TC tail shift dust boot

[cal44]

For those of you that know this (I didn't) please put up with my new world of Europa findings.
After several calls to suppliers for some parts, I also asked about the dust boot on the tail shaft.  Same answer from them.  "oh, the are now longer available, it's o.k not to use one".  That is the worst thing you can say to me...."you don't need it".
To my way of thinking, at team of Lotus and Renault engineers thought I did.

While cleaning up some Porsche 356 brakes I noticed the brake cylinder had a nice looking dust boot, and it looked to be the right size.  I found the boots in two thicknesses, the thinner one works better. Although not perfect I sure can't complain.
ATE is the brand........shoot, forgot to write down the number.  Will do so later today or tomorrow.


Mike

[LotusJoe]

  Looks like a good fix

[EuropaTC]

gee, forget the dust seal, that's one very clean Europa Mike, mine doesn't look like that and I spent last winter cleaning it !

You've jogged my memory though. One thing you might be interested in which I forgot to add to your thread on repairing the rear uj,  was the cover I made for mine. We're off to a wedding today so I'm not allowed in the toybox (in case I get dirty  ), but I'll take some pictures tomorrow.

Basically I found that a steering rack bellows could be cut and slid over the rear joint to keep out road grit without affecting the change and it's kept mine as sharp as the day I replaced it. Although there must be some wear on the joint with the weight of the shaft flopping about, I've always thought the most wear will be due to the combination of water and road grit thrown at the back of the car. (well in the UK anyway)

Brian

[cal44]

Brian,

I like the idea of the bellows.  Look forward to a picture.

Hey, the back end is only free of dirt because the oil washes it away..............

Mike

[EuropaTC]

Hi again,

Ok, this is what I meant when I was talking earlier about a dust cover for the rear joint. If I'm honest I'm not sure how essential it is but when I first made one I was using the car daily in all weathers and over the week everything seemed to collect grinding paste, so this was an attempt to reduce the spanner time.

It's basically a steering rack bellows. Over here they sell "universal" ones which are a central bellows with stepped ends, you just select the diameter you want and then cut the rest away. They are ideal for kit cars and things like this.

First one shows the rubber pulled back. It's a tight fit over the joint but stretches ok, as you can see I just keep the joint covered in grease to keep water & rust at bay. The second one shows the cover in place, you can get cable ties to hold it all in place at the gearbox and onto the linkage. Every now and then it pulls off the gearbox end but it still seems to keep the joint from collecting road grit.

Brian

[cal44]

Thanks Brian....a worth while tip.  I like the idea of keeping the needle bearings clean.

Mike