Lotus Elan and Lotus Elan Plus 2 Forums

The sun is shining; the weather is great - but I?m stuck in the garage. Fortunately a quick check over the car and the brakes before my MOT this morning discovered a small issue.
Hopefully back on the road soon
Dave

This might help.I remove the bands and fit the jubilee clips before fitting so the holes line up perfectly.
Lots of copperslip on the bolts
Jack under chapman strut to keep driveshaft as horizontal as possible.
Alan

Of all the jobs I have completed on my elan , changing the donuts was the worst , second time around I fitted TTR solid driveshafts a doddle by comparison , I?d suggest that route.

Steve

Absolutely agree. I waited until i'd gone through about 5 sets before opting for solid drive shafts.

Best mod made along with a 61 amp battery.

Maybe once we've left the EU and not tied down to regulation, we can manufacture the couplings to the original and longer lasting specification. Jim

i dont think the basements in China or wherever gluing chunks of recycled dildos to scraps of metal are that concerned about EU regulations.

Chancer wrote:i dont think the basements in China or wherever gluing chunks of recycled dildos to scraps of metal are that concerned about EU regulations.

Will be if they sit on the shelves.

There was someone here working on a replacement. My search has failed. Never heard if it was successful.

JimE wrote:Maybe once we've left the EU and not tied down to regulation, we can manufacture the couplings to the original and longer lasting specification. Jim

You could upset people saying things like that
Alan

Fred Talmadge wrote:There was someone here working on a replacement. My search has failed. Never heard if it was successful.

It was never ever going to be sucessfull, the person thought that all he needed to do was find the right adhesive.

Its not an EU or H&S thing, its just plain economics and economies of scale and the absolute lack of any care by the remanufacturers and the sellers of said remanufactured rubber to metal bonded items (of which mahy are just glued) that the item should function, just that it will sell and fit the vehicle to avoid returns.

My 17 year old EU built vehicle has 400000kms on the clock and every single rubber to metal bonded bush is still functioning as it should, all the rubber door seals as good as new, all the plastic trim even the sun exposed dash panel is like new. Compare that to the suspension bushes in the day like McPherson strut top mounts, anti-roll bar and suspension bushes that would often need replacing before the first MOT and that was with at the time state of the art manufacturing, my father ran the mould shop and my mother the personnel department of the UK's number 1 supplier to the motor industry.

Modern factories are capable of far better than the original standard whilst meeting all EU and H&S standards and producing parts that cost less today than they did 40 years ago, most of our daily drive vehicles are testemant to that.

Its some the reproduction stuff that is the problem, or in the case of drive shaft donuts and door seals all of them

alan.barker wrote:

JimE wrote:Maybe once we've left the EU and not tied down to regulation, we can manufacture the couplings to the original and longer lasting specification. Jim

You could upset people saying things like that
Alan

I'm simply suggesting there are better ways to save the planet.

Any recommendations on the best place to get hold of a replacement? I was looking at
PM?s or SJS?s, not sure who else stocks them and the quality of the product?
Dave

Dave,
i know Miles Wilkins has closed his Garage but i think he is still supplying parts.
If you can buy some from him they might be NOS
Alan

Hi Dave,
I fitted CV drive shafts recently and have the removed Rotoflex joints available.
You may have two of these if you wish.
They have no signs of deterioration that I can find and have a set of jubilee clips fitted on one.
I will be happy if you pay me the postage, about ?5.00 by Hermes, and if you are satisfied then a contribution to help run this forum would be sufficient.
They were on the car when I bought it in 2011 but had not been used on the road.
The restoration of the car was started in 2006.
I put the car on the road in 2011 and they have done about 7000 miles since.
The other two have small cracks and delaminations showing but were still usable when I decided to replace the shafts.
If you are interested then send me delivery details by PM
Eric in Burnley
1967 S3SE DHC

We are using guibo couplings on formula cars making more than 170lb/ft of torque. They require spacers, but fit well. They will take the torque our engines produce. There were previous discussions about them.

http://www.lotuselan.net/forums/lotus-gearbox-f37/rotoflex-not-rotoflex-t26435.html