Wanted

The Oily Bits S2 Specific Topics
1

Broken S2 gear lever - any around at the moment?

2

Are you saying you are after a broken one Pesky??!!! Surely not, why would you want a broken one as apposed to a perfectly good one from a fully functioning S2 Exige. Or perhaps you would like to locate a fully functioning part to replace an errant part on a broken S2 Exige. If so, how on earth could such a situation arise??!

I am confused, do pray tell!

Ian

3

2 gear levers have broken (to my knowledge) on different S2s in the last 3 weeks. By broken, I mean snapped! The lever is welded into a sort of “sleeve” but about 4" of the lever (the bit you can see) extends above the “sleeve”. Metal fatigue affects the lever at the point where the “sleeve” finishes, & hey presto - snaps.

I’m pretty sure I heard of a couple of similar instances with 111R’s last year, but I may be wrong.

It appears, alledgedly, that the factory doesn’t carry a stock of gear levers, so replacements are re-directed from the production line to the dealer to fit under warranty.

Don’t know if there has been a re-design, but…

4

Hate to state the obvious, but… what’s wrong with welding it?

It’s going to be stronger that it was!

5

But it’d be heavier Uldis and the S2 should get all the help it can on that front!

I suspect if they welded it it might set the suede/carpet/pin-strip alight!

Ian

6

Uldis

The gear lever itself is made from much smaller diameter metal than the S1’s, & may even be a different metal (AFAIK the S1 gear lever is honest to goodness steel). By its very design, there will be a lot of pressure at the place where it extends over & above the “sleeve” into which it is welded. Both the lever & sleeve move with each gear change, & engaging 2nd, 4th & 6th gears, in particular, will expose the lever to potential fatigue. Wish I’d taken a photo, which would easily clarify the point I’m trying to explain

7

But it’d be heavier Uldis and the S2 should get all the help it can on that front!


Ian

Sounds like fighting talk to me…

8

[quoteSounds like fighting talk to me… [/quote]

Woo there big guy, I ain’t picking a fight with an S2, I’d lose!

Ian

9

[image]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v629/Uldis/thisthreadisworthlesswithoutpics.gif[/image]

10

LOvL!

11

seems this has also happened to USA cars as well
as shown by the pics in this thread.
something mentioned about a new improved design

12

Many thanks Yahoo - a picture says more than a thousand words

13

b&c report having seen this problem 3 times on the s2 exige… Lotus appear to report ‘over enthusiastic’ gear changing as the common cause i.e. all the examples they’ve seen have happened while on track - can anyone disprove this?

14

So, you CAN weld it, and is going to be much stronger than stock…

What’s the issue then?

15

I believe that the pics in the thread above, & that thread itself, say it all! It’s a bad design, using poor quality metal, & the lever should not break fullstop. “Over enthusiastic gear changing”, what a load of tosh!

16

So, it’s the concept only…

17

You’ve lost me there, Uldissimo.

18

So, you CAN weld it, and is going to be much stronger than stock…

What’s the issue then?

Why weld what appears to be a substandard metal - certainly the weld will hold but then the metal will just break at the next weakest point…the only real answer would be to weld a support/splint up the full length of the shaft and that would hardly look good

19

Hmmm, from what I saw the rod is not broken, the problem is that it’s only held by about 1cm of weld.
That rod should have been welded on both sides minimum, or a plate fited on top, but the substandard thing for me is the weld.

Actually, the whole rod is ugly as well, better go for a B&M, but I guess you would have done that already, before looking for another original one.

My point is, I wouldn’t wait without the car just because of that.
I would cahnge the substandard part for something much better.
Or if I wanted to keep the original, then I would do something that would last, which is a good weld.

Unless I’m getting it all wrong and it’s the rod itself that broke and not the weld.




Then I would just change the car for an S1

20

Unless I’m getting it all wrong and it’s the rod itself that broke and not the weld.

Uldis, afraid it’s the rod itself which has broken ie sheared. The first 2 photos show a) the section of gear lever which has sheared from the mechanism b) the mechanism without the sheared off gear lever. Total crap material used to make the gear lever