Offroad Trailblazers and Envoys

disconnect technical questions

Trailblazer and Envoy related, but not off-road related...

by seantrost » Tue Oct 29, 2013 9:51 pm

Ok guys and gals, I am at work planning and brainstorming on how I want to tackle this issue. As such I do not have access to the underside of my vehicle and the replacement that was offered from the traveling brotherhood of the spline is in transit. So here are my questions.

part 3 is listed as the outer housing. This suggests to me that it is orientated towards the passenger side wheel. correct assumption ?

If so, are there any clearance issues that dictated the necked bell appearance of the housing.

is there any extra shaft surface in between the housing and the cardene joint ? In other words would it be possible to extend the housing out to accomodate a second shaft seal ?

all the best
Sean


who as it happens to figure out is nutless.....hmnnnnn
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by v7guy » Tue Oct 29, 2013 10:50 pm

It is oriented as you describe, you can't really move it out though. If you did do that, the clip on the CV wouldn't engage the sleeve, the splines of the cv and intermediate shaft would only be partially engaged and the joint of the cv would be moved outwards so you would be introducing even more plunge into the tripot.

For the most part the seal is pretty durable and it's longevity should be increased by the sleeve.
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by seantrost » Tue Oct 29, 2013 11:02 pm

what I am thinking is to stack two shaft seals and provide a zerk fitting to be able to refresh grease from time to time.

Image


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Last edited by seantrost on Tue Oct 29, 2013 11:18 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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by seantrost » Tue Oct 29, 2013 11:07 pm

v7guy wrote:It is oriented as you describe, you can't really move it out though. If you did do that, the clip on the CV wouldn't engage the sleeve, the splines of the cv and intermediate shaft would only be partially engaged and the joint of the cv would be moved outwards so you would be introducing even more plunge into the tripot.

For the most part the seal is pretty durable and it's longevity should be increased by the sleeve.



thanks V7guy.
I was curious about how that all fit together. I was assuming that there was not much wiggle room to work with.
Have to wait untill I get some time and actual parts in hand to make some plans.

Sean
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by DirtyBacon04 » Tue Oct 29, 2013 11:54 pm

James did something similar w/o extending the mounting of the disco

http://forums.offroadtb.com/viewtopic.php?f=72&t=4596
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by seantrost » Wed Oct 30, 2013 12:08 am

DirtyBacon04 wrote:James did something similar w/o extending the mounting of the disco

http://forums.offroadtb.com/viewtopic.php?f=72&t=4596



Thanks DirtyBacon04, I had not seen that thread yet. I also am curious if there is a clearance issue solved by the necked down portion of the housing. If not can a housing be machined with tapered roller bearings replacing the wimpy assed needle bearing setup ?

Sean

btw what airframe do you wrench on ?
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by DirtyBacon04 » Wed Oct 30, 2013 12:23 am

used to work and fly on uh-1n, uh-1y, ah-1w, and ah-1z
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by seantrost » Wed Oct 30, 2013 12:32 am

DirtyBacon04 wrote:used to work and fly on uh-1n, uh-1y, ah-1w, and ah-1z


self loading baggage on a b206 currently.
thanks for your service.
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by DirtyBacon04 » Wed Oct 30, 2013 12:54 am

seantrost wrote:
DirtyBacon04 wrote:used to work and fly on uh-1n, uh-1y, ah-1w, and ah-1z


self loading baggage on a b206 currently.
thanks for your service.


lol, we (crew chiefs) used to call ourselves glorified rear-view mirrors any time we didnt have guns on board... All kinds of funny terms we had for each other, and especially our pilots :lurk:
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by Trail X » Wed Oct 30, 2013 11:50 am

seantrost wrote:
DirtyBacon04 wrote:James did something similar w/o extending the mounting of the disco

http://forums.offroadtb.com/viewtopic.php?f=72&t=4596



Thanks DirtyBacon04, I had not seen that thread yet. I also am curious if there is a clearance issue solved by the necked down portion of the housing. If not can a housing be machined with tapered roller bearings replacing the wimpy assed needle bearing setup ?


Sean, I'm not sure tapered roller bearings are going to work here, unless you do some serious modifications.

Tapered roller bearings are great, but they need to be compressed in order to work properly... the races also generally need to be press fitted. They also generally require more space than a needle bearing.

So to do this, you'd have to machine out the bearing bores (assuming there is enough meat), machine the hardened steel of the tripod to somehow include a shoulder, and somehow add a threaded portion that would allow you to preload the tapered bearings. I just don't see it happening.

Truth is, as long as the bearings stay lubricated, and your seal stays intact, they will wear ok. If you're lifted, in my experience, you need a sleeve, mainly because that keeps the misalignment of the CV to a minimum by supporting it with the interior bearing and intermediate shaft, instead of just the two exterior bearings.

Get the sleeve and put a zerk in there, and save your creative juices for something else!
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by seantrost » Thu Oct 31, 2013 11:31 am

James yep you are correct, Tapered would not work in this application. However now that I have parts in hand. Thanks Gordinho80 for the hyperfast shipping ! The design actually pisses me and my machinist buddy off. The needle bearing setup is a very poor choice for this application. Especially for those that are lifted or planning on a lift. the load and heat transfer ability of grease doom these to fail. It would not surprise us if these fail with very little active 4wd drive use.

so some observations.

new bearings and the forum recommended AWD sleeve are a must to solve this issue.

so a AWD sleeve is being ordered, as soon as that is in we will measure and fit the most robust bearing we can stuff in. code generated for the machining center for a new housing incorporating gear oil lube.
stand by for news. As my disconnect is inop with winter inbound this is a fast track project for me.
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by Trail X » Thu Oct 31, 2013 12:33 pm

Good luck Sean. What kind of bearings are you thinking about? Ball? Larger needle?

Are you implying that you're going to machine a whole new outer housing from billet in order to have room to machine the bores for the new bearings? I had trouble decoding your last paragraph.
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by seantrost » Thu Oct 31, 2013 12:56 pm

JamesDowning wrote:Good luck Sean. What kind of bearings are you thinking about? Ball? Larger needle?

Are you implying that you're going to machine a whole new outer housing from billet in order to have room to machine the bores for the new bearings? I had trouble decoding your last paragraph.



yes we are going to do a new housing. looking at radial ball for the bearings, it all comes down to the outer race surfaces of the AWD sleeve at this point.
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by jonbo2002 » Thu Oct 31, 2013 12:58 pm

:lurk:
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by seantrost » Thu Oct 31, 2013 1:07 pm

lol, johnbo. pass some this way please !
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by TBYODA » Thu Oct 31, 2013 2:11 pm

seantrost wrote:
JamesDowning wrote:Good luck Sean. What kind of bearings are you thinking about? Ball? Larger needle?

Are you implying that you're going to machine a whole new outer housing from billet in order to have room to machine the bores for the new bearings? I had trouble decoding your last paragraph.



yes we are going to do a new housing. looking at radial ball for the bearings, it all comes down to the outer race surfaces of the AWD sleeve at this point.

Just thinking out loud here (even though I am not lifted yet, radflo's on order ;) ) & thinking others could also be thinking this. If this is a more robust application could others get in on this?
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by seantrost » Thu Oct 31, 2013 2:24 pm

TByoda, if it proves to be more robust. yep.
before that happens tho I am going to run it for a while first to make sure.
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by Trail X » Thu Oct 31, 2013 2:34 pm

Sean, the awd sleeve uses the same stock needle bearing as the cv, so the OD on the awd sleeve is likely the same exact specs as the bore on the outer gear OD and the CV bearing OD.
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by seantrost » Thu Oct 31, 2013 2:45 pm

James, Thanks !
We thought so also, however both sets of have micd out of round. so we are not exactly sure what what the true numbers are lol.
The sleeve should be here in a few days.
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by seantrost » Sat Nov 16, 2013 10:16 pm

And for the visual learners.....or in other words pics or it didnt happen....

:zombie: Zombie Disconnect :zombie:

The overall design intent.

Image

comparison between stock bearing and current bearing

Image

truing up on the mill after the plasma table.

Image

yes it is repeatable..... ;)

Image

in the mill !

Image

oil pan side w/o seal AWD spool fits within 0.002"

Image

Wheel side w/o seal

Image

Hopefully this will mitigate the bearing/disconnect failures associated with this design. :woot:
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