Identification of U-Joint Axles

[thehackmechanic]

Hey folks. I've been a Europa owner for a decade so I've mainly been over on that forum, but I recently bought a lovely red '69 Plus 2 that Bill Fralick used to own. The car has U-joint axles in it, and the outer left joint needs to be replaced. Can anyone identify these? The first pic is from an old restoration photo of the car, the closeups are ones I just took. As you can see, it's a 3-to-4-bolt flange converter, U-joints, and what appears to be sliding splines with a grease fitting. It's a "don't spin the wheels when the rear suspension is drooping" design. I asked Bill, and he says they were in the car when he bought it. I sent photos to Tony Thompson, and he says they're not his. Any ideas? I know that I can measure cup diameter and spacing and source a replacement that way, but I'd still like to know who the vendor was.

Thanks.

--Rob Siegel

[john.p.clegg]

" Performance unlimited " ?

viewtopic.php?f=37&t=41192


John

[pharriso]

Rob, welcome to MLD (Multiple Lotus Disorder)!!

Always enjoy your articles for BMW CCA & your book(s)... I also have a 2006 BMW e46 M3....

& yes they look to be Performance Unlimited driveshafts...Probably 1980s vintage...

[elans3]

Yes, I had a set of Performance Unlimited shafts on my old S3 SE.

[2cams70]

Shafts with splined slip joints like that are commonly seen on truck driveshafts. If the original supplier of those shafts no longer exists it might be worth your while contacting someone like Spicer. Chances are the component parts are a standardized size. Many truck driveshaft components come in standardized industry accepted sizes.

[thehackmechanic]

Thanks all. To my eye, the pics I've found of the Performance Unlimiteds are a good but not a perfect match to mine. Unless I'm mistaken, the ends of the U-joints on the PUs appear to be round, which then bolt to the round adapter plates. On mine, the U-joint ends aren't round, more like clover-shaped. The welds on mine appear more brutish and homemade. And mine have no rubber bellows and appear to be using the original-style snap rings, not the more modern circlips with eyelets in them. As such, they may be home-rolled. As much as I wanted to get a correct replacement joint in my hands before taking the shaft out of the car and knocking the car out of commission, I think that's what I'm going to do so I can measure the joint. I may even just take it into the machinist I use and let him source the replacement joint and install it. I haven't done one of these since I owned my Triumph GT6+, and that was getting on 50 years ago.

Thanks.

--Rob Siegel

[RichardHawkins]

Rob,

Try IMS (International Marketing Services) Birmingham. The name doesn’t do them justice, I found them very helpful, and in discussion, I leaned they make the shafts that Tony Thompson sells.

Hope this helps,

Richard Hawkins

[thehackmechanic]

Got it out of the car, amazingly without having to remove the hub and disc to get access to the bolts on the back of the outer adapter plate. Can't see any brand listed on it, but the U-joints are Spicers. I'll figure it out. Thanks again, everyone.

--Rob

[ElanDNA]

Hello
In your photo it looks like the joint is steel on steel when the wheel rebounds.

I solved this with my supplier decades ago.
More to come later.
Greetings

[john.p.clegg]

I remember having to " relieve " mine slightly to give clearance on Full Droop...

Not too much of a problem on the +2.

John

[thehackmechanic]

Just to close this out, I'm still not certain on the origin of the axles, but I pulled the one with the bad U-joint, banged it out, and measured it. It's a Spicer joint with cups 1.063" in diameter, and the length is about 3.22" across. Searching for that online revealed that it's in the Spicer 1310 family, and another post reported that the same joint is used in the TTR axles (viewtopic.php?f=37&t=41192). I was actually able to pick one up yesterday at AutoZone and get it installed. The 1310 joint with the grease fitting is the 5-153X.

Next I'll look at some straps or cables to eliminate the binding on full droop when the car is jacked up. Thanks for all the advice.

--Rob

[types26/36]

In the 70/80’s some of the Datsun’s had shafts that people modified to fit Elans . Yours do look like they are modified shafts but don’t know if yours are the same.