The Lotus Grand Tourers

Hi,

A couple of times recently I have been trying to undo bolts attached to the body of my Excel and I hit a problem. When trying to undo the nuts in the boot for the fuel filter mounting and fuel pump, the nut and bolt thread on at least one bolt just spin together. I assume they are held in the body resin, or are they through body and therefore I need to get a spanner in the wheel arch? I am not with the car at the moment and the service manual didn’t seem to show this.

I did use releasing spray before trying. If the head is spinning do you use resin or something else to re-set the head in the body? Any hints for avoiding creating problems with other bolts that might be similarly fixed. Thanks !!

As I remember, the filter housing uses a pair of nut/bolt fixings between the boot and wheel arch. You'll need help or gorilla arms. The pump has a pair of set screws into rivenut type fixings into the fibreglass, you'll probably have to drill/grind the heads off the screws, drill out and replace the rivenut. I don't think there's any way to use a nut/bolt due to lack of access from the axle area.
Don't hold me to this, it was over 20 years since I did mine. Good luck, Jeff.

Yes. Nut an bolt. Help needed to make easy.

the nut and bolt thread on at least one bolt just spin together.

There are plenty of examples on the Excel of a captive nut, but the filter housing isn't one of them. When captive nuts spin together, you need to get creative to resolve, and it's not always the same answer / solution.

One example of an M6 captive is in the rear bumper behind each lens unit. Photo's below show both sides, firstly the "visible "side:


And here's the side where the sun doesn't shine ( bumper is unusual in that you can see this once the lens is removed)


fortunately thes ebolts came out as they are meant to.

I had an example on the central fixing for front bumper where it just spun. Had to drill head off to dismantle.

Tony

LotusMonkey wrote: Mon Aug 16, 2021 00:14 Hi,

A couple of times recently I have been trying to undo bolts attached to the body of my Excel and I hit a problem. When trying to undo the nuts in the boot for the fuel filter mounting and fuel pump, the nut and bolt thread on at least one bolt just spin together. I assume they are held in the body resin, or are they through body and therefore I need to get a spanner in the wheel arch?.

I replaced my fuel filter last year and the bolts come out in the wheel arch. I did it on my own but as Stu says above its easier with 2 people.

Thanks for the input all. On replacing the rivenuts I guess if I have to remove them I can use some kind of fibreglass kit to make sure the replacement rivenut is set well. I'll see how I go!

Duncs

Don't order Rivnuts - you'll get the wrong thing! You need jack nuts (screw anchors). Have a look on Memfast's website - good products/tools.

Pete

I've found Rivnuts ( M5) fine for fixing the lower edge of the rear bumper ( i wanted something which allowed easy removal instead of the factory rivets solution).

A very simple tool lashed up in 10 minutes is all that 's needed to set the nut and they are locking in a treat on the thick fibre glass in the spare wheel well.
M5 work great. I feel M6 would work well also, but I'd probably have second thoughts for M8.
I much prefer them over Jack nuts, which IMO are best left on the shelf in B&Q for plaster board fixings.

Tony

MetBlue wrote: Thu Aug 26, 2021 21:42 I've found Rivnuts ( M5) fine for fixing the lower edge of the rear bumper ( i wanted something which allowed easy removal instead of the factory rivets solution).

A very simple tool lashed up in 10 minutes is all that 's needed to set the nut and they are locking in a treat on the thick fibre glass in the spare wheel well.
M5 work great. I feel M6 would work well also, but I'd probably have second thoughts for M8.
I much prefer them over Jack nuts, which IMO are best left on the shelf in B&Q for plaster board fixings.

Tony

Neat tool - and definitely more practical in smaller spaces that some of the other insertion tools on the market - thanks!

. definitely more practical in smaller spaces that some of the other insertion tools on the market

And a lot cheaper .
The bits I made are only just strong enough for M5, bending slightly at the centre hole when tensioned. I'd suggest using 20mm x 6mm bar. I used 13mm x 5.
Tony

There are other ways as well using double nuts or a link nut - a bit ore compact than Tony's method, but wrecks the bolts used to tighten it all up after installing a few of them. I made up a puller using a thrust washer when building my 7 - over kill for doing a few, and think it also wrecked the bolts....

Neil.