eleven Service Notes page 112

Lotus Service Notes
- Top ball joint plinth fixing bolts:
The bolts securing the top ball joint plinth to the hub carrier were upgraded in March '04 at VIN serial number
1537 (approx.) in order to commonise with motorsport applications. Earlier type 8.8 grade bolts should
be tightened to 45 Nm; Later 10.9 grade bolts to 68 Nm. The bolt grade is stamped around the head of
the bolt. The thread of both bolt types should first be treated with Permabond A130 (A912E7033V).
- Lubricate the ends of the damper top eye bush with rubber grease.
- Tab washers are used for the bolt head of the lower wishbone forward pivot, and on both top wishbone
pivots. In each case, ensure that one end of the tab washer is folded around the chassis edge, and after
torque tightening the fixing, form the other end of the washer against the flats of the bolt head or nut. In
July '05, the thickness of the tab washer was increased from 1.2mm to 1.5mm.
- If the lower wishbone front pivot brackets have been removed from the chassis, ensure that a spacer
is fitted on each of the four bolts securing each bracket, in order to allow the required bolt stretch to be
achieved.
Left hand bracket viewed from rear
Chassis
Wishbone pivot
bracket
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- Note that on previous Elise models, there have been several variants of the toe-link inboard ball joint. The
correct joint for 2005 model year onwards has a ball pin thread pitch of 1.25mm (vs. 1.5mm). The flats
on the ball pin should be aligned with the channel in the subframe hardened insert. Note that the inboard
joint has a LH thread into the toe-link tube, and the outboard joint a RH thread into the toe-link tube with
a taper shank ball pin to fit into the hub carrier.
Rear subframe
crossmember
Page 8
Hardened insert
Align ball joint flats
with insert channel
Section DH
Spacer tubes
This bolt inverted for
parking brake cable
clearance
Toe-link ball joint
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