TehRaydarlover's AWD lover

Bassboy3313

I am so pumped for this project! Looking good so far!

TehRaydarlover

Not sure how many of you are ix freaks but I got these a few days ago. They are ix specific front mud flaps... its kinda a big deal.

10700308102058115078733625357170620583

10005821102058115377541097224224728225

15985581020581153935414955487336942503

B C

Id rock those in winter mode if i drove it in winter. Did you permanently abort the bracketry or will you weld up a new one?

TehRaydarlover

Looking at them I believe the brackets are the same as the readily available rwd brackets sooo hopefully disaster averted.. if not I'll invest in some tin snips and make use of all of these soup cans I have laying around my computer desk.

TehRaydarlover

But srrussly these are stupid rare. I did a 3D scan of them at work today. Hopefully make some replicas.

15049571020585834052414923291994374632

Jdesign

Awesome! What did you use to scan them and how do you plan on making the replicas? Silicone? SLA? Photopolymer?

jc43089

How thin is the bracket? Should be able to use glass bead blast to clean them up without damaging even thin metal then repaint.

Rowleym

YES! do you guys have a faro arm scanner?!?!?! I might have to get a 24v head scanned!

TehRaydarlover

Jdesign said:

Awesome! What did you use to scan them and how do you plan on making the replicas? Silicone? SLA? Photopolymer?

We used the Romer arm. I'm thinking once the scan is done and cleaned up cnc cut the master molds in aluminum then a injection mold. Not sure what material to use yet, haven't been able to do much research. The stuff is actually quite hard I would guess around 75A. I guess I'm open to suggestions on the material.

jc43089 said:

How thin is the bracket? Should be able to use glass bead blast to clean them up without damaging even thin metal then repaint.

You can't really tell in the picture but they are pretty much shot, one is almost completely rusted through. If I can get them for a reasonable price I would like to just use rwd mounting brackets and modify them if needed.

Rowleym said:

YES! do you guys have a faro arm scanner?!?!?! I might have to get a 24v head scanned!

We used a Romer arm for this but we also have a few long range 3D scanners. Ha 12v head scanning will get priority

jc43089

Just a quick thought but they may not always have been as hard as they are now.

Sent from my potato phone

B C

M20 cylinder head scan for cfd analysis plz

TehRaydarlover

jc43089 said:

Just a quick thought but they may not always have been as hard as they are now. Sent from my potato phone

True, they seem about as hard as the rwd ones I have now, similar to like a boot soul.

TehRaydarlover

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

Earl

That's some great work and research so far=) We have a Niton XRF Analyzer at work as well. Which model do you guys have? They're awesome pieces of equipment

TehRaydarlover

Thanks, not sure what model it is, I can check on monday.

bfraser30

This is awesome stuff! I'll have plenty of questions for you when I get to this point on my iX. Very interested in how your mudflap project works out.

TehRaydarlover

Anytime! Depending on where your located, if you ever need help working on it hit me up.

Rowleym

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.

TehRaydarlover

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.