TehRaydarlover's AWD lover
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Hey guys happy thanksgiving, here’s an update on the front diff project I’m working on.
The idea is to cut the walls of the pumpkin off one diff and weld them to another thus adding two more spider gears, basically sacrificing one diff to reinforce another. This will help to lessen the load on each gear. With adding the two more spider gears I need to cut the shaft the gears ride on in half and machine a support block to hold the free ends of the shafts. I took a few measurements and had the support block machined out of a “tool steel” I’m not exactly sure what type of steel it’s made out of, I got the material when I was at school, it was just advertised as tool steel.
The support block came out quite nicely. I was a little upset after having to wait about two months to get it back when the machine shop forgot about my order and temporarily lost the material I gave them, but when I did get it back it was no charge because of the wait, I was like, wat? Oh alright, thanks! haha
Alright easy stuff done, now for the complicated part. My plan is to bolt the crown gear back on and weld the sides of the pumpkin to the crown gear. Then cut off the top and bottom of the pumpkin. In my mind, the geometry of the additional spider gears is critical; you must retain the original gear fitment/lash or you will have increased wear and ultimately failure. By welding the sides of the pumpkin to the crown gear I can then (after some shaping/grinding) bolt the crown gear onto another diff, keeping the cups that the spider gears ride on in the correct position.
Now for the welding. The plan is to grind and shape the sides of the diff so everything bolts up without any interference. Then with the crown gear bolted to the diff tack weld the additional sides from the old diff to the new diff. Then cut the tack welds off of the crown gear and remove it. Then finish welding.
To ensure a good weld I need to know what material the diff is made of and come up with a weld procedure. To determine what kind of steel I’m dealing with I shot it with our Niton XRF Analyzer at work. It came back as 1215 carbon steel. This is kind of bad news because while 1215 has excellent machinability it doesn’t have very good weldability due to a high sulphur content. I don’t think it will be too much of an issue because it won’t take too much to hold the sides in there and the weld isn’t going to be seeing too much of a load, its mostly just holding the sides on there. We have some extremely skilled welders at work that I’m sure are more than capable of getting the job done. Here’s the print out from the XRF Analyzer if anyone is interested
After everything is welded up I would like to have it sent out for stress relieving but I don’t think it would be a good idea because I don’t want to mess with the gear heat treat or that it will distort or crack the case. Once its welded I may need to skim cut the crown gear fit turn on the diff to clean up any excess weld. Then it’s just a matter of pressing on some new bearings and resealing it, then I should be good to go.
Any input is welcome,
Ray -
Thanks, not sure what model it is, I can check on monday.
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Anytime! Depending on where your located, if you ever need help working on it hit me up.
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So is this all done to simply increase the strength of the front diff?
Awesome project, and I like that analyzer.
I'm sure you know this, but I would hope you check what kind of tool steel that is? I'm not even sure what it's doing so I can't really comment on how strong it needs to be.
sk8 or die
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Yeah that's the goal, should be able to handle pretty much everything I can throw at it when its done. Yeah I was going to shoot it just for fun. I don't think it will see a huge load its mainly just holding the shaft the spider gears ride on. I figured if it is some sort of tool steel it should be nice and hard and hopefully help keep the shafts aligned correctly.
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Put in my LED fog lights and high beams. Quite the improvement in visibility with the LEDs vs. halogens:
Before anyone says anything about the pitting, I already have some cerium oxide on the way haha
Just lows:
lows with fogs:
Just lows:
Lows with fogs:
And lows with LED brights:
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The fogs are 1600LM per bulb, 5000k and the highs are 1800LM per bulb, 6000k. There is a guy on r3v that sells the kits. Picked them up during his black Friday sale.
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I like the fogs! Might have to go this route also.
@DrLeadFoot
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Link to the kits please.
http://www.r3vlimited.com/board/showthread.php?t=323966
Here are the brights, I just asked him for the fogs and he made it happen.
I dont even see a post showing any fogs
Fog must be too thick to see?
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Thanks to Rowleym for the m20 block, coffee table coming along nicely:
Here's an interesting shot of the location of the main oil galley (cylinder wall on the right)
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Head is cracked so nbd, also going to put in a full valvetrain. Defiantly putting light in the spark plug holes. Will make perfect lighting for the pistons and valves, and the wires will be hidden on the back side of the block, win win.
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