Wednesday, July 26, 2017

Torque tube shortening....

I have had a rash of torque tubes and drive shafts to shorten lately.

The torque tubes are fairly straight forward.  Simply remove the section you don't need with a parting tool, and weld it back together.



The drive shaft is a bit more involved.  Luckily, Ford used a straight sided spline although, it isn't quite to an SAE standard.  Because it isn't an in-volute profile, the spline can be made with a standard endmill.


First, I have to turn the part I am cutting off down so that it can fit in the indexer.  Ideally, I need a larger indexer and this wouldn't be necessary.  However, one advantage is that the shafts are rough turned from the factory and the bearing journals are not necessary concentric with the rest of the shaft.  So by doing it this way, I can indicate the bearing journals in and ensure the splines are concentric.

The spline starts by offsetting one direction and cutting one side of the spline...


Then offsetting the other direction and cutting the other side...


Finally, using a smaller endmill, the root of the spline can be cleaned up...


After adding the pin hole for the coupler, it's ready to be installed.

Back at it....

Finally I am starting to catch back up. There have been many late nights machining trying to get adapters made and orders filled.  

I appreciate all that have been patient will me while we get this sorted out.