Also: Really need to get my SoloShot camera situation in order. Having footage outside car makes this sort of thing so much easier, and it's rare anymore that we get photographers or people shooting video.
Also: Really need to get my SoloShot camera situation in order. Having footage outside car makes this sort of thing so much easier, and it's rare anymore that we get photographers or people shooting video.
Okay. Sitting at EvanB's place, procrastinating like a boss. Time for some long overdue recap action.
Remember when I said that Leon's entering the game made me need to up my stylez? One of the things I coveted on teh Caddy was the steering quickener. Fast steering is appropriate steering. I am not accustomed to moving my hand more than an inch or two when I am in the heat of the moment, so having fast steering is a plus.
Enter one ultra rare 1st-gen RX-7 POWER STEERING column, and one steering quickener. Housing is in top, shaft in middle, quickener on bottom.
The difficulty is, all of these dimensions are weirdball 18mm here and 24mm there, and not common sizes like you 'd find easy in a Summit catalog. Only place that is standard-ish is that the top part of the column shaft appears to be 19mm ID.
A-ha! We can WORK with that!!
Cut and slice here.
3/4OD tube locates the shaft to the 3/4 tube to 3/4-36 spline adaptor. Booger-center as such:
Weldify, and done. Now, to try to adapt ?weird to Circle Track Standard. The part that had me stalled for two weeks. Ah, but Dorothy, the cheeki breeki was with you the whole time.
The tube starts as 3/4 (well, 19mm) ID, then goes to 18mm DD inside, to a shaft that is 18mm DD outside, to the 16mm-ish-36 spline output. Cut here, cut there, put one into two into three but shorter!
Now booger-indicate it for center and weld the blin out of it!
Recap part two. Time to re-house the shaft.
Top half slips on like this.
Bottom half not so simple. The problem is I need the bottom half to stabilize the mess relative to the car, so it can't just float. If it floated, I could walk the steering wheel up and down a lot. Also, since all steering torque goes through the quickener box, it needs hefty beef install.
I made a bent plate to go from the quickener to the mount on the rack. It flexed. I added side skirts made from leftover 16ga. Still flexed. Added angle iron on the top from the quickener to the lower part of the column. Flex flex flex.
In a hurry, said berk it, cut and notched and cut and notched and welded some angle iron to go from hither to yon on the bottom side. Was still glowing red in spots when I welded it to the column halves.
Installing it in the car after it cooled off for ten minutes, it wouldn't turn by hand. Frustrated, I said berk it, not going to make it, give up go home.
At work the next day, realized all I had to do was slice the lower bracket, position things so it didn't bind, weld the slice together, and we're in bidness. So I did that that night, and started the car for the first time since the previous month's event 1 minute before the GLDiv conference call.
Sisu.
(image background: RX-3 wheels, Audi 10vt exhaust manifold/wastegate, Audi small chassis engine mount bracket...)
I would have left the lower most DD unwelded so the column could still collapse in a major frontal impact.
In reply to TurnerX19 :
That occurred to me, but it's not really practical since I also eliminated the slip section of the housing. Also, the steering is only vaguely held up at the base, and there is a substantial collapsible steering shaft ahead of it. The whole column can move forward, in other words. The column was originally designed to attach directly to a steering box on the immediate other side of the firewall.
Practically speaking, I am tall. Any frontal collision that would have my torso rotate forward enough for me to hit the steering, or push the front subframe back, would kill me after my head hit the roof and my neck snapped. More likely, any collision would override the front entirely because everyone else is a timid weenie who has to drive a huge SUV. I've pretty much accepted since my first RX-7 in 1998 that I probably would not survive a collision.
Right. I am here at Evan's for a reason besides hanging out and eating pierogie.
Mmmm... pierogie.
Step 1 of many, set oven to 300 degrees and cook until bearing races are loose.
No time for pictures. Old races tap out with no effort, new races literally fall in. And will fall right back out. The rear race sits proud of the housing, so set the rear race in first, flip over to rest assembly on rear race, drop front race in. Let chill on porch.
Had been looking everywhere for a bearing race support for the press, turned out it was right in front of me the whole time. Ford 351W harmonic damper, meet 9" pinion bearing:
Thank all the deities that the pinion is machined for a slip fit front bearing.
Here we go again...
Kind of dreading this because the patterns this gearset makes make no sense.
Wondering if the aluminum case was machined wrong. I have an iron case to use, but it is a standard 3.062" carrier bearing and my differential won't work in it. Part of why NASCAR lockers are so cheap is they only work in aftermarket cases.
Not totally thrilled with this. Backlash is only .009" which I understand is low for a 9". Pattern is at least centered between the heel and toe, but it is high on the tooth. I don't feel comfortable moving the pinion closer and closing the backlash even further.
Berk it. It is 5pm, I am going home.
In reply to Knurled. :
Remember with the aluminum case the clearances grow as it warms up. Which also makes the pattern move up the tooth
In reply to TurnerX19 :
It's amazing how much it doesn't grow. I had been warned that I better set up the pinion bearings with a slight CLEARANCE (no preload at all!) because if you didn't, when the aluminum support got hot it would roast the bearings. Well, I'd set it loose.... and thought to check it one day after a 2.5 hour drive on the interstate, which is about as hot as it will ever get (probably mainly from the exhaust cooking things). Still had a small amount of clearance.
I have a feeling that the steel gears will get hotter than the fluid will get hotter than the case, so it's all probably a wash. The differential should generate effectively zero heat since there are no gears working against each other like in a clutch diff or a Torsen. (Torsens make dandy fluid heaters) When I set up the bearings, they have just enough preload to not be loose. We'll see how long they last this time. Synthetic 75W90 is going in this time too.
Batcave may be getting an upgrade. 1500ft^2 instead of 600. It's further from home but closer to work.
Knurled. said:
After clearing adaptives and a 10 mile loop of a road test, correction factor looks much better. Leakage number is still suboptimal but within tolerance. I'll see what happens after a few more drive cycles.
Also. Could hit 2100hpa pressure in the charge pipe at 2500rpm. That is roughly 18psi of boost in the pre throttle ducting. (Volvo doesn't measure pressure in the manifold)
Still acceptable. PCV plumbing will thus be postponed a bit longer.
I just wanted to post to let you know I follow along every time it comes to the top.
Don't have much to say because you are working on some higher level than I am....
TIL that I can indeed deadlift a 9" pumpkin into place starting with my hand and elbow on the ground, laying on my side.
I'm pretty sure that in a week or two, I'll be able to move my left arm normally again 
It was less than pleasant.
While putting the left side axle in, I noted the rearend swinging a bunch when tightening down the retainer plate. The UMI joint was WAY loose! Fortunately, the beauty of UMI joints is that they are adjustable and ultimately rebuildable. Loosen the setscrew and there is an externally threaded adjuster you can crank in. The adjustment is too coarse for my tastes, there are only four depressions for the setscrew to lock into, and I needed to move it to a point exactly between two of them. I backed it off to the closest one and tightened it down.
Not pictured: Putting the link back in, then realizing that I'd put the handbrake cable on the wrong side of the suspension link, so I had to pull it apart again. Also gave the links another shot of Green Death waterproof grease while I was paying attention to them.
Axles in, brakes on, 3 quarts of synthetic 75W90 installed, driveshaft in, wheels on and torqued, time to work on the steering column. I noted after the rallycross that I could move the steering wheel in and out a bit. It shouldn't do that. There were two options: the set screw for the 3/4-36 adaptor came loose, or the input shaft on the quickener was loose. Given that gear lash did not change with steering wheel depth, I assumed it was the latter.
Of course, the adaptor was completely encased by the upper half of the column, and some berkhead welded the whole column together because he didn't have the time to engineer a decent bolt-together solution. When you have a welder and an angle grinder, do you really need it to unbolt to come apart? (Apparently yes)
So, I measured roughly from the center of the quickener to the setscrew on the bottom adaptor, crossed fingers that the quickener was as symmetrical as I imagined I remembered, and drilled a hole in what I no doubt poorly measured to be the right spot because it's hard twisting around under the dash when the door can only open partway because your garage is too small for this many cars.
Good, got it right the first try! Here's another perspective, with an extended Allen socket in place.
I, er, went overboard with the tightenage.
Road test time! And this is where things go from good to pizdec.
First... remember that socket I broke? I didn't. I pulled the car out, closed the garage door, when to turn the steering, and bind-CRACK. Crap, Well, the steering turns now... but what if the chunk of socket didn't fall out and is just waiting in there to lock the steering? Crap. Open garage door, get tools for removing dash section and trying to extract a broken socket from a set screw, do that (I do not have needle nose pliers at home, so the removal part was funny if you were observing) Put stuff away, close door, drive off.
35mph. Okay, sounds good so far.
Get on highway. NOPE. Rearend is screaming like a banshee. Maybe not quite as bad as it was before I rebearinged the rear, but it's still uncomfortably loud. And it should be quiet.
Frustrated, I parked the car, and decided to head off to Summit for therapeutic consumerism and a think. What I bought at Summit, since there was nothing of use to me at scratch and dent shelves, was a big tube of lapping compound, and a new oil drain pan.
The Plan is to save the old gear oil, since it is new gear oil, expensive new gear oil, and I'd swabbed the housing and everything was clean when it went in so it should still be clean new gear oil. And then, barring any epiphany about gear setup between now and when I feel undisheartened enough to pull it apart again, I am going to try lapping the gears together. I'm not 100% certain HOW this is going to work, but it looks like my options are to live with Screeming Meemie or buy another gearset. Option 1 is not an option. Option 2 will cost money and time, and it also means pitching this 4.44 set. And if I'm going to write the 4.44s off anyway, might as well experiment with them first.
Found a pic of some stuff I used to have before the local recycling enthusiasts liberated me of the material possessions preventing me from realizing my potential:
That's the peripheral port 12A that I built, off to the right.
Having third thoughts about this rearend business. Part of me says, you have the drivetrain vibration issue FIXED now, there is no reason to run those 4.44s, and your sucktacular new engine needs all the help it can get.
Lugging the engine at 5000rpm in 2nd gear all the time sucks. It just won't pull. 1st gear just spins the tires so nowhere to downshift to.
But, if I had some say 5.14 gears, that 5000rpm turns into 5800. Even with 4.88 gears, that 5000 turns into 5500. Not to mention the extra torque multiplication down there. If the engine is making 140 ft-lb, then I'd be going from ~1350ft-lb at the wheels to ~1580 with the 5.14s. Or 1500 with the 4.88s.
I still have those 5.43s but they are a bit much. Need 3rd gear at some points and 2-3 shifts just do not happen.
No Batcave action today due to the aftereffects of eating pork. It tastes so good but somewhere in the past ten years all the little microbes or whatever that help me digest it decided to jump ship.
Spent day reading everything I could about rearend setup, trying to find info on if other people have had similar issues with Yukon cases, etc. Had downloaded uamee's entire YouTube catalog (it's about 3 1/4 hours of hardbass with amusing titles and lyrics) and this just came up. You win, uamee.
Yesterday was party, first to drink and then we dance
Wake up in the morning smelling worse than E36 M3 in pants
Was it vodka, moldy bread, mayonez or carrot?
Feeling super bad and I blame the salad
Knurled. said:
I was hoping that I would be able to arrange things so I could drop the pumpkin out without removing the Watts and I appear to have been successful.
Good thinking, Past Me!
Why didn't you figure out a way to hold it all together with Velcro to make it easier to get to?
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