Re: ROTOFLEX QUESTION
Posted: Tue Oct 23, 2012 3:57 pm
OK here are two non-interleaved donuts, the one on the left is probably an original out of a 65 Elan that was last on the road in 1969, the one on the right was bought new in 1992 and was installed but never driven, the chassis was broken up for parts.
as far as the other sub topics go, nothing is fool proof, that said somethings will break and others will be broken. You generally hear/remember the bad, the good comes and goes quite quickly. I bought Ray's (RD Ent) back in 1996 and have been using them since, I think the price was just over $1000 including the diff output shafts. I did tear a boot early when the wheel was at full droop on jackstands and I rotated the wheel (lesson learned). I replaced the boot and bought 2 as I like to have spares, I still have it in the box 15 years later. There are things that you can do to limit droop, wire rope and pinch couplings will do the job, Rohan has written about them in the past. The rubber issue seems to be a real one and has crept into the forum 3-5-7 years ago, seems like none of the parts have been exempt. I do not know if those parts are gone or purged from the supply chain. all one can do is be leery and inspect on a regular basis. New interleaved donuts were $100 or more the last time I inquired back in the spring of this year, I would not want to spend that kind of money only to have one fail and flail about bending the the doglegs at the rear of the chassis or busting a nice sized hole in the fiberglass or both. The choice of what to do is up to you and you get to live with the consequences what ever they are. I installed a set of interleaved donuts that I bought back in 2004 for $50 each, I will keep an eye on them as thats about all I can do. The other Elans that I have will need to have something and that something is still unknown to me at this time, I hope that the problems are resolved soon or have already been resolved. It will take some time to know anything for certain.
Gary
as far as the other sub topics go, nothing is fool proof, that said somethings will break and others will be broken. You generally hear/remember the bad, the good comes and goes quite quickly. I bought Ray's (RD Ent) back in 1996 and have been using them since, I think the price was just over $1000 including the diff output shafts. I did tear a boot early when the wheel was at full droop on jackstands and I rotated the wheel (lesson learned). I replaced the boot and bought 2 as I like to have spares, I still have it in the box 15 years later. There are things that you can do to limit droop, wire rope and pinch couplings will do the job, Rohan has written about them in the past. The rubber issue seems to be a real one and has crept into the forum 3-5-7 years ago, seems like none of the parts have been exempt. I do not know if those parts are gone or purged from the supply chain. all one can do is be leery and inspect on a regular basis. New interleaved donuts were $100 or more the last time I inquired back in the spring of this year, I would not want to spend that kind of money only to have one fail and flail about bending the the doglegs at the rear of the chassis or busting a nice sized hole in the fiberglass or both. The choice of what to do is up to you and you get to live with the consequences what ever they are. I installed a set of interleaved donuts that I bought back in 2004 for $50 each, I will keep an eye on them as thats about all I can do. The other Elans that I have will need to have something and that something is still unknown to me at this time, I hope that the problems are resolved soon or have already been resolved. It will take some time to know anything for certain.
Gary