[JWA]

Hi All,

I recently bought a 2007 Elise. It's the 2007.5 version, with the bumperettes, if that is pertinent here. I have noticed that the reverse lockout lever (the round pull-lever below the shift knob) spins freely around the shift lever, stopped only by the shift boot, which is zip-tied to it. It also gets pushed up and down as you move it left and right in the gate. This is different from both my old '05 and tesprit's '05. It just feels a bit off, and it is a bit distracting when it pinches your fingers as you shift.

We looked through it today and the linkage in my new '07 is very different from what is shown in the shop manual that we had. The one in my car has a hollow main shaft with the reverse lockout running down through it, as opposed to the external lockout cable that is shown in the manual. I am assuming that this is a newer style that Lotus must have moved to. The parts list at LotusGarage doesn't show this newer style, however, and I can't find any pics here showing this different style.

So, my question is: is it normal for the reverse lockout lever to be loose/disconnected in this manner on the newer cars? If not, does anyone know what should be stopping it? While I'm at it - does anyone know when this new style was phased in?

Thanks,

--Josh

 

[JWA]

Here are a couple pics of the shift linkage in my car:

 

[tomrev]

While I have an '05, so am not directly speaking to your problem, I did have the same problem with the '05 when I first purchased it. Reverse was super hard to get, and when I opened up the area to see what was going on, realized that the reverse lift ring was not attached to anything. When you pulled up, you were'nt lifting the reverse lockout. I epoxied it on the shift lever, and it was fixed.

 

[tesprit]

Bump for answers to this. Doesn't anyone out there have one of these newer shift levers?

 

[mc21]

Mine spins freely too, and the reverse pull-lever always get stuck in the up position. :sad:

Anyone out there can help? I will be contacting the dealer to look into this under warranty, but would rather figure this one out myself.

 

[JWA]

Mine spins freely too, and the reverse pull-lever always get stuck in the up position. :sad:

Anyone out there can help? I will be contacting the dealer to look into this under warranty, but would rather figure this one out myself.

I don't remember exactly what I did to fix mine, but I know that it involved some irreversible changes to the follower that rides over the reverse lockout ramp, as that was what was causing the up and down movement when shifting. I believe that I fixed the rotation by snippy taping the two pieces together. I also replaced the zip tie with an elastic band. Everything works great now.

 

[mc21]

I have looked and the lockout ramp on newer cars, namely the 240's. Their lockout ramp is different than ours. If I saw out the inner part, I believe the up and down motion of the lever will be eliminated going to first and second. Is that the irreversible change you are talking about

 

[JWA]

I have looked and the lockout ramp on newer cars, namely the 240's. Their lockout ramp is different than ours. If I saw out the inner part, I believe the up and down motion of the lever will be eliminated going to first and second. Is that the irreversible change you are talking about

That's interesting that they may have revised the parts. My up and down motion was when going right to left, not front to back. The way that the follower rides over the ramp, it shouldn't be affected when moving front to back. I used a dremel to trim the finger so that it doesn't hit the ramp on the bottom, just on the side so that the lockout functions properly.

 

[mc21]

Side-to-side going form center to left side is getting the lift. The new shifter does not have the first step.