Lotus Elan and Lotus Elan Plus 2 Forums

nomad wrote:Well the cost of the kits is too high so will probably be making that up as well. My thought's on one Rotoflex would be to put a bit of cushion against my S1 diff out put shafts. If the Rotoflex was captured via the pin and sleeve method I would think that system would be something I could live with.

Kurt.
26/3754

my plus 2 had these - when the rotoflex failed it ripped the pin of before it rips into the chassis !!! Been running the Cvs now for 20 plus years with no problems
cheers
Rohan

Greg Foster wrote:A friend of mine uses the original shock and spring setup along with the cv joint axles. He installed a cable to limit the travel of the axles thus keeping his cv joints safe. I believe he welded eyelet tabs at the top and bottom to fasten his cable. Caveat emptor .... don't know what kind of stress this puts on different parts.
Greg

I have cables on my Elan and Plus 2 to limit droop with the Cv's. Not really needed on the plus 2 but I did just to be sure. You can feel the CV's binding on full droop if you rotate the wheel with the wheel hanging on my Elan. The spring loads near full droop are very low the cable takes virtually no load. I welded a tab to the chassis and put a clamp around the front tube of the A frame. Not problems with this set up since 1985 with about 40000 km of racing since. Just replaced one of the second hand cv's I install all those years ago when it started to give a clunk on power on /off a few years ago

Some CV's allow more angular displacement than others e.g. the ones from a VW Kombi allowed more angle than the standard beetle or type 3 VW ones - I believe Col Croucher at Elantrikbits supplies ones that don't bind on full droop in an Elan with the standard rear shocks.

You also need to ensure the shaft still has end float at full droop as well as can accommodate the angle.

regards
Rohan

rgh0 wrote:

nomad wrote:Well the cost of the kits is too high so will probably be making that up as well. My thought's on one Rotoflex would be to put a bit of cushion against my S1 diff out put shafts. If the Rotoflex was captured via the pin and sleeve method I would think that system would be something I could live with.

Kurt.
26/3754

my plus 2 had these - when the rotoflex failed it ripped the pin of before it rips into the chassis !!! Been running the Cvs now for 20 plus years with no problems
cheers
Rohan

So Lotus's solution to Rotoflex damage isn't fool proof........Who would have suspected that!

So I will try making up some CV's as at least one of you guy's has done. I've done a lot of welding and have friend's with machining capability.

Kurt
26/3754