Lotus Elan and Lotus Elan Plus 2 Forums

Hi all,

Anybody any thoughts on using a set of sierra rear drive shafts as a base for making some solid drive shafts for an elan +2.

these ones:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/FORD-SIERRA-4 ... 20dab620e4

Seems to me, and I must be missing something here as this seems too easy (ok straightforward ish), that 2 adaptor plates milled from ali billet/or MS, and reducing the length (cut/weld/sleeve etc) would do the job. Any thoughts? Glaring problems I haven't thought about (it's late I'm tired)?

If I'm right, that's a pair of solid cv shafts for less than 200 quid doing it yourself and probably no more than 300 if you farmed out the metalwork. And a lot less if you get a couple from the breakers.

I must be missing something

The issue will be the diameter of the sierra hubs and how it overlaps with the diameter of the bolts into the Lotus three armed shafts and whether you could drill and tap the sierra hub to match without another adapter plate . The use of shortened VW shafts and CV's with an adapter plate is essentially the same conversion and what most people did themselves before you could by them commercially.

Don't know about the deflection angles the Sierra CV's are designed for but this may be an issue also.

cheers
Rohan

cheers R, think I'll lookup some dimensions for them today, that bit (with/without adaptors/bolt pattern) I can get my head around easily enough, but 'deflection angles' ok I can guess at what that is but I'll be honest you lost me there! Are you talking about the angle of travel the individual joints are capable of?

Yes the maximum angle the joints can accept will determine if they are OK in a plus 2 or Elan with its shorter shafts compared to a Sierra and thus higher angle for the same amount of suspension travel.

cheers
Rohan

Ah cool, I should be able to work that out, the info on the sierra cv's must be out there somewhere. Funnily enough, I just looked at the ones from elantrikbits and they look scarily similar to the sierra ones lol.

The Elan trickbits shafts are based on machined Lobro CV's (same basic unit as for a VW) with an adapter plate and purpose made shafts.

cheers
Rohan

Hi There

I believe the Miller drive shafts are based on Ford Sierra CV joints although I can't remember exactly which model

There are joints available from GKN Motorsport which have similar overall dimensions but these are machined for lightness and have polished tracks and are similar to those used by Trickbits. As the name suggests they are intended for motor sport applications (I use them on my race car) and are considerably more expensive than standard joints. Personally I don't think the extra cost is justified for road car applications.

In all cases however I would only ever go for a Branded items be they CV joints, Bearings or rod ends etc. There's a lot of rubbish out there and I think it's false economy to skimp on cheap un-branded parts

Andy