CV drive shaft conversion

[gus]

gus,
Your car is obviously in need of some attention! My +2 doesn't do any of those things!

Alan.

I have not seen a car with secondary throttle bodies still intact in decades, mine it has been near 40 years.

[kneedham]

Having owned my +2 since '76, the donuts were a constant issue requiring frequent checks.
I have the non failsafe driveshafts. An eventual failure of a donut whilst pulling away from a roundabout in heavy traffic, one burst. The driveshaft smashed the diff housing and bent the diff mounts and A frame.
I now run on Spyder CVs which are easy to fit. Only issue I have had is that one joint boot split.
I have only heard good reports regarding the Sue Miller CV kits.
Would I go back? Never.

Also I'm sure the quality of modern donuts are not as good as the originals

[Graham B]

Slightly off topic but I am thinking of Elantrikbits CV for my S4 Elan.
Has anyone checked the position on import duty to UK?
I have attempted to locate the Commodity Code but it does take some searching on the Gov website. Did not find a similar description of shafts with 2 cv joints but similar items seemed to suggest 0% import duty for items from Australia.
Any contributions would be helpful and hints on dealing with customs and duties on arrival.
Thanks
Graham

[Breezehill]

Good point Graham B

[AshleyPark]

Hi Graham

If it's of any interest, I paid an additional £158 in customs and import fees on top of the price of the Elantrikbits CV drives when I bought them in 2020

[smo17003]

I paid £135 in customs fees, that was in August '21.

If you do place an order Col will provide you with an Australia Post tracking reference. This will tell you when it arrives in the UK (in my case Coventry airport), and its progress etc. At some stage it will say something like "with local carrier". This was Parcelforce and I found that if you enter the AusPost tracking reference into the Parcelforce system it converts it to their own tracking number, so you will know when it's at your local depot.
At some stage Parcelforce will send out a letter saying that there is £X amount to be paid. I went to the local depot and paid and collected, but I think you can also pay over the phone and they will deliver.
It is a bit of a palaver TBH, but if you keep on top of the tracking it should all be OK.

[alan.barker]

If you are on holiday in Australia you can collect, put in your Flight Luggage.
Fly back home with and pay no Customs.
They weigh 11.5kgs. So if travelling light you can still stay below the 25kgs flight allowance.
Alan

[JonB]

Fly back home with and pay no Customs.
Alan

Illegal. I found a code 87 08 50 99 05 that describes a CV joint, sort of, and the duty is 2% then you have to pay VAT of 20% on top. If you go through the "Nothing to declare" section, better hope you don't get searched...

P.S. Allowance on personal imports is £390 if arriving on a non private transport such as a normal commercial airline. Don't think the elantrikbits shafts are that cheap. Any more than that and you are supposed to pay VAT and import duty per https://www.gov.uk/bringing-goods-into-uk-personal-use/arriving-in-Great-Britain.

[rgh0]

The disadvanatge of the Elantrikbits Cv shafts is that the cost when delivered in the UK or Europe or the USA is maybe higher than local competitors depending on the shipment methods and taxes imposed after the tax free export from Australia.

The advantage is you are dealing with the actually manufacturer not a retailer and Col can answer any question you have and stands by his product.

Yes I am biased as I worked with Col many many years ago to make the first CV conversion he worked on for my Elan. This is still running after over 40 years and around 40k race miles with no maintenance and I started with used VW Cvs from a wrecker back then which are still running good today!

There are many reputable options to choose from so do your sums and assess the quality as best you can and make your choice. All I can say is any of them are better than having a failed donut tear up your chassis which happended on both my Elan and Plus 2 before I did CV conversions.

cheers
Rohan

[alan.barker]

Delivered to Hotel in Sydney, super contact with Col.
Will be fitting to my Sprint sometime in Feb here in France.
Alan

[Lotus54]

I did not have to pay any customs fees in the States for my fairly recently Elantrikbits CV conversion.

they fit very well, I have not driven it yet, but no binding issues etc at all when at full ‘droop’.

Mark

[661]

Hi Graham

If it's of any interest, I paid an additional £158 in customs and import fees on top of the price of the Elantrikbits CV drives when I bought them in 2020

Mine was about the same, however, I'm unsure if the newish trade deal with our upside down friends may improve the situation.

[Graham B]

Thanks for all your posts on import duties.
JonB, I checked out the commodity code but it was not found, the 05 at the end had no entry. You did confirm I had been searching in the right area. It appears that, depending on local content in production, there may be 0% duty for the Australian shafts. So thanks for that.
It would be good if we could establish the best cost route to help reduce the cost because these shafts seem to be the best technical solution. I have had my car over 30 years and I do think I am on borrowed time with donuts.
Graham

[JonB]

Interesting... maybe I mistyped it. (Yes, I did. It's 35 on the end, not 05. Apologies!)

But I did notice that everything in that particular category had the same rate of tax.

[M100]

Given the constraints of the existing diff output shafts and the rear outboard drive shaft, plus presumably the commonality of the VW sourced CV joints, and the finite size of adaptor plates, why does one conversion not lock up on droop and all the others apparently do?

It’s a GBP500+ premium for this ‘feature’