Sorted my steering at last!

General General Lotus Talk
1

For anyone who’s interested, here’s the conclusion:

The play in my steering was in the UJs. No surprise there, but the weird thing is that despite replacing them with brand new items, the play wasn’t eliminated until Nick Whale’s went out and found me some high tensile bolts so they could do them up REALLY tight without stripping the threads.

The actual knocking noise was coming from the quick release kit. There was no play in the hub in the direction of steering, but as it is secured on two pins that come in from the sides, it allowed the wheel to pivot slightly up and down.

The knocking wasn’t noticable when fitted with a Momo steering wheel, but with a Reverie carbon wheel, it was really pronounced.
I’ve replaced the quick release kit with a simple Momo hub adaptor. It does the job, but it’s quite ugly. Can anybody recommend a good alternative?

I’ve also discovered that there is a fault with my Reverie steering wheel. It’s got a buit-in knocking noise There actually seems to be something loose inside the hollow rim. Well what do you expect for 500 notes
Reverie have offered to sort this out for me even though it’s over a year old. Nice one

2

Brendan

Glad its sorted - but not good about the UJ’s - that suggests that they are too large in the bore if you have to clamp them so tight

3

I know. Not impressed with that, but I don’t want to mess any more. ‘If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ seems to apply in this case. Besides, I’ve spent a f***ing fortune already.

4

Good news for us both - you got it sorted, I won’t have to ask too many awkward questions when you try to flog it to me

5

Hey, don’t forget I only said my car might be for sale in a few months.
I’m still rather attached to it so it might not be going anywhere

6

The actual knocking noise was coming from the quick release kit.

Brendan, I don’t want to say I t…

Glad you got it sorted! When mine was doing it it was driving me nuts!

Ian

7

I know, you told me so
I really thought the knocking was related to the play in the steering. I needed to eliminate that first.

What did you replace your quick release kit with?

8

Same as was on it originally - see here. Just don’t do the nuts up too tight, you can strip them.

The Parts manager (Chris Stewart) is a very nice chap, been there years and loves Loti.

Ian

9

I replaced my OMP wheel adapter with a hub machined from a solid piece of alloy.Looks much neater.

10

I don’t think I’ll bother with another quick release hub, it’s just a potential weakness.
Where did you get your alloy hub, Ducatiman?