Universal Drive Shaft Set E10
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Ever since the Lotus élan S1 was freed to the public in the early 1960s, it soon became evident that the drive line would not stand up to vigorous driving habits, a good deal of stories abound of the intrepid élan driver stranded miles from the workshop with a broken rubber donut or metalastic joint, and altering a donut by the road side is not the way to spend time with your lady friend in the lotus élan… no sireee. Several dissimilar driveline alternate number of things from which only one can be chosen to the donut have been produced, numerous have offered a half & half deal, where a universal joint was applied in conjunction with a donut, the thinking behind this idea is that the donut provided a cushioning effect within the driveline, while in theory the idea is sound, the system was still prone to failure. Another idea put forward was to use two universal joints and a sliding splined yoke to replace the rubber donuts on each half shaft, in the beginning this seemed to be an idealisti solution, but regrettably because of their design, the sliding splines will lock under sure conditions, and universal joints also create variations in rotational speeds, i.e. they accelerate and decelerate momentarily on each rotation, the phenomena is known as “cyclic variations In speed” it is distinguishable to universal joints when they operate at more than a few degrees off the centre line which, they of course would be subject to when applied in the rear drive line of a lotus élan, the motion in the rear suspension travel will fabricate assorted degrees of motion on both bump & rebound. The moments of cyclic variation occur only for milliseconds, but the phenomena may prove to be inadequate in the driveline of a lotus élan. The Constant Velocity joint is designed so that when the angle of drive varies, the balls are always positioned at the midway point inside the joint. This does away with the cyclic variations in speed noted above that a universal joint formulates when operating a few degrees off-centre, if the angle of operation extends to far, the UJs will have a tendency to lock up. A rubber boot, which keeps the grease in, and contaminants out, protects the continuous Velocity (CV) joints. CV joints require only periodic maintenance or greasing, they are engineered to last 100,000 miles (160,000Km) or more. The primary cost of converting a Lotus élan to a CV driveline scheme is high, but the firstborn cost is altogether offset by the long-term in servicing and alternate of donuts. The elantrikbits CV drive shaft scheme formulates 100% reliability, because the scheme is well designed and is known to give some disturb free years of service. Another major factor to consider when installing a solid CV drive shaft in a lotus élan is the ease of fitting, a well designed scheme will only require the remotion of the old intermediate drive shafts and donuts, the new scheme is merely offered up to the inner and outer drive flanges, normal spanners and tools are all that will have to be required to tension up the high tensile fasteners. If the drive shaft kit you are giving careful consideration to requires anything other than normal workshop tools to install, and requires dismantling of the rear suspension of your élan, the overall cost of installation will be much higher than just the firstborn buy cost, due to having to recompense for the services of a professional installation mechanic. |
