S1 Motorsport Elise O/S drive shaft coming out of CV joint
Discussion
I have a S1 Motorsport Elise race car and have a recurring problem. The offside drive shaft seems too short and consequently keeps coming out of the CV joint. It is held in by a spring ring that you seat in a groove in the drive shaft and slide into the CV joint. The ring then springs open into a grove inside the CV joint and holds the two together. This ring was not proving strong enough to hold the DS into the CV joint, so we have also been tacking a spot of weld on there to keep it in place. Problem is, it is breaking the tack and still coming out of the joint.
Does anyone else have any issues with drive shafts and CV joints on a S1?
The driveshaft/CV joint/tripod set-up are all as designed by GKN Engineering for Lotus specifically for the Morotsport Elise cars. They are a thicker DS than regular Elises and the CV joint is a Ford part used on the Escort Cosworth amongst other things.
My mechanic wants to make longer drive shafts, however the O/S shaft is at a steep angle from the gearbox to the hub, meaning whilst there is plenty of room inside both the CV joint and the tripod is they are all straight, at the angles it operates there is not.
One option is to use different engine mounts and move the engine lower to reduce the angle of the DS and thus be able to make it longer. It so happens that I already have a used set of lower mounts and a new exhaust and manifold which would allow me to route the exhaust over the top of the engine instead of underneath it. When I bought this it was to reduce the CoG, but it would likely also help the DS angle issue. However I feel this is an extreme solution to what I assume must be a fairly common problem.
Has anyone else had this issue (or heard of it) and if so, how did you go about fixing it?
Does anyone else have any issues with drive shafts and CV joints on a S1?
The driveshaft/CV joint/tripod set-up are all as designed by GKN Engineering for Lotus specifically for the Morotsport Elise cars. They are a thicker DS than regular Elises and the CV joint is a Ford part used on the Escort Cosworth amongst other things.
My mechanic wants to make longer drive shafts, however the O/S shaft is at a steep angle from the gearbox to the hub, meaning whilst there is plenty of room inside both the CV joint and the tripod is they are all straight, at the angles it operates there is not.
One option is to use different engine mounts and move the engine lower to reduce the angle of the DS and thus be able to make it longer. It so happens that I already have a used set of lower mounts and a new exhaust and manifold which would allow me to route the exhaust over the top of the engine instead of underneath it. When I bought this it was to reduce the CoG, but it would likely also help the DS angle issue. However I feel this is an extreme solution to what I assume must be a fairly common problem.
Has anyone else had this issue (or heard of it) and if so, how did you go about fixing it?
use genuine snap rings.
this is the problem of cheap ones that don't hold.
making the shaft longer is not the issue, do this and you will bottom out the tripod joint.
another thing that does not help this is if the engine can move laterally under hard cornering, this is resolved by sorting out the gearbox to chassis mounts.
Lastly, how worn is the tripod join on the gearbox end? when they wear, they start to have notches in them, this then makes them stiffer when under load, thus increasing the 'pull' on the shaft.
this is the problem of cheap ones that don't hold.
making the shaft longer is not the issue, do this and you will bottom out the tripod joint.
another thing that does not help this is if the engine can move laterally under hard cornering, this is resolved by sorting out the gearbox to chassis mounts.
Lastly, how worn is the tripod join on the gearbox end? when they wear, they start to have notches in them, this then makes them stiffer when under load, thus increasing the 'pull' on the shaft.
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