No more broken driveshafts

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morrisman1, Dec 22, 9:05am
I found some real good duct tape to hold them together. Joking! I got the ford laser units to fit in today, they are slightly shorter and each one was bottomed out in its travel when just bolted in so I have widened the track width by 30mm each side by moving out the lower control arm. (see pic). So all went well and it seems good but unable to road test because I got to the end of the driveway and a grinding noise appeared. Came back and found a collapsed wheel bearing and inside was lots of steel shrapnel and what seems like only half the bearing parts that should be there. Oh well, its never straight forwards is it! A job for tomorrow hopefully

Anyway here is the picture, not too fancy but Im quite satisfied that it is plenty strong enough. The other side which is out of view is also reinforced. The pivot point is 30mm outwards of the original pivot point. 

http://i264.photobucket.com/albums/ii200/morrisman1/_MG_7882.jpg

skin1235, Dec 22, 9:52am
what caused the bearing to blow!, mis-alignment!, insufficient travel at shaft end forcing it back through the bearing,! insufficient support allowing twisting under torque!, torsional warp in the location!

morrisman1, Dec 22, 9:57am
buggered if I know, I thought it just needed pulled together by the CV nut when I put it on but it turns out the bearing was stuffed all together. I have only just got the hub and I have no doubt that the bearing was stuffed when I got it. Thats the joy of second hand parts aye

les6, Dec 22, 5:29pm
hope your right mm,but it seems highly coincidental!

budgel, Dec 22, 9:28pm
Wouldnt a high tensile bolt be better there!(in pic).

jonthefisho, Dec 23, 1:17am
It probably is one

sr2, Dec 23, 1:58am
Looks like an 8.8 which is a low carbon construction grade.Moving the lower arm out will add a lot of negative camber, should be interesting to see what effect it has on handling dynamics. The bracket looks strong enough but at the risk of being too picky my preference when fabricating mounts is to try and match the material thickness to the parent metal and gain the required strength through the use of gussets. Introducing a rigid structure to one that is designed to flex will often put excessive loading on the attachment points (in this case the welds).As I said earlier I am splitting hairs here; It looks good to me just keep an eye on the parent metal around the welds when you??

dent, Dec 23, 5:39am
is this a rally car of some sort!

morrisman1, Dec 23, 5:44am
Gymkhana car, so low speed most of the time. And yes, that is a grade 8.8 bolt. I got the bearing replaced today so after Ive had a short break Ill go out there and put the hub back on.

morrisman1, Dec 23, 5:46am
Thats interesting SR2, thanks for the information and I will certainly keep my checks up on all the modified parts to identify any cracks if they develop.

morrisman1, Dec 23, 8:47am
Im not having much luck putting this wheel bearing back together. Does anyone know with a twin taper roller bearing setup does the hub need to be pressed into the bearings! It didnt need a press to get out but that could have been due to the damage that it had.

What is the best order of assembly! I have already got the bearing shells in place in the hub and inner bearings in there too with seals at each end but I feel I may have jumped the gun.

upnorth, Dec 23, 9:16am

morrisman1, Dec 23, 9:19am
haha, awesome. Not quite to that extent!

I think i will have to take the hub to a mechanic who is familiar with those because google is telling be they have some funny spacer setup in the middle that needs to be correct. It is a 89 ford laser hub, the earlier chassis. Does anyone know about these! Ill start another thread with better keywords in the title.

ginga4lyfe, Dec 23, 9:25am
LOOK AT THAT! AN ALL YOU CAN EAT BUFFET!, Sheesh, you dont get that in NZ very much anymore!

morrisman1, Dec 23, 9:28am
all but one of the all-you-can-eat outfits in southland went out of business! Da Vincis pizza still does it fortunately. Valentines didnt last long at all

pfemstn, Dec 24, 2:31am
gymkhana car or not whole thing sounds like a friggin disaster. cause the hub has a spacer in it to set the preload,, does the vehicle have to be scrutineered! glad i wont be doing it!

pfemstn, Dec 24, 2:51am
obvious problems that come to mind are, how are you going to lengthen the tie rods to match! how are you going to adjust the camber to a reasonable level!

morrisman1, Dec 24, 6:38am
I have set screws with the right thread to use in lengthening the tie rods, and before you go screaming around saying unsafe unsafe think about it, the forces in the tie rods are only as much as I am strong, so as long as the welds are good and the rods are straight I don't see any possible chance of problems. If it was a 4x4 off roader then it would be a different story.

camber is at an acceptable level at this current stage, have around 2.5° negative camber and I see no reason to change that.

Yes I have had difficulties with getting this car sorted with the level of custom work required and the limit of my budget, but is that really reason to call it a disaster!

sr2, Dec 24, 8:38pm
Ignore the armchair "experts" morrisman, they forget that we all had to start somewhere!One of the things you??

mrfxit, Dec 24, 10:14pm
Besides . It's getting it to the stage that it's all WORKING as needed . THEN do it properly as a final product.

It's called . "Proof of concept testing"

pfemstn, Dec 25, 7:14pm
morrisman you have a lot to learn,sometimes it pays to get some expert advise before you get in to deep! ill stick by my first comment friggin disaster

mrfxit, Dec 25, 7:33pm
With 'custom anything" thats not a "standard" custom /or common mod, the "experts" are often at a complete loss at 1st inspection & any more inspections/advice will be either very expensive//long drawn out & or simply not available OR. told to bugger off because 'you're mad to try that"

Thanks for showing us which group you belong too

mrfxit, Dec 25, 7:36pm
Just gotta hang on in there & work it out,
The big advantage you have these days over what I was doing "back in the day" is the internet.
you can pick the meat off the bones all day long without having to worry about a face to face slapping from "stale arm chair govt experts"

les6, Dec 25, 7:39pm
what better way to learn!that seems to be what he is doing and by his previous posts does things well and will find the problems encountered along the way and overcome them!

skin1235, Dec 25, 10:23pm
twin tapers didn't normally have spacers, the race was pressed or punched into the hub against a register, and then the cones where fitted as per layout required
about the only thing that needed spacers was elcheepo twin ball race setups, and they have no side load capability, do any vehicles use such!
the axles should pass through the bearing cone without needing to be driven, it has a register on the inside to pressure the inner cone, and the nut on the outside to pressure the outer cone, they do not like being overtightened - will cause the bearings to shatter if overtightened, there should be a preload figure for your setup, measured by spring balance and a string, set your bearing preload to suit the force required to turn the axle ( some preload settings were measured from the nut, some were measured from the circumference of a XXmm circle)
now someone will come back to say honda or mazda use twin ball setups on the fronts etc ( quads certainly do but we're talking cars here)