Foreign doughnuts

[alexblack13]

Hi Guys,
Might have mentioned this before but, regarding the sliding splines on solid driveshafts, IMHO they are a bad idea. They do lock up when under load. I had a pair a long time ago from Per***mance Unl***d (Southend?) Useless! I fitted them & they broke within 20 mls. I repaired them and they broke again. And this was after I shortened the damper rods to prevent locking up on full droop. The wire rope trick was a complete joke. I went back to the originals and took a long time to consider trying 'solids' again. I recon' that is why nobody uses splines anymore.

Mind you I also managed to snap the rear axle off an Intercepter I had (briefly) That was fun!

When I took the solids back off they lived in my Garage for ages before I managed to give them away.

They made not bad doorstops..

AB...

[blackandgold]

Interesting discussion on sliding splines and universal joint drive shafts, my car was converted to this setup in the early eighties by a mechanic friend using anglia u/j and morris marina splines the u/j's were modified to increase the angle they would work at, setup worked well and covered many miles, although did keep an eye on lube for splines and u/j's

Previous donut setup did not take kindly to the BDA's power and torque

[john.p.clegg]

Sorry Alex but I'm with Mark on this one,years of trouble-free performance (Performance Unlimited?),the splines smeared annually,or bi-annually with graphite based grease and the U/Js pumped every spring...... they should be even more trouble free now as I have managed to fully enclose the U/Js.

John

[bcmc33]

I repaired them and they broke again. And this was after I shortened the damper rods to prevent locking up on full droop.

Well Alex - I'm impressed. I've never been brave enough to drive sufficiently fast to get the rear suspension on full droop - you're obviously a braver man than me.

[alexblack13]

Yeh, Ok guys but they sure did not work for me! 1st failure was a weld between the shaft and the hardy spicer joint.Just snapped clean thro'. Re-welded with a much bigger weld. Next up was the same on the other side in the same place if I remember. So we welded them all up that time. That lot was followed by disintegrating HS joints..

And the wire rope ''droop limiter'' Hilarious.... That just did not work at all... And as I said I limited the droop properly then and tested the joints for lock up and they were well within limits. I re3con acceleration and braking loads locked up the splines. There were some very interesting 'Bangs' from the rear suspension accompanied with severe twitching of the car's rear end.. That was on my +2 s130...

Believe me it was checked, checked again, then checked some more. It was as free as a bird both fully up and fully down.. And the spline were well lubed with 60% graphite paste..(I still have some of that!) Recommended by the P I man himself.. Reporting back to him drew a complete blank and no refund! & boy did I try to get my money back. No chance. He blamed everything except his shafts. I showed the failed welding to quite a few highly respected (Like myself!) engineers and they were less than impressed. The beautiful looking welding was very thin, with almost zero penetration. Hmmmm!

Off they came! and back went the doughnuts.


But hey... What works for some eh? To each there own

And it does not take a lot to fully load or unload a cars suspension Brian.. You don't need to go flying. The Elan sure has crap elevators too.


Al' ...

[spanner]

You don't need to go flying. The Elan sure has crap elevators too.


Al' ...

Right! But in a cross-wind, I always use the use the fender-low technique.

Jim

[john.p.clegg]

Alex

So maybe my mod of fitting a central floating spline (no welds) was the way to go??

John

[alexblack13]

That would def' have helped John. But I lost confidence before trying that. The HS couplings were solid (ish) welded to a male and female splined shaft ass'y of not much more than (from memory!) about 25mm dia... !!! They did not like being loaded up and 'plunged' at the same time...They went fekin solid!!

I see you are a cross wind landing master Jim ! Happy days. I can tell a few stories about those. Single engine up the brave nan's route into Sumburgh in a howler ??? ..Great fun... My hair still stands on end just thinking about it...

Alex...