Driveshafts - best option?

[englishmaninwales]

Ok I'm feeling the Kelvedon (Miller type) is the way to go. Does anybody know the stroke of the 'reduced stroke' dampers, so that I can price up a set?
Malcolm

[stugilmour]

As an aside, I see a couple of posters referring to jacking the car up on the rear wishbone. I understood that this was unwise as it can result in a bent wishbone?

Malcolm

Malcolm, I made two 1" thick plywood pads that completely cover the wishbones. They have a slot to accommodate the brake rotor.

I can easily slip trolley jacks and 2" x 4" blocks under the pads and lift the car with no danger to the wishbones. I generally place blocks under the tires to hold the car up, or jack stands / blocks as required if I am removing the wheels.

The advantages of this method are there is no danger of distorting the chassis box frame around the diff or the inboard wishbone mounts, there is no interference from the exhaust pipe or strange blocking required, and no droop is put in the rear suspension while lifting the car, which makes blocking under the tires easier.

HTH

Stu

PS I used the RD Enterprises shafts and they are great. With my Plus 2 the VW sourced CV's rotate cleanly at full droop. The RD design may have slightly longer shafts as they use new diff output shafts with integral adapter plates. Pretty easy to tell when they are installed if you have a potential issue at full droop that needs attention.

[englishmaninwales]

Thanks Stu, ISWYM.

[vernon.taylor]

Salut

Just noticed that Spyder has dropped the price of their hybrid driveshafts to ?399 + VAT - FYI.

@+

Vernon

[englishmaninwales]

Thank you to everyone for comments and suggestions. I have now put an order in for a set of CV driveshafts from Kelvedon ( who now assemble these under an agreement with Sue Miller). I will be fitting the droop limiting dampers too (which I now know are AVOs and the stroke is reduced by inches) .

Malcolm

[DJ908]

The heading of this thread asked the question which drive shafts might be the best option?

Might not the best option to be to simply replace the donuts, which I presume are looking suspect ? with some of the new ones which Miles Wilkins now has available.

My car still has two of the original donuts on the car from when it was delivered in 1968 and still looking okay. I only replaced the other two because I had replace the rear wheel bearings early in the life of the car for the car lived in Yorkshire for its first two winters and the salt they scattered on the roads played havoc with the bearings. I think, if I remember correctly, I had to battle to remove the bolts on the outer donuts and in doing so deemed it advisable to replace them at the time.

I know that there has been a lot of suspect donuts sold over the 45 years since I bought my car and I can therefore understand the concern voiced by many about replacing them but if Miles has, as he claims, been able to get a run of the original Metalastic couplings made, then surely if the two that I have on my car have lasted 45 years, (and the other two 43 years) the replacements Miles can supply will be more than satisfactory.

I am fortunate I suppose in that I hold two spare, original couplings here. If and when I do change I will fit replacement donuts, perhaps purchasing a full set from Miles and retaining the two spares here for possible use in the future. I am sure that whatever I do they will last until well after I am dead and buried.

Robert