Rotoflex Quality?

[KevJ+2]

Meg,
I have now got one side strut attached to the A frame with the spring compressed. To line up the inner to outer shafts almost level, you need to have the damper removed from the lotocone. Am I right in assuming that you can attach the couplings complete then force down the damper with spring compressed and then up into the lotocone? Hope this makes sense as it 'sounds' a good idea!
Kev.

[Quart Meg Miles]

Kev,
It may be different on the +2 but when I inserted my strut with both Rotoflex attached I hung it from the Lotocone first and then jacked up the strut until I could attach the inner Rotoflex to the diff with relative ease. In fact I used Buckland's method involving top of Rotoflex to bottom of diff spider, insert bolt, then spin drive shaft to line up the other holes and sweat a bit to get the bolts in (I always use an old bolt tapered to make a drift to line them up) including more jacking. After they were done I attached the A-frame to the strut having originally slackened its chassis bolts before removing the strut.

It sounds like you are leaning the strut outwards of the Lotocone to get perfect alignment of the Rotoflex and I don't see why not as the travel on the suspension is six inches so you should be able to tuck the strut and spring under the Lotocone after attaching the Rotors by lowering the strut. As I noted, to save fishing for the strut I drill a hole in it for a pin to hold it in its upper housing though most people just attach a wire of some sort to pull it through.

When I did my LH side I left the strut attached to the A-frame, assembled the middle drive shaft with both Rotoflex then with both strut and diff spiders with their upper arms vertical pushed it straight up, with a little shove, into position. It might be my imagination but that is the only way I can conceive that the insertion was possible so easily without bolt heads getting in the way and I am (almost) tempted to disassemble it again to prove it! The diff bolts went in easily and the first outer bolt then having the strut as high as possible enabled the final two outer bolts to go in.

Either approach should work without the body on as you can get at all the bolts and nuts more easily. Hope this is of some help.

[batfish]

Apologies for off topic but I wondrer if the GT40s suffer from poor doughnut quality

[vernon.taylor]

Salut batfish

Apparently the GT40 rotoflexes were much larger and only had to last a race

I found this interesting diagram:

Looks a lot like the original Spyder arrangement. Notice the extra 'spyder' sandwiching the rotoflex and diff output - for extra stiffness ? Is the Spyder safety cup/surge limiter fitted like this - opposite side of the rotoflex, of course ? Or is it aligned with the diff output shaft spyder ?

@+

Vernon

[KevJ+2]

Hello All,
Today I completed fitting the rotoflex couplings and I must say, they were a piece of cake to fit. I fitted them to the shafts first, then attached th? outboard side first. I then jacked up the housing with the damper pushed right down as this allows the shaft to be level.No spring attached at this stage. As the couplings lined up dead straight, it was just a case of pushing in the bolts - no swearing at all, I promise!
It is now possible to fit the springs with a lot of compression, but the hard part is to raise and insert the damper into the lotocone. As they are top adjusted, they can not be drilled to pull up by wire, so its a case of using mole grips protected by cloth to lever up the top into the lotocone, but hey, it works
So, the job I dreaded, turned out to be relatively easy.
Thanks again to Meg and all for the info.
Kev.

Ps this was done with the steel bands that come with the couplings, not multiple clips.