What did you do to your Lotus today...

[steve lyle]

Steve, I’ll remind you that I had this same problem, especially with the TTR large bore (race systems) exhaust....

Thanks, 1Owner.

It turns out that the impact rotated the exhaust pipe up into the mount, so loosening the clamps at both ends, rotating, and reclamping solved the problem. At least for now. I'd still like to fab up a mount that replaces the current spacer between the mount and the steel bushing holder. That's the ultimate solution. Maybe this winter.

Meanwhile, it turns out that that was only part of the vibration problem, and likely a minimal part, at that. The bigger problem is failure of the passenger (rt) side motor mount, so the carbs are banging on the top of the footwell. It's always something, isn't it.

[Quart Meg Miles]

I rewired my reversing llamp! The early S2 didn't have a reversing lamp, though the loom had a wire for it, and I've had a microswitch for it at the base of the gear stick for decades. It stopped working some days ago and on investigation I couldn't remember where the thin power wire came from so replaced it with a more suitable one to the flasher unit. Still no light and I found its 10 Amp fuse had failed! That fixed it.

I then retightened the driver's side bolt holding the bottom of the dash board to the bodywork (the second bolt is lost) but the left hand side bolt had lost it's nut. That's a problem as I have a metal security plate that side but i could just squeeze my little finger in to feel the bolt end, I took out the bolt and threaded a thin bit of stiffish wire through the hole and curved it round to emerge under my plate, hung a nut on it after bending up the wire end and pulled the wire back out carrying the nut to the back ot the dashboard. Jamming my little finger on the nut and pulling out the wire I screwed the bolt back in again so now have a bolt each side again!

[h20hamelan]

Went for another rip

Perfect temps, and some sun!

[The Veg]

Where is that?

[steve lyle]

The motor mount arrived today, and I got it in in about an hour. It's a bit frasrating that that I had to use a die grinder to enlarge are the hole so that they mount would fit on my standard block - I mean, aren't all the block mont attachment points drilled in the same place? Why can't the mount holes be coreclty located?

Oh well, it's done now, on to replacing the outer cv boot on the right side. Hopeully that part arrives in the next day or two.

[Quart Meg Miles]

...It's a bit frasrating that that I had to use a die grinder to enlarge are the hole so that they mount would fit on my standard block - I mean, aren't all the block mont attachment points drilled in the same place? Why can't the mount holes be coreclty located?

The engine mounts are two engine-side bits of metal separated by rubber; hardly precision. At least one of my mounts awaiting installation has elongated holes on one side to allow for variations.

[h20hamelan]

Where is that?

I go out my garage, and in 200 meters am gone from traffic. The roads around here are magnificent, tight windy and because of the remote area and low population…

One of the reason I live here, sailing, skiing, whitewater and mountain biking.

Got my firewood in, now off to pick some more pine mushrooms!!!!

Veg, Hwy 31a

[steve lyle]

...It's a bit frasrating that that I had to use a die grinder to enlarge are the hole so that they mount would fit on my standard block - I mean, aren't all the block mont attachment points drilled in the same place? Why can't the mount holes be coreclty located?

The engine mounts are two engine-side bits of metal separated by rubber; hardly precision. At least one of my mounts awaiting installation has elongated holes on one side to allow for variations.

Well, not really. The portion of the mount that bolts to the block is a single piece of sheet metal, folded into a U, with flanges at the sides of the U for the bolt holes. No rubber involved. On mine, those holes are not elongated. And they didn't line up with the block. I had to hog out quite a bit of metal to be able to bolt it up.

Granted, the holes that bolt to the chassis are elongated, and that's the rubber isolated member. Even there I had to enlarge them a bit, and again, the rubber isn't involved in the spacing between those two holes.

In any event, today's activity was removing the CV drive shaft in preparation for replacing the outer boot, once it arrives from DBE. I found this video helpful after I took the joint apart for cleaning and it was time to reassemble it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_gXjvBArSo&t=337s

Just curious - others that have the CV axles from DBE (or RDE, I believe they sell the same parts) - how have your boots held up? I've owned a lot of front wheel drive cars, and never had a boot tear. I've got less than 10k miles on these, and one's gone already. I asked Ken about how common this was, and he was like "it's common for cv joint boots to fail". Hmmm....

[gjz30075]

Is the rubber tearing or is the rubber pulling out where it is swedged on the flange?

[pharriso]

I asked Ken about how common this was, and he was like "it's common for cv joint boots to fail". Hmmm....

True with greater than 100,000 miles & 10 years....

[steve lyle]

Is the rubber tearing or is the rubber pulling out where it is swedged on the flange?

The rubber tore.

[paddy]

As has been said above, CV boots on modern cars last many times longer, in harsher conditions, and with more extreme and more frequent displacement angles. I would say it's either got to be inferior rubber, or has been fitted and secured with a permanent twist which would cause it to fail prematurely.

Paddy

[mbell]

Last night I refitted the RDent/DBE CV shafts to my car (part of rear end rebuild). I think the car might have ~1k miles on the shafts but quite a few years old I think, boots have no obvious signs of issues. They however are quite stiff rubber and there is no movement of them on the shaft.

The CV joints are some form of VW beetle/Van, so replacement boot should be available cheaply from a wide range of places and in wide range of quality.....

When stripping my car I did noticed some loss of grease, mostly on outer joints. This seemed to mostly be from the CV joint to plate joint. So on refitting I've used some Aviation gasket sealer on the faces off the cv joints and plates. With the hope this will stop the loss of grease from the CV joints. (This might be a future problem if I need to remove the shafts to fit new boots...)

[h20hamelan]

My new Lucas ball joint boots tore immediately, I am concerned with my 1/2 shafts now too. Though the 1/2 shafts coming from Col at ElanTrikbits I am guessing they may use a different supplier.

Maybe the point is, there was a poor batch of rubber sent out?

[mbell]

Though the 1/2 shafts coming from Col at ElanTrikbits I am guessing they may use a different supplier.

I would expect so. All these shafts being based on VW CV joints means there are likely quite a few suppliers of CV boots. My guess would be at some point the manufacturer of the Rdent/DBE shafts unintentionally bought a batch of boot with issues. These were fitted to a batch of shafts that were sold and some time later had issues.

Its likely that a newer batch of boot has been bought and is being used now for the shafts by the manufacturer. So unlikely to be issue with new shafts.Hopefully good quality boots can be found and fitted to the shafts that do have issues and then they give many years of service.