Loose rotoflex bolt damage

[lotocone]

A mechanic friend replaced the rotoflexes with CV axles on someone's Elan and found some interesting damage from just 1 loose rotoflex bolt. The bolt went through a differential stub axle ear. You can see the heavy damage to the bolt and the ear in the pictures below. I wonder how long it took for this amount of wear to occur.

I guess I will be checking my bolts before driving this Spring !

Bob

[john.p.clegg]

That is Scary...

John

[Bud English]

That must have been very noisy for a very long time. Just turn up the radio!

[StressCraxx]

All I can say is wow. Very fortunate to find it before bad things happened....

Regards,
Dan

[rgh0]

You dont show the damage to the alloy casing the bolt was machining away on. i had a bolt in the same position break many years ago on the Elan and as it backed out of the donut it hits the casing of the diff that retains the diff output shaft bearing. I had much less damage to the bolt as I heard it happen and stopped quickly but still half the alloy housing was around the circlip was gone. Luckily enough casing was still left to hold the circlip in place and the diff has run with the damage for the last 30 years without any issues!!! Just shows Lotus put to much metal in their alloy diff casing and they could have reduced the weight

cheers
Rohan

[billwill]

You dont show the damage to the alloy casing the bolt was machining away on. i had a bolt in the same position break many years ago on the Elan and as it backed out of the donut it hits the casing of the diff that retains the diff output shaft bearing. I had much less damage to the bolt as I heard it happen and stopped quickly but still half the alloy housing was around the circlip was gone. Luckily enough casing was still left to hold the circlip in place and the diff has run with the damage for the last 30 years without any issues!!! Just shows Lotus put to much metal in their alloy diff casing and they could have reduced the weight

cheers
Rohan

Surely in that case the bolt was in the wrong way around. I think the service manual says that all the doughnut bolts must have their nuts inwards i.e. on the Diff end of the bolt.

[rgh0]

yeah you are right it must have been the nut end that hit the casing when the bolt broke

cheers
Rohan

[oldelanman]

Surely in that case the bolt was in the wrong way around. I think the service manual says that all the doughnut bolts must have their nuts inwards i.e. on the Diff end of the bolt.

I think that only applies to the outboard doughnut bolts.

[billwill]

Surely in that case the bolt was in the wrong way around. I think the service manual says that all the doughnut bolts must have their nuts inwards i.e. on the Diff end of the bolt.

I think that only applies to the outboard doughnut bolts.

Nope, I think not. I don't have my manual on hand, but there may not even be enough clearance to fit the diff spider bolts in from the diff side.

[oldelanman]

Surely in that case the bolt was in the wrong way around. I think the service manual says that all the doughnut bolts must have their nuts inwards i.e. on the Diff end of the bolt.

I think that only applies to the outboard doughnut bolts.

Nope, I think not. I don't have my manual on hand, but there may not even be enough clearance to fit the diff spider bolts in from the diff side.