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Barn of Parts Driveshaft Saver....Bearing Lock

To me it looks like your going to induce a viberation in the driveshaft. Hopefully you can get that assembly balanced.
 

To me it looks like your going to induce a viberation in the driveshaft. Hopefully you can get that assembly balanced.
Wow. You guys are amazing. Way over my head. But I will appreciate the final product having been a victim. Only thing that screwed up in 8000 miles
 
Cut down a spacer and washers arrived.

Also got the snap rings and it fits nicely and would be bound inside the casting as shown. The caliper casting is not machined so there was a high spot that would rub the clip. A few strokes with a file on the clip and it cleared. Just posting my findings.

Really don't think there is going to be any issue drawing bearing against the snap ring. I pressed the bearing against the snap ring with my 20 ton (40,000 lbs) press here in the shop. The clip distorted as shown in the one photo but it held. Next, I installed the assembly and torqued the M10 bolt to 75 ft lbs, which is the max setting on my torque wrench. The snap ring didn't distort at all. Even 75 ft lbs of torque is an excess, as the most m10 bolts get torqued around 40-55 ft lbs depending on class.

Adding a lock washer will help insure bolt doesn't come loose. Even if bolt did come loose the rotor is still bound by the brake caliper just as the oem set up is.
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As a stock sled, that rotar has play in it on the shaft. Does pressing it against the bearing cause any alignment issues?
MS
 
Looks like a pretty simple yet effective solution. Well done.
 
Looks like some good mockup testing Travis, nice work.

I do believe you will find a locked down rotor will have serious pulse vibrations in the brake lever at higher speeds. Maybe not on all sleds, but i know mine was bad when i loctited things down and my rotor got a bunch of loctite on it initially(locking it tight), then after a hundred miles or so rotor freed up back to normal play, and the bad lever pulse went away.

Hopefully this wont happen but something to check for when you get one mocked up as you should be able to feel it on a stand when grabbing the lever.

Dan
 
Looks like some good mockup testing Travis, nice work.

I do believe you will find a locked down rotor will have serious pulse vibrations in the brake lever at higher speeds. Maybe not on all sleds, but i know mine was bad when i loctited things down and my rotor got a bunch of loctite on it initially(locking it tight), then after a hundred miles or so rotor freed up back to normal play, and the bad lever pulse went away.

Hopefully this wont happen but something to check for when you get one mocked up as you should be able to feel it on a stand when grabbing the lever.

Dan
I hope your vibration was caused by a slightly warped rotor. I really hope that this design is what we have been looking for to deal with the bearing issue.
 
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To me it looks like your going to induce a viberation in the driveshaft. Hopefully you can get that assembly balanced.
The mass is right near the centerline, I can't see there being any balancing issues.
 
If you bisect anywhere through the center line of the cross section and weigh both halves they would be the same weight so I'm not sure why it would not be balanced. Also as mentioned the mass is very close to centerline with a radius of .625", so even if I wasn't balanced it wouldn't translate to much.

Are there any big summer drag racers lurking that would be interested in testing the setup for me? By no means are drag runs a durability test, but would at least put some heat cycles to the assembly to see how it holds up. Because it relies on friction to hold one concern is an extreme braking situation causing some expansion of the drive shaft. To be safe maybe I switch to aluminum as it would have a faster expansion rate than the shaft.
 
Was having a few issues getting the assembly to seat consistently and figured out a simple solution to it. This morning I installed it on a running viper to test it on the stand for pulsations in lever. While I only ran it up to 75-80 mph on the stand I had no pulsations in the lever. Upon this stand test I discovered a more alarming concern. The entire caliper/bearing assembly and tunnel would wiggle back and forth. Locking the rotor down is exposing run out in the drive shaft. As soon as I would unlock the rotor the wiggle went away. Over time I can see this fatiguing the tunnel, so unfortunately locking the rotor down is not something I want to promote.

Don't worry......my quest for a solution is still very much alive. My fit ups and experimenting exposed yet another solution. When I was seating the wedge assembly inside drive shafts on the work bench I discovered that brake rotor wiggle disappeared once the wedge was expanded inside the drove shaft. So I slid the wedge assembly back farther in the shaft where the bearing rides and locked it down. The wedge expands the shaft enough to create an interference fit for the bearing! With wedge loose the bearing just falls off the shaft, but when wedge is tight I have to use some force to pull it off.

My goal is to get wedge to seat tight enough that I can't even pull the bearing off by hand. Right now the class 8 bolts shear off before I can get expand it enough. Tried a higher class bolt and it ripped threads out of wedge. Some new wedge designs are in the works for expansion across the full circumference and a larger bolt. This concept could function as a bolt in solution to preserve a drive shaft or repair worn drive shaft ;)!
 


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