Lotus Elan and Lotus Elan Plus 2 Forums

Thanks Chris, I'll give it a go as I've got Delrin. Next step is to check how much excess droop I've got beyond the 20 deg angle suggested.

Cheers

Vaughan

OK - ignoramus here. Why do we need to limit droop? I have had solid cv type driveshafts for years and not noticed a problem................

A reminder it depends if it's a Baby Elan or a +2 Elan. Not the same deflection
Alan

No such thing as a baby Elan. It is an Elan or a Plus 2 Elan....................Grump Grump!!

I fitted the Tony Thompson sliding spline joints, no problems at all really pleased.

Around £500 at the time, probably 5 years ago.

Steve

I've run my Sprint with Mick Miller CV's for (16?) years without issue, however, I went a bit radical and fitted them into a Spyder chassis with their twin-wishbone RDC set up. Also went for TT adjustable shockers, so I could set the ride height, etc. At the time I asked those suppliers if it would all work together- they all said "no idea, I don't know if it's been done before"! Well it works but I've thought from day one that maybe a rear anti-roll (sway?) bar would be of benefit.

I've currently got my S4 project car up in the air; the rear has Mick Miller shafts and standard rear suspension. It's on full droop and when I rotate the hubs, by hand, there is no sign of any binding etc. Whilst this was put together by someone else about ten years ago it consisted of all new parts (back then!).
I had a chat with Susan when she was going through the quality issues and she reckoned that Ford (GKN) had run out of Mick's original spec CV's which, iirc, came from the Ford Granada Mk1. Presumably whatever they used as a substitute was not up to snuff?

Given the continuing lack of original spec Metalastic donuts and their astronomic cost, I'd take some persuading to going back to "rubber". incidentally; we used larger versions of these in heavy-duty conveyor systems (where the rotational speed was slow but the loads were massively high) and the Ford GT40 etc. used them successfully, where the loads AND rotational speeds were high. The technology is out there, unfortunately H&S has ruled out the materials!

The CV conversions available in the US (Bean, RD) and the Aussie Elan Trikbits do not have an issue with lockup on full droop. No need for droop limiters or special shocks to my knowledge.

I had to ever so slightly relieve TTR sliding spline driveshafts fitted to my S1 as the uni housing was binding on droop at the outboard end, and that was after fitting Yellow Koni's from TTR.

What do you guys use to lube the splines on the driveshafts? Moly based grease? The TTR versions I have do not have any grease nipples fitted, so will have to come off the car to be re-packed.

Spline lock-up under load is a well known engineering problem. The real answer is to use a ball spline, but you can use specialist greases to reduce the effect.

Apparently Ford had a spline lock-up issue on their F150 truck and developed a specific PTFE based grease to solve the problem. The video rambles, but the reference to a specialist spline grease may be a good solution. It seems to be available on amazon.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79Qo-806n9g

Andy.

This is exactly the position I was in around nine months ago when trying to make my mind up on which setup to go for.
I ended up going for Col Croucher's system which was based on the droop problem! (or lack of it)
As I'd already completely rebuilt the rear suspension and fitted new Koni shocks at great expense I didn't fancy the idea of having to remove them for some droop limiting alternatives.
Yes I know the Croucher setup is more expensive than the Kelvedon/Thompson ones and I had to factor in the additional extra cost of new limiting shockers and the fitting of them, I think the cost difference is minimal after adding the extra parts and fitting sums up.
The Col Croucher setup is really well made and I highly recommend it plus I got good communications from Col in Australia when ordering. (No link to Col just a satisfied customer).
Thanks
Ian