The Spousal Avoidance Unit build

[hrm2k]

BAMM !!!!








I just noticed the sirens in the background It is Baltimore City

[cad-kid]

Cool!

[azdave]

Congrats!!!!!!!!!!!


Still waiting for the big, smokey burnout video (just kidding, don't break it yet).

[hrm2k]

it's going in for an alignment later this week................then we will do a burnout

[hrm2k]

My friend says, take it easy man, might not be a good idea to jump on it


I say, no big deal. It should be fine


Sorry dude, don't think it is a good idea to get on it hard


I say, come on..............look at this. I built it . It's take it


BAMM, clang, bamm, bamm, bamm, clack, clang, knock knock knock


Oh Shit I scream








note to self : first weak link call alignment shop and cancel appointment

[cad-kid]

So close

[hrm2k]

If we have screwed up in this build, I have been up front about accepting blame.

This time is no different.

I took the broken parts off this morning so I could buy my replacements. When I put the 2 pieces together ( still a large piece missing but couldn't find it ), I find that the piece broke due to my work. We had cut 3 slots in the yoke. Each was about an inch long.....maybe a little more. The failure occurred on the longest cut. It appears that the tube broke from the long cut around the tube. We had been concerned about maybe having too much length on the yoke so we had cut about an inch off the yoke tube. Looking at how much the metal had stretched before finally giving way, I would guess that it was going to let go at any time anyway. Might have been a couple of days or weeks but it was going to break. It doesn't make me feel any better about breaking it, especially since it was my own fault.
This afternoon I ordered to new yokes. I am going to replace both sides. The new yokes are forged/ machined pieces. They are also Chrome moly steel. We are still going to slice the tube in a couple of places so the clamp will hold it but should not have this problem again.

more to follow soon

[azdave]

At least you know what happened and why and have a solution already in the works.

[hrm2k]

As we have gone along, we have continued to find things that got broke or were broken long ago but we just found it. Today I pulled both axles from the flanges.They are quite heavy but not messy...............or so I thought. I pulled the first one loose and there is grease everywhere behind the axle ( inside the flange. ) I pulled the second one and found the same. Once I got them to the bench, I see where a lot of the problems and broken parts came from.

The one on the left is from the passenger side. The axle itself has ( at some point ) been driven through the grease cap on the back of the trunion. You can also see where the balls in the trunion have been pressed against the grease seal hard enough to actually press large dimples in the metal. The one on the right is from the driver's side. I never did find the piece of metal from the hole.....I'm sure it is in there somewhere................I'll find it.

I believe that the grease caps were hit hardest on the very first move of the car when the wheels went way in. Both rear tires were cambered in all the way to the coil overs. Nothing ever got that bad again.

This sent me on a maddening trip through the what if thoughts on the rear suspension. Even got to the thought of scrapping the whole thing.
I ended up going back to the basics on how these axles work. The Caddy they came off of has the positioning on the outboard side where the splined shaft goes to the front wheels. This left the trunion in a controlled floating position. I have approached this using the trunion as the fixed point. It took a while to figure this all out but I think we have it now.
Both of the flanges that the trunions attach to have no back plate to stop the axles from moving in. we also have to consider the grease caps on the trunions. The solution is to machine a piece of 1/2 " aluminum at 4 3/4 inches in diameter. We will insert half the depth of the spacer into the trunion where the grease seal was. The remaining 1/4 " will go into the flange were it will seat in the flange. This will provide a fixed position for the axle shaft to bottom against. I am going to buy 2 new cast steel yokes to finish off the axles. There is no reason this won't work.

Just as a side note : We pulled the pan off the trans just to verify we had done nothing to the trans when this breakage occurred. We found no sign of problems. I will get a little deeper in the next day or so just to veryify no damage.

more to follow

[cad-kid]

Good follow up

[County98]

Yup! Good follow up!

[hrm2k]

We figured out what will work and allow us to move forward. I bought 2 pieces of 5 inch round aluminum rod that was 1 1/4 inch thick. We machined the pieces to the same size as the original grease seals. The machine work was spot on. The depth fits the trunion perfectly with just enough sticking out to fit in the flange down to the some nubs that kept the grease cups from pushing down into the flange. It ended up looking like this :



Now that you can see what we are doing it should make sense. The axles will NEVER be able to move in any further than the piece of aluminum. ( now known as the spacer ). I still need to pickup 2 new slip yokes which will be no problem. Hopefully this weekend we will have it back together


more to follow

[hrm2k]

We got the new axles in this afternoon. We still needed to cut the yokes back about an inch and a quarter. This time, we made sure not to cut too deep on the yoke. None of the cuts extend beyond the clamp ( the one closest to the u joints ). The main stop clamp fit just as it should. We ended up using some kind of universal boot on each side. They actually worked very well. Really different than the stock boot but fits and does the job.

Instead of you trying to turn the imagine so you can tell what is going on...............understand that this is shot from below the axle so everything looks a little weird.


Tomorrow we are going to get everything tighten up and secured. We are also going to get as close as possible to zero camber and zero toe. If we can get that done, it is again time for an alignment and some serious driving

SUPPORT THE CORVAIR FORUM

[hrm2k]

If you listen closely, you can hear it going through first and second gear...........2 blocks away





What a difference !!! There were a lot of unknown noises the first time we drove it down the street. ........clicking from one side and some kind of roaring sound from the driver's side. Now that the axles are seated in the trunions against the aluminum spacers..............al the noises are gone. I want to get to the alignment shop before I take a road trip around town but that day is closer now than ever

[cad-kid]

One word - AWESOME!

[jaymaechtlen]

Sounds good!