those seats look pretty cool

Is that a Visa gearbox in the back?

And when you throw away those rubber shrouds on the engine, can you throw them my way please.

You could well be right Russ, when I first fitted these spring cans I let it down off the jacks and the whole car was completely solid. I cut about 1" of the threaded tubes and it was ok, although it's always had a tendency to bottom out over big bumps. Oddly it was only on one side, perhaps I should take the tube out and see how hammered the end looks.
I'm moving some of the accumulated tat back to the UK so that my options are open.

No Visa gearboxes, they're the two that have been tried in the car, so an LNA, and a broken LNA with GSA bits on.

Also the engine and 'box that are original to the car, which I'll be keeping complete as it's a pretty good one, so sorry John, not throwing any cowls away.

I like to think these experiences are character building...

Well I got it wasnt a 2cv box

Mine only bottoms out on one side, and I cant see any obvious heavy bump stop contact, and it only seems to be on the rear drivers side, whether that's because I sit that side, or because that particular corner is longer than the others I don't know, but it was exactly the same when the suspension was on the other car. I'll continue ignoring it until the tie rod breaks, then I'll moan about it.

Odd, that's the corner that's bottoming out on mine too, perhaps I'll look at it, but I think I really should get some proper springs sometime.

So I've been and dug another driveshaft out of the shed of tat and swapped it for the one on the car. The one on the car looked like this,







Looks pretty fuct to me, the smeary looking bits aren't grease, they're metal. I'm slightly puzzled by how it failed so quickly, I've seen plenty of cars driving around with split gaiters, that only become an issue when they fail an MOT. I don't think they've got that much angle on them, but perhaps I'm wrong. I can only assume it's something to do with the brakes heating them up so the grease is thrown off quicker and then they're dried out. But don't they use high temp grease?

Joolz,
grease for 2cv joints usually contains 'extreme pressure' additives such as molybdenum disulphide.
The only time a 'high temperature' additive would be of any help was if the assembly had been run 'dry' and started on that spiral of locking up and overheating which leads to rapid failure...

Have you checked that the plunging splines aren't bottoming out and putting end load on the joints?

ken

You mean the sliding joints in the middle of the shafts? They shouldn't be, one of the things I was careful about was getting the overall gearbox width the same as standard. Plus I usually over compress the shafts without any trouble while manoeuvring them into position.

ill refer m'lud to the previous picture



Those type of UJs usually wear the ball track, because yours has been forcing the cage against the body i think Ken is sniffing round the right area to look at.
As soon as the grease fails the surface of the metal becomes scuffed and that makes it worse and a very rapid failure happens

my t25 VW van used to kill inner UJs going up the hairpins on the Bealach when i worked in Applecross