inboard brakes

[JamesBond]

real quick, i have an 87 esprit.. can you or have you herd of swapping out newer trailing arms to convert ther earlier inboard brakes to outboard??

thanks

Craig

[arium]

Interesting question.....

Assuming you are planning on changing out the citroen to the UN-1; would you not also need to change out the entire hub assembly, halfshafts and brakes and wheels?

The 1987 halfshafts, hubs and other kit will not be of much use on the newer outboard rear discs and hub carriers. I surmise your reasoning for this is that you either wish to upgrade your transaxle or wheels. I think you'll need to do both plus quite a bit more.

Steve

P.S. I thought you drove a Vanquish these days?

[JamesBond]

Yea the Vanquish had a dead battery and well I havent pulled out the esprit in a while... Yea I was ok with swapping everything out, I guess my biggest question is bolting or minimal fab on trying to get newer trailing arms to fit my car, this question could really justify my intelligence due to the fact that I dont know what the newer ones look like.. oh well I will ask any way

thanks for the reply


Craig

[roy 3785]

the trailing arms are stronger and have holes/brackets for the handbrake cable and swap over.bottom link is the same. top link/hub/brakes/driveshafts all different. wheel offset different as is bolt spacing so front hubs need changing so you can use the same wheels all round.i got all the parts as i needed the stronger gearbox for new engine.

Roy

[JamesBond]

this is in the right direction, so basicily the trailing arms bolt in up front and I will have to fab a top link as well as use the hubs/brakes off a newer car.. I will make new driveshafts. This is Great!!! what kind of motor did you upgrade to??

thanks for the info!

Craig

[roy 3785]

later top links fit, better to use adjustable top links for larger tyres.i have 84 turbo so all the front end has to change as well.its not the same as 85 on.engine will be the same as i have just put in my 88 stevens car which is yb cosworth.

Roy

[Esprit2]

With regards to the upper arms. The later OEM parts for the Renault gearbox Esprits will swap in along with the rest of the complete suspension package. The Lotus adjustable arms cost something like (?) $400/ pair.

A friend and I worked with a well known street rod chassis supplier to fabricate adjustable upper links for Esprits. The idea was to come up with a less expensive alternative to OEM parts for earlier Turbos without adjustable rear suspension. Two versions... shorter for Citroen, longer for Renault. The end result sells for about half of OEM... including bushings installed. Plug-n-play.

I'm an engineer and played with the design because I enjoy that sort of thing. When the design phase was over, I moved on. But Dave has kept his fingers in the project and continues to provide adjustable upper arms to friends and folk on the various mailing lists as word-of-mouth advertising sends contacts his way. Or if you buy the aftermarket adjustable links from JAE, they're ours. "These is those."

If you're interested, contact me offline and I'll introduce you to Dave. I have no financial interest. Dave just covers his costs. This isn't a commercial venture, just Lotus guys helping Lotus guys. A couple of people on this board are running these arms.

Regards,
Tim Engel