Elise Mk1 driveshaft rebuild

[Mike Mnemonic]

Hello all,

I have a 1999 Lotus Elise 111S o/s driveshaft that is giving me grief!

I purchased JR434 (inner) & JR337 (outer) from www.jandrcvjoints.co.uk. I did pose the following questions to them but they were not really interested beyond offering to refund for the wrongly supplied part.

I presume that the outer joint fits on the end of the shaft with the solid ring on it (see pic 6260).

The outer joint fits fine on either end of the shaft which tells me that the splined ends of the shaft are machined the same. For info, there are 22 splines.

The spider for the inner joint is a VERY tight fit on the shaft. I think the inner diameter is about right but the splines are not deep enough? It goes on about 3mm then no amount of percussive persuasion will get it much further. I have not experienced anything this tight before.

I notice that the part JR434 is not the same as for an MGF. The Elise has a MGF PG1 gearbox and MFG drive flanges so I would have expected the Elise shaft to use these joints with a different length shaft. What is the difference between the Elise and MGF inner joint?

This must be a Rover part but I've no idea how to cross reference it. I see that the shaft is supplied complete with the inner joint from Lotus so there is no unique part number for the inner CV joint.

All is not lost as I can buy a complete driveshaft with joints from www.elise-spares.com. It's only money right!

However, I'd rather spend £25 on a CV joint.

Key to photos:-

• 6260 - Outer side of shaft.
• 6261 - Inner side of shaft.
• 6262 - Internal view of outer CV joint.
• 6363 - Spider of the inner CV joint.
• 6264 - Double band on the shaft.
• 6265 - Supplied parts. 

Any insight that you may have would be gratefully received.

 

Regards

Mike

Edited March 30, 2022 by Mike Mnemonic