Hello. Believe it or not, I still have this, just been busy with lots of other stuff. Found another problem when trying to swap out the CVs on the longer front shaft. Took off the O/S front shaft to replace the CVs. There was slop on the inner one, but the outer one wouldn't leave. Until it was sledge-hammered off by DannyP. The splines on the end of the shaft were bent.
Now this sort of thing wouldn't normally be an issue - you just replace the driveshaft, but because this is a standard-track MKII with a Rallye gearbox and transfer box there's only one shaft that will fit.... the one from a Rallye.
Guess how available those are.
I had a couple of 2WD shafts hanging around.
Which look like they might be possible to shorten down.
So, I got in contact with The One True Brian at RH Machinery, who does quite a lot of fabrication on the Locost racers from the IOW. He was a bit nervous, because he hadn't shortened a shaft of this type before, but he agreed to take the job.
I dropped the shaft off and got a text about a week later - all done and good. Apparently the ends are fabricated somehow in a single piece and then the two halves are cut to the right length and friction welded by VW.
The shaft I had dropped off was well out of true when he spun it up in the lathe - this is possibly why VW fit thumping great rubber dampers to them from the factory.
Anyway, he cut the required length out, turned down some CDS to fit in one end, fitted it, checked it was true, then turned it down to suit the other end. These were then puddle-welded at 180 degrees at one point and again at a second point (turned through 90 degrees). The external joint was then welded and flatted back - one perfectly straight shaft, the right length for my car.
One end was a bit poxy, hence the pitting in that photo. I've now insured this and once I've finished setting up campsite stuff I'll need to get it out and MOTed and on the road. It is about time.
