Drive shafts

[DavyF]

When I was refreshing our 2+2 S I noticed the doughnuts were badly perished, I never have liked the feel of them. Some people are saying they think the CV joints are too harsh, but no offence meant to anyone could that feeling be down to their style of driving. A customer of mine, who is a skilled welder and machinist, made me four adapters so I could fit short Xi9 shafts and I have say I think it is a massive improvement in the feel and response, if I want to floor the throttle I don't have the worry of doughnut crumbs scattered over the road behind me.....

[rgh0]

When I was refreshing our 2+2 S I noticed the doughnuts were badly perished, I never have liked the feel of them. Some people are saying they think the CV joints are too harsh, but no offence meant to anyone could that feeling be down to their style of driving. A customer of mine, who is a skilled welder and machinist, made me four adapters so I could fit short Xi9 shafts and I have say I think it is a massive improvement in the feel and response, if I want to floor the throttle I don't have the worry of doughnut crumbs scattered over the road behind me.....

I did something similar about 35 years ago on my Elan after destroying a donut and used second VW Cv's off a Kombi as these had a greater design articulation angle and shortened VW drive shafts done by a specialist pressure vessel welder. That conversion is still in my Elan now after about 40 thousand race miles without maintenance except for replacement of one CV which got a little loose ( it had probably done 200000 miles in a VW before I got it!). Did a similar conversion a year later on my Plus 2 and that has done about 60000 road miles since then with no issues. i have driven many Elans and Plus 2 with Cv's and donuts over the years and never noticed a difference in noise, vibration or harshness due to the use of Cv versus donuts. But I do notice the difference in drive-ability and reliability.

cheers
Rohan

These adaptors that I drew up were the first that Col Croucher at ElanTrikBits made and he has greatly evolved the design and made many many conversion kits since to customers all around the world. Now he uses all new components with new CV joints with the needed articulation and purpose machined axle shafts