# 85 Supra conversion



## david85 (Nov 12, 2007)

Welcome to the forum!

Love the old supras. Nice choice.


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## dedlast (Aug 17, 2013)

Another post on the blog with some pictures on the bottom. The post is an overview of sorts on why I am going with the hardware I'm going with.

Bill


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## dedlast (Aug 17, 2013)

Finally got an update on the blog. Finally did something worth updating, actually. 

I took 485 pounds worth of ICE scrap to the recyclers and got a whole $25 for it.









I had been thinking of using a Leaf drive train for awhile but miscrms build got me moving on it. I picked up a 2015 Leaf S with 2540 miles on it and substantial damage to the front right corner. It even had that new car smell, too. Leaf Spy says it has had 2 quick charges and 65 level1/level2 charges. State of health is at 100%, as it should be.







































The part that most concerned me, with it being an S, was the charger. Fortunately, it's 6.6 kW. Just what I wanted.









I am getting the transmission cleaned up and took a picture of the end of the bell housing to help with designing the adapter plate.

















It's nowhere near Todd's standards, but it's a start. 
More to come, eventually.

Bill


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## dedlast (Aug 17, 2013)

SUCCESS! Well, with this weekend's project, anyway.
This morning:










This afternoon:


















It turns out this motor has a 20-tooth spline with 21.58 mm outer diameter and 19.30 mm inner diameter. I got a pitch of 2.35 mm. All assuming I'm measuring correctly.

Now to find some way to brace the reducer so it doesn't damage the half-shafts before I can sell them off. It is sitting on a jack at the moment.

Now for the hard part; adapter plate and coupling.

Bill


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## dedlast (Aug 17, 2013)

I'm still mulling over the final design for the adapter and coupler, but I did decide that instead of modeling and machining the coupler from scratch, I would go and buy a used crankshaft and cut the end of it off. I got that done this week. I have no idea yet where I'm going to to get the rest of the machining done, though. I don't think it's something I can do properly with my skills and tools. One nice thing, if my calculations are correct, whatever length the coupler ends up being, that's how thick my adapter is going to be. This is due to the magic number and the space between the motor face and the usable portion of the motor shaft matching almost perfectly. 

Here's the coupler "blank", if you will. There is still a bunch of extra material that I need to prune off of it. I'm a little concerned about the oil galleries but I'm hoping they fall in usable spots or at least don't get in the way.









My next big breakthrough was figuring out how to mount the Leaf master cylinder on the Supra firewall. It was actually easier than I originally tried to make it. At first I was going to try and fit the Leaf brake pedal assembly under the Supra dash with new mounting holes and the like to fit the assembly. There was too much interference in too many places to get that to work. The steering column geometry, the way the pedals are designed, and the space in the cabin are just too different. 

Fortunately, the Leaf master cylinder has an adapter on it. It looks like they designed it to use on different platforms.









I cut the front of the Supra master cylinder off with the mounting bolts attached and opened up the center hole just enough to fit the Leaf MC.

















I cut off the extra bits from the adapter, machined some clearance pockets, drilled and tapped some holes, and bolted it all together.

















It fits with plenty of room for wiring and plumbing. That makes me really happy. I put some weather stripping around the hole to help block out noise and drafts. No picture of that, though.









Now I just have to decide whether I'm going to weld the extra holes shut or plug them some other way.









The next step is getting the switches and the regen pot mounted on the brake pedal assembly and figuring out how to mount the throttle pot. Here's a pic showing just how different the two pedals are. The throttle was attached to the right side of the Leaf assembly, below the regen pot connector.









This next pic shows pretty much how the motor and transmission should line up when I get it all put together.









The other thing I accomplished this summer was removing the dash and tossing it in the back seat of the Leaf. All that's left is the HVAC and the support beam. I also labeled everything I could when I pulled it apart. 


That's where things are today. It's going to be a busy weekend but I'm hoping to find the time to get back to the coupler and get it in shape for final machining. I also want to spend some more time with the brake and throttle puzzle. We'll see.

B


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## miscrms (Sep 25, 2013)

Nice progress! 

Finally back to working on mine. Funny, just pulled my brake pedal assembly last night. Taking the extra step of re-assembling the whole drive/ control system now that its outside the car to better document and make sure all my assumptions are working out ok. Almost done with hooking that all up, just have to get all the grounding sorted now that there's no chassis  Then the fun will really begin of tearing down the host and starting to work out all these fit details.

Are you planning to actually use the different gears in the transmission, or just leave it one gear for a fixed ratio similar to the original 8:1?

Rob


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## dedlast (Aug 17, 2013)

miscrms said:


> Nice progress!


Thanks!



> Are you planning to actually use the different gears in the transmission, or just leave it one gear for a fixed ratio similar to the original 8:1?


I plan on having them available. Whether I use them or not remains to be seen. It really depends on how the motor performs in any given situation. 

B


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## dedlast (Aug 17, 2013)

More to show. I'm getting the brake pedal assembly figured out. I mounted the bracket for the Brake Pedal Position Sensor on the side and added a washer to capture the arm. I moved the holes for the two switches over and extended the plate that contacts the plungers on the switches.


















I made a couple silicone molds of the motor shaft and then made some plaster casts from the molds. I'm planning to use them as an aid to accurately drawing them in my CAD program. I painted the base of the casting black to give it more contrast so the splines would stand out better. I think it worked pretty well. The silicone was sensitive enough that you can see the tool marks on the side of the splines.










I shaved the top part off so I could get a clear view of the base of the splines. You can see the tool marks here, too.









B


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## theguyed (Dec 4, 2010)

That Leaf is an (S+), they come with a quick level 3 charger and a backup camera.
Where did you buy the Leaf and how much did it cost you?


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## dedlast (Aug 17, 2013)

I bought it salvage through http://www.autobidmaster.com/ I paid just under $11,000 for it. It's a 2015 with a little over 2500 miles on it. I actually considered just fixing it but I didn't want a Leaf, I wanted an electric Supra so it's getting dismantled and then "remantled" in the other body.


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## miscrms (Sep 25, 2013)

Very nice! You're reminding of how many things I'll still have to tackle once I get the motor mounts and axles sorted though 

Rob


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## dedlast (Aug 17, 2013)

Wow, a post in my own thread. Amazing! 
I finally got all the bits out of the Leaf that I want to keep, including the battery. It is sitting on a pair of furniture dollies under the car. I put the fenders and the hood back on and am actively looking for someone to "make me an offer I can't refuse" on the shell. I want to sell it as one piece because I want the whole thing gone at once, not parceled out over a year or two worth of time. 

Progress!

Bill


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## skeyes (Dec 3, 2016)

Did you ever get an accurate CAD file of those splines? Cool build hope to see more!


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## dedlast (Aug 17, 2013)

skeyes said:


> Did you ever get an accurate CAD file of those splines? Cool build hope to see more!


I'm not sure. I had our ME at work 3D print it out and it was a bit more snug than I had hoped. But... His comment was that he didn't have much faith in the "dimensional integrity" of our 3D printer, so I really need to get it machined and I haven't been looking that hard yet.

Bill


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## dedlast (Aug 17, 2013)

Hey all, It's kind of a good news/bad news sort of day. 

First the good news. I finally got the carcass out of the garage and the wiring harness strung out in its place. I hooked up everything I could and powered it on. The dash came on with a ton of error lights, just as expected. I still have ~8kWH in the battery, so even after sitting for 2 years it hasn't degraded to a dangerously low point.

The bad news is that's all I'm getting. It won't go into drive mode, it doesn't read the individual cell voltages, and I don't think it will take a charge, either. I don't have an EVSE to try it with, though, the one that should have been in the car wasn't there when I bought it. Just the storage bag. It seems ridiculous that they still want $150 to over $200 for them on eBay when all these Leafs are getting scrapped out. There should be a glut on the market. But I do have a friend who has a Leaf and I should be able to borrow his for a little while to do some testing.

Using Leaf Spy Pro, I see that there are a lot of DTC's that are probably keeping things from working like they should. My setup has an odd thing happening. It looks like the OBDII reader and/or CAN bus resets every 38 "counts" on the Leaf Spy Pro screen, about every second. It didn't do that before I tore it out of the body, so something is out of sorts. I can read DTC's but I can't seem to erase them, either. It just sits there with the please wait button.

Can one of you who have successfully been doing that give me an idea how long it should take to go from pushing the little green button to completing the erase function? I think the system it resetting before it has time to complete. I think I'm going to have to start with a bare-bones setup and see if that clears the reset issue, then work towards adding pieces until I get what I want.

On another note, I finally bought some carbide insert tools for my lathe and I'm kicking myself for struggling with HSS tools for so long. I think I'm pretty much ready to have the connector hub splined as soon as I get the right dimensions. I think I'm close, I just need to get a prototype piece cut and tested. 

Bill


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## dedlast (Aug 17, 2013)

I am slowly getting DTC's under control. One set that has me pretty concerned is:
>P3171 000B EV/HEV PD Module System EVC-241
>P3170 000B EV/HEV PD Module System EVC-241
>P316C 000B EV/HEV PD Module System EVC-238
>P316E 000B EV/HEV PD Module System EVC-239

In the 2014 repair manual, those are on different pages but... they all say to run the PD Module self diagnostic. Anybody have any clue on how to do that without access to Consult?

Thanks,
Bill


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## dedlast (Aug 17, 2013)

Interestingly enough, those errors I was worried about went away when I plugged in the HVAC unit (but not the HV cable).

My current list of DTC's as of yesterday afternoon:

>C1142 0001 ABS Pressure Sensor Circuit BRC-103
>U1000 0109 ABS CAN Comm Circuit
>U110D 0109 ABS E-Driven Intelligent Brak Comm BRC-130
>C118C 0109 ABS HE/HEV System BRC-126
Ok None --> BCM
B29A0 2408 CHARGER N/CHG Port Engage Err VC-95
>P3195 000B EV/HEV CAN Error EVC-272
>U1000 000B CAN Comm Circuit
>P31B7 000B CAN Error EVC-285
>P31E1 000B EV/HEV HV System Interlock Error EVC-305
Ok None --> HVAC
U1000 004C HV Battery CAN Comm Circuit
P3189 004C HV Battery Comm Err A/C EVB-91
Ok None --> IPDM E/R
>U1000 0009 METER CAN Comm Circuit
Ok None --> MOTOR CONTROL
Ok None --> SHIFT
Ok None --> VSP

It will shift out of Park into Neutral but won't shift into Drive or Reverse. I don't have ready access to an EVSE so I don't know if it will charge or not. I still 8 kW left in the pack, so I'm not panicking about that...yet. 

As soon as I can remember where I left my roll of solder, I'm going to solder some resistors on the SRS controller like Kevin Sharpe did, to spoof the air bags.

Also, today, I'm going to strip out some unused wire from the harness.

Bill


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## D a n n y^ (Aug 4, 2015)

Bill,

How are you coming with your coupler? It seems you may have already figured this out, but maybe this could help... this plastic tool for aligning the clutch happens to match the Nissan Leaf's Motor spline. 

















https://youtu.be/F6EOl1YO9VI
Cheers! 
Danny



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## dedlast (Aug 17, 2013)

Interesting. I did find that a 7/8 20-tooth clutch plate fits as a slip fit. Too loosely to use as a model, though, or as an insert for coupler. I have a feeling that tool would have the same problem as model.

I am still working on the coupler and struggling with getting it to "fixture" solidly on my little table top machine tools. I think I have a solution, finally, but now I have to order a couple more cutting tools-a boring bar with a tool insert and a standard boring bar longer than the one I have. 

As for progress on the car, I'm still stuck on the self-diagnostic for the PDM. It seems no-one has the Consult software and I haven't reached out to my local dealership yet. 

I have also been struggling with the IC cars at the house, too. My daily driver, an '87 CRX, has a cracked head that took a while to accurately diagnose. And the back-up vehicle, a '98 Durango had to have the front brake pads and calipers replaced. All of this took time away from the project. Oh well, I guess that's how life goes, sometimes.

Bill


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## D a n n y^ (Aug 4, 2015)

dedlast said:


> Interesting. I did find that a 7/8 20-tooth clutch plate fits as a slip fit. Too loosely to use as a model, though, or as an insert for coupler. I have a feeling that tool would have the same problem as model.
> 
> I am still working on the coupler and struggling with getting it to "fixture" solidly on my little table top machine tools. I think I have a solution, finally, but now I have to order a couple more cutting tools-a boring bar with a tool insert and a standard boring bar longer than the one I have.
> Bill



Are you opposed to using the coupler from inside the gearbox? After pulling mine out it became very apparent that there is a good fit and plenty of room to cut off and maybe press/weld into a larger tube.

Are you looking to maintain the use of your clutch?

Danny 




Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk


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## dedlast (Aug 17, 2013)

I'm not particularly opposed to using the coupler from the Leaf reduction gear, I just don't think it will fit tight enough to hold the flywheel in place. I am currently planning on keeping the clutch, not really for any rational reason. With the speed the motor can spin up to, there wouldn't be much need for quick shifting unless I was trying to make some fast laps somewhere. Even then, a "slow" shift time, how ever infrequently it would have to happen, probably wouldn't effect lap times too much. 

Maybe I should take the time while the weather is nice to go ahead and yank the transaxle out of there and take it apart. Just in case. It would let me grab the parking apparatus, too, as I was planning on using that somehow. I wouldn't want to trust just the parking brakes on some of the hills around here. 

Bill


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## sholland (Jan 16, 2012)

FWIW, I am also trying to come up with a coupler solution for the leaf motor to a Honda transmission, which is .875" 20t.

Here's a photo of the input shaft from the leaf transaxle.


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## brian_ (Feb 7, 2017)

sholland said:


> Here's a photo of the input shaft from the leaf transaxle.


Just to clarify... this is a photo of the motor, with the transaxle's input shaft mounted on it, right? That looks like the input shaft's motor-side bearing, parking cogwheel, and the input gear to the first reduction stage. If that shaft is sticking out of the transaxle housing, there must be more transaxle housing, not just a motor.



dedlast said:


> I'm not particularly opposed to using the coupler from the Leaf reduction gear, I just don't think it will fit tight enough to hold the flywheel in place.


I would have a similar concern. It appears that the output shaft of the motor is intended to engage the internal splines of the transaxle's input shaft, which has a support bearing at the input. A flywheel is supported entirely by the engine's crankshaft, to which the flywheel is securely bolted through a flange; the crankshaft has bearings intended to take the load of the flywheel. Anything with a slip fit doesn't seem like a flywheel mounting method to me.


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## electro wrks (Mar 5, 2012)

If you are planing to use a flywheel/clutch set-up, be aware the leaf motor is a 10K+ RPM motor. I'm guessing this well above the stock RPM for the Supra ICE. For safety sake, you really need to talk to someone who is familiar with the Supra stock and racing flywheel/clutch set-ups and the RPM limits. Flywheels and clutches flying apart because of too high a RPM can be very dangerous.


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## sholland (Jan 16, 2012)

brian_ said:


> Just to clarify... this is a photo of the motor, with the transaxle's input shaft mounted on it, right? That looks like the input shaft's motor-side bearing, parking cogwheel, and the input gear to the first reduction stage. If that shaft is sticking out of the transaxle housing, there must be more transaxle housing, not just a motor.


Correct. That's just the input shaft with one of the bearings still pressed on to it. I think there are 2 possibilities: machining down the input shaft to bolt up to a clutch disc hub, or getting all the dimensions and having a machine shop broach the 2 ends with the correct splines I'll need.



brian_ said:


> I would have a similar concern. It appears that the output shaft of the motor is intended to engage the internal splines of the transaxle's input shaft, which has a support bearing at the input. A flywheel is supported entirely by the engine's crankshaft, to which the flywheel is securely bolted through a flange; the crankshaft has bearings intended to take the load of the flywheel. Anything with a slip fit doesn't seem like a flywheel mounting method to me.


I wasn't really considering using the flywheel and clutch for the reasons you've mentioned above. I am also a little concerned with trying to have a rigid coupler, which will mean the alignment of the motor and transmission will need to be very precise. Some sort of flexible coupling that can handle the power might be better, but I don't know what the solution should be. I am talking to an expert right now to see what they recommend.


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## D a n n y^ (Aug 4, 2015)

sholland said:


> Correct. That's just the input shaft with one of the bearings still pressed on to it. I think there are 2 possibilities: machining down the input shaft to bolt up to a clutch disc hub, or getting all the dimensions and having a machine shop broach the 2 ends with the correct splines I'll need.
> 
> 
> 
> I wasn't really considering using the flywheel and clutch for the reasons you've mentioned above. I am also a little concerned with trying to have a rigid coupler, which will mean the alignment of the motor and transmission will need to be very precise. Some sort of flexible coupling that can handle the power might be better, but I don't know what the solution should be. I am talking to an expert right now to see what they recommend.




You may just consider using this type of coupler:
https://youtu.be/fhjiOWdkC8U

Similar type of couplers are used to on some of the submarines that I do work on. Very strong, low maintenance application. I was considering this approach just cause it seems pretty easy.

Hope that helps.

Danny


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## Duncan (Dec 8, 2008)

Hi Sholland

I would just use the female splines from the clutch disc and make up a mounting that solidly mounted that piece to the motor shaft

That is what the gearbox "expects" to see after all 

Take a bit of time ensuring that it is central - but don't get too anal about it
Anytime that you are worrying have a look at the old engine and think about just how well centered the clutch plate is with that


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## dedlast (Aug 17, 2013)

electro wrks said:


> If you are planing to use a flywheel/clutch set-up, be aware the leaf motor is a 10K+ RPM motor. I'm guessing this well above the stock RPM for the Supra ICE. For safety sake, you really need to talk to someone who is familiar with the Supra stock and racing flywheel/clutch set-ups and the RPM limits. Flywheels and clutches flying apart because of too high a RPM can be very dangerous.


I am very aware of this and have even wondered if the transmission input shaft is capable of running at that speed. 

I was interested to see that bearing on the transaxle input shaft. One could potentially incorporate that into the adapter plate and use it for centering everything and holding it all in place. The challenge that I see with that is getting rid of the unneeded gear portion and then adding the transmission input shaft spline. Shouldn't be any harder than what I'm trying to do, though.

Bill


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## electro wrks (Mar 5, 2012)

Duncan said:


> Hi Sholland
> 
> I would just use the female splines from the clutch disc and make up a mounting that solidly mounted that piece to the motor shaft
> 
> ...


You don't seem to grasp the importance of a fairly precisely located and well supported pilot bearing for the input shaft of this type of gearbox. Talk to someone who has witnessed the gearbox mayhem that results in ICE set-ups with missing or worn out pilot bearing.


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## sholland (Jan 16, 2012)

dedlast said:


> I am very aware of this and have even wondered if the transmission input shaft is capable of running at that speed.
> 
> I was interested to see that bearing on the transaxle input shaft. One could potentially incorporate that into the adapter plate and use it for centering everything and holding it all in place. The challenge that I see with that is getting rid of the unneeded gear portion and then adding the transmission input shaft spline. Shouldn't be any harder than what I'm trying to do, though.
> 
> Bill


I've thought about reusing the bearing also, though remember it's normally inside the transaxle case, so is lubricated. Not sure how that could stay lubricated in the bellhousing...


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## sholland (Jan 16, 2012)

D a n n y^ said:


> You may just consider using this type of coupler:
> https://youtu.be/fhjiOWdkC8U
> 
> Similar type of couplers are used to on some of the submarines that I do work on. Very strong, low maintenance application. I was considering this approach just cause it seems pretty easy.
> ...


Perhaps this could work, with an adapter from spline to keyway machined down from the leaf transaxle input shaft.

http://catalog.lovejoy-inc.com/category/highest-torque-jaw-couplings-h-type


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## electro wrks (Mar 5, 2012)

D a n n y^ said:


> You may just consider using this type of coupler:
> https://youtu.be/fhjiOWdkC8U
> 
> Similar type of couplers are used to on some of the submarines that I do work on. Very strong, low maintenance application. I was considering this approach just cause it seems pretty easy.
> ...


The Lovejoy type coupling may work for the guy in the vid, but probably not for you. The trans. in the vid is a front wheel drive unit. The input shafts on these are typically well supported by 2-3 widely spaced bearings in the trans. He really should use a pilot bearing or sleeve, but might get away without it.

Your trans. on the other hand, if it is a typical front engine/rear wheel drive, has a poorly supported input shaft. It absolutely needs a fairly precisely located and well supported pilot bearing or sleeve to operate properly. Check to see how loose your input shaft is side to side and up and down. It's probably like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZSx_rfCV1o Or this one:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KD2c79Gw5Cc These are typical of all the trans. of this type that I've seen. A Lovejoy type coupling hooked up to this without a good pilot bearing somehow in place, would quickly destroy the trans. Also, the Lovejoy needs two rigidly mounted shafts to work properly. There might be some RPM limitations as well with that large of a Lovejoy.


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## Duncan (Dec 8, 2008)

electro wrks said:


> You don't seem to grasp the importance of a fairly precisely located and well supported pilot bearing for the input shaft of this type of gearbox. Talk to someone who has witnessed the gearbox mayhem that results in ICE set-ups with missing or worn out pilot bearing.


Well lah de dah!

If that gearbox has that design - a lot don't - then machining a suitable bore in the motor adapter is easy - especially as it never sees any rotation


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## electro wrks (Mar 5, 2012)

Duncan said:


> Well lah de dah!
> 
> If that gearbox has that design - a lot don't - then machining a suitable bore in the motor adapter is easy - especially as it never sees any rotation


You smug transmissionless (that rolls off the tongue easier gearboxless) person. You've completely skirted around this miserable problem by eliminating the gearbox in your build! This frees up lots of time for you to be a good Administrator!


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## dedlast (Aug 17, 2013)

Okay, so I'm pretty excited about this now. Maybe prematurely, but excited none-the-less. I found out that the input gear we've been looking at is really just a hollow tube with a cap pressed in the bottom. I punched it out with a 1/2 drive extension and took a picture. 









The ID of the tube is ~25mm and the OD is ~35mm on the side away from us in the picture. 
For anyone who is using a 7/8" (0.875) 20-tooth transmission spline, they could likely have the existing spline broached all the way through and call it a day.

In my case, the input shaft on the transmission is a 21-tooth spline with an ID of about 25.3mm and an OD of about 27mm. It is a bit hard to measure because of the bell housing. I should still be able to machine in the 21-tooth spline and stop fooling around with the flywheel.

Lubricating the bearings is something to think about. I looked them up on line and they are rated at 10K RPM in grease and 12K RPM in oil. Because I want to use the parking mechanism, I'm thinking about how or if I can adapt that section of the transaxle and incorporate it into my adapter plate. That would save the hassle of laying out the motor side mounting holes but it leaves the bellhousing side to deal with. Much more cogitating to do on that front.

Bill


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## sholland (Jan 16, 2012)

dedlast said:


> Okay, so I'm pretty excited about this now. Maybe prematurely, but excited none-the-less. I found out that the input gear we've been looking at is really just a hollow tube with a cap pressed in the bottom. I punched it out with a 1/2 drive extension and took a picture.
> 
> The ID of the tube is ~25mm and the OD is ~35mm on the side away from us in the picture.
> For anyone who is using a 7/8" (0.875) 20-tooth transmission spline, they could likely have the existing spline broached all the way through and call it a day.
> ...


Nope, won't work. The Leaf input shaft is ~0.860", and won't even fit on the Honda input shaft (which is 0.875"). It would need to be broached for half the length of the shaft, which I'm not sure is possible. 

I am trying to design a coupler that has the correct dimensions. You can see the progress in the image below.


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## electro wrks (Mar 5, 2012)

dedlast said:


> Okay, so I'm pretty excited about this now. Maybe prematurely, but excited none-the-less. I found out that the input gear we've been looking at is really just a hollow tube with a cap pressed in the bottom. I punched it out with a 1/2 drive extension and took a picture.
> 
> View attachment 80985
> 
> ...


That shaft is probably mostly machined when it is soft, before it's heat-treated. This includes the broached splines. After the heat treatment, the surface the bearing sits on and probably the gear teeth (and maybe other surfaces) are finished ground to size. It may be too hard to be conveniently machined otherwise. This includes broaching.


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## dedlast (Aug 17, 2013)

I headed down the "design your own" route for awhile but my CAD skills just aren't where they should be. I got to the point where I was ready to have someone cut a test piece with wire EDM, but the price made me pause. $70 US isn't a ton, but it's enough to make me back off and be sure that's what I want to do. Your drawing looks a lot better than mine did.

I had a moment to rethink my post last night and if the ID of the output side is ~25mm, that's pretty much an inch. There wouldn't be enough to cut any kind of a spline into. But it could leave room to try and (Very carefully) weld the center spline of a clutch disk onto it. 

I didn't think about hardening, so that could be an issue. We'll have to see how that plays out.

Bill


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## sholland (Jan 16, 2012)

dedlast said:


> I headed down the "design your own" route for awhile but my CAD skills just aren't where they should be. I got to the point where I was ready to have someone cut a test piece with wire EDM, but the price made me pause. $70 US isn't a ton, but it's enough to make me back off and be sure that's what I want to do. Your drawing looks a lot better than mine did.
> 
> I had a moment to rethink my post last night and if the ID of the output side is ~25mm, that's pretty much an inch. There wouldn't be enough to cut any kind of a spline into. But it could leave room to try and (Very carefully) weld the center spline of a clutch disk onto it.
> 
> ...


Hi Bill,

Yeah, it won't be cheap to make an adapter, but the last thing I want is to have it fail at 10000 rpm! I'm going to try to make just the spline section 3D printed in plastic to check the fit first before committing to steel.

I have 2 pieces cad'd up, one for the motor side that also has the pilot bearing (for no other reason than to keep the floating coupler from moving back towards the transmission and off the motor splines), and another for the transmission side. I figure I could make more of these if people are interested. I can let you know the cost once I get quotes back.

Regards,
Stephen


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## electro wrks (Mar 5, 2012)

sholland said:


> Hi Bill,
> 
> Yeah, it won't be cheap to make an adapter, but the last thing I want is to have it fail at 10000 rpm! I'm going to try to make just the spline section 3D printed in plastic to check the fit first before committing to steel.
> 
> ...


I don't think it's a good practice to have a flywheel mount be loose or float on a shaft. I'm guessing you're going to have potentially destructive harmonic and gyroscopic wobbling that would otherwise be dampened out by the flywheel being securely attached to the shaft.


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## sholland (Jan 16, 2012)

electro wrks said:


> I don't think it's a good practice to have a flywheel mount be loose or float on a shaft. I'm guessing you're going to have potentially destructive harmonic and gyroscopic wobbling that would otherwise be dampened out by the flywheel being securely attached to the shaft.


I'm not sure you understand what I am making... I'm only making 2 flanges that bolt together, each with their own spline. There won't be a flywheel.


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## electro wrks (Mar 5, 2012)

sholland said:


> I'm not sure you understand what I am making... I'm only making 2 flanges that bolt together, each with their own spline. There won't be a flywheel.


OK, got it. This way the transmission half could be interchangeable to fit different transmissions. Good idea.


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## sholland (Jan 16, 2012)

electro wrks said:


> OK, got it. This way the transmission half could be interchangeable to fit different transmissions. Good idea.


Here's a cross section that shows both halves together... transmission on the left, motor on the right. I would include the pilot bearing on the right side just to keep the assembly from floating back towards the transmission. The o-ring on the motor side keeps the assembly from floating towards the motor.

I am going to try to get the spline sections 3D printed in plastic to check the fit first.


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## electro wrks (Mar 5, 2012)

With no clutch, there's no need for a bearing unit(usually a sealed ball bearing) to pick up the pilot bearing spigot on the end of the input shaft. Although, as cheap as bearing units are these days, it's probably cheaper than machining a collar or insert to fit in the space.

Something else that occurs to me is how the motor output shaft splines and bearing are lubricated. If they are lubed from oil in the transaxle, the bearing may have to be changed to a greased and sealed unit for stand alone motor applications. The splines probably would just need to be kept as clean as possible and greased.


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## sholland (Jan 16, 2012)

electro wrks said:


> With no clutch, there's no need for a bearing unit(usually a sealed ball bearing) to pick up the pilot bearing spigot on the end of the input shaft. Although, as cheap as bearing units are these days, it's probably cheaper than machining a collar or insert to fit in the space.
> 
> Something else that occurs to me is how the motor output shaft splines and bearing are lubricated. If they are lubed from oil in the transaxle, the bearing may have to be changed to a greased and sealed unit for stand alone motor applications. The splines probably would just need to be kept as clean as possible and greased.


Not sure about grease... The Nissan Leaf input shaft had grease on it, but the inside spline was isolated from the oil in the transaxle by the plug in the end of the shaft. As for the transmission side, the clutch disc spline never had grease on it and it was fine...


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## Duncan (Dec 8, 2008)

Re-grease

I put a rubber "boot" - on my coupling and just greased it - it was still greasy a couple of years later when I checked it 
I can't remember what the boot was off - just something I found in the shed and cut the surplus off and held on with a cable tie 

My coupling is on the end of the prop shaft so it does move in and out a small amount as the diff moves in it's ribber mounts


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## dedlast (Aug 17, 2013)

sholland said:


> I am going to try to get the spline sections 3D printed in plastic to check the fit first.


I had mine 3D printed in plastic and didn't learn much from it. I noted that earlier in the thread. Our ME said he wasn't too impressed with "dimensional integrity" of the plastic.

Bill


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## electro wrks (Mar 5, 2012)

sholland said:


> Not sure about grease... The Nissan Leaf input shaft had grease on it, but the inside spline was isolated from the oil in the transaxle by the plug in the end of the shaft. As for the transmission side, the clutch disc spline never had grease on it and it was fine...


Good auto repair manuals recommend putting a small amount of grease on the splines. Enough to lube them, prevent corrosion, and small enough not to fly off and contaminate the friction surfaces of the clutch.


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## D a n n y^ (Aug 4, 2015)

dedlast said:


> Okay, so I'm pretty excited about this now. Maybe prematurely, but excited none-the-less. I found out that the input gear we've been looking at is really just a hollow tube with a cap pressed in the bottom. I punched it out with a 1/2 drive extension and took a picture.
> 
> View attachment 80985
> 
> ...




Good info bill. Thanks! I got the same measurements as well. Today I deleted parts of the input shaft that I didn't intend on using. I have a pilot bearing with a 26mm OD. I may slightly bore out the shaft to help the transmission end sit comfortably. 










Lately I've been leaning towards deleting the transmission, and getting an extended driveshaft directly from the motor to the 4x4 transfer case. So I may be doing some of this for no reason!


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## electro wrks (Mar 5, 2012)

Can't quite follow what you did. Did you grind or machine away the gear teeth or was the gear a separate piece that you pressed off? Also, could you show the mods to the trans. input shaft?


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## D a n n y^ (Aug 4, 2015)

electro wrks said:


> Can't quite follow what you did. Did you grind or machine away the gear teeth or was the gear a separate piece that you pressed off? Also, could you show the mods to the trans. input shaft?




Sorry if I was vague. I'm not very good at sharing and taking pictures of my progress as I go. But you were correct. I just used an angle grinder to grind away the gear teeth. I also cut off the bearing furthest from the motor input. (Where the transmission may eventually go). Unfortunately the lathe at work is broken so I can't do any "real" machining or precision fitting at the moment.

I'm hoping to slightly bore out the transmission end to 26mm ID to fit the pilot bearing for the transmission shaft. This will assist me with the alignment of the clutch splines that I cut out of my clutch onto the "transmission end" of the picture.



















Hope that makes sense. Just adding to the pool of ideas hoping that one of us will figure this out and have success that we can share with one another!


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## D a n n y^ (Aug 4, 2015)

sholland said:


> Here's a cross section that shows both halves together... transmission on the left, motor on the right. I would include the pilot bearing on the right side just to keep the assembly from floating back towards the transmission. The o-ring on the motor side keeps the assembly from floating towards the motor.
> 
> 
> 
> I am going to try to get the spline sections 3D printed in plastic to check the fit first.



I stumbled across this site today. Looks similar to what you are doing. Maybe a bit thin though! http://dalhems.com/en/p/8cb80f5ed81e4d2b84261217239c4beb/hub-D-78-20-splines


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## brian_ (Feb 7, 2017)

D a n n y^ said:


> I stumbled across this site today. Looks similar to what you are doing. Maybe a bit thin though! http://dalhems.com/en/p/8cb80f5ed81e4d2b84261217239c4beb/hub-D-78-20-splines


Interesting 

It's not surprising that the flange is thin, since it is for bolting or riveting to a clutch disk, which takes only drive torque and no bending stress. You can get the same thing by removing one from a stock clutch disk that fits the spline (even a scrap worn-out one).

The linked Dalhems web page shows the manufacturer as "KEP", which sounds like Kennedy Engineered Products to me. Adapter plates and flywheels to connect a wide range of engines to VW/Porsche/Audi transaxles transmissions is their main business (mostly various engines to for off-road and racing vehicles, and updated or modified street air-cooled VWs)... and indeed they build custom clutch assemblies and rebuild them. Although they don't list clutch disk hubs like this on their website, it's probably a part that they make as a component for their clutches. It might be worth contacting them, for more detail on that hub, or other bits they might offer.


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## D a n n y^ (Aug 4, 2015)

brian_ said:


> Interesting
> 
> 
> 
> ...




That's what I was thinking too Brian. They may even be willing to manufacture some of these from thicker material. I already cut the splines portion out of a clutch with a 20 spline 7/8 bore. Just trying to save some people the trouble, as I coincidentally had a matching clutch lying around.


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## D a n n y^ (Aug 4, 2015)

Bill,

Not sure if this approach would work for you as well, but I've finished the coupler for my Samurai. Hopefully this helps spark some ideas for people? 

http://www.diyelectriccar.com/forums/#/topics/184017?page=3

Good luck keep us posted!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## dedlast (Aug 17, 2013)

Looks good, Danny. I have a working vacation coming up in October with the intent of working on the drive train. A friend of mine over in Idaho is a tool maker (so he has a shop full of machining equipment and a lot of years of experience) and he has invited me to spend a week with him to get this sorted out. 

You and I are headed in the same direction with some interesting detours. I am hoping to keep the input shaft intact and machine the transmission spline into the other end. I will take the clutch disk with me, just in case it comes in handy for parts or dimensions. 

I also plan to cut the transaxle housing down but keep the motor mount intact. I want to keep both bearing pockets and open up the "output" side to clear the transmission shaft. I also noticed the other day that the cut down transaxle housing would fit inside the bell housing, leading me to think that I might be able to discard the bell housing completely and machine an adapter plate to mount the transmission housing directly to the the transaxle housing. I will need some way to seal the transaxle housing back up to protect everything from dirt and moisture, and possibly hold some lubrication for the bearings. That part is still in the "back of my mind" thought processing. 

The biggest issue I have with the overall plan at the moment is the PDM errors that are keeping it from charging and turning the motor. I may have to go with a third party (Eldis, Johannes, Arlo, Paul Holmes) controller brain board much sooner than I had hoped. I still haven't exhausted all of my options on that front yet, though, so maybe someone will still turn up who can help out.

Bill


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## Bird of Prey (Aug 24, 2016)

That is nice . I love seeing good crafting of metal . Are you still gonna use the Leaf electronics to run it ? Has anyone made it simpler to use and hook up ?


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## sholland (Jan 16, 2012)

Haven't posted for a bit, but things have been progressing...

I got the design for a custom shaft coupler out for quotes and wasn't too happy with the total cost of machining and EDM work. In the end I've decided to simply cut off the Nissan transaxle input shaft and have a simple piece machined to connect to a center hub from a clutch disc, like shown below.

I also have an adapter plate currently getting CNC'd to adapt the Canev adapter I already have to the Leaf motor. I should have that next week.


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## dedlast (Aug 17, 2013)

jsimonkeller, I'm afraid I don't have any answers for you. I am still ever so painfully slowly working on the mechanical side of things and haven't done much of anything with the electrical/electronic side of it. Kevin Sharp or one of the others who have running Leaf conversions would be better to ask.


B


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## brian_ (Feb 7, 2017)

dedlast said:


> Kevin Sharp or one of the others who have running Leaf conversions would be better to ask.


Kevin started with Leaf parts for his VW, but switched to Tesla long ago.


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## dedlast (Aug 17, 2013)

It does seem that the (vast) majority of the effort on this forum to repurpose OEM parts is focused on Tesla. I can't fault that, if that's what folks want to do, that's what they want to do, and they are doing it very well. It just makes it difficult for those of us who are going a different route and don't have the skills or tools to make a similar effort. My google-fu is weak, too, so that makes it a challenge to find other people doing similar work. mynissanleaf.com has had a bit of information in the past but I haven't been able to get over there for awhile so I don't know what's going on lately.


B


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## dedlast (Aug 17, 2013)

Well, it's been along time since I posted anything in my own thread. Partly because there hasn't been a lot going on, but also because I'm actually pretty horrible at communicating what I've been doing. But I'll make up for in this post, at least for word count.



The Big news, as seen on a different thread, is that I got the motor to spin and the charger to charge. All I had to do was hook up high voltage to the AC compressor and the HVAC. And then fix the squeal in the water pump. But that got me excited to push some more and think things through that I have kind of been letting slide.


One of the things that has been holding me up, as has held up a lot of folks, is how to get connected to the motor shaft. And how to utilize the Leaf parking brake. And, I realized a couple weeks ago, how to get the charger/inverter/motor stack to clear the firewall. I didn't do any measurements for that part, but it looked tight. 



So my latest hair-brained idea (Plan Q, at least), that I think is the most likely to succeed is to use the part of the transaxle housing that holds the input shaft and parking brake mechanism and mount the adapter plate to that. 



It needs to be serviceable, which is where I want want to pass my idea past the braniacs in the DIYEC hive-mind. The Leaf input shaft is hollow and the output bearing is 35mm ID. I can get a 1-3/8" 21 tooth spline shaft, which will barely fit through that bearing, and turn it down to fit inside the input shaft. I think I can drill some holes in the input shaft and weld the splined shaft inside it and add a weld bead around the end to help hold it all in place. That takes care of getting to the inside of the transaxle housing to service anything in there. 



The second part of this assembly, attaching the flywheel hub to this mess, is the part that I have the biggest questions about. What I want to do, to keep the cost somewhat reasonable, is to machine a pocket in to the hub and weld a 1-3/8 21T coupling in. To keep it from flopping around, I would drill and tap the end of the shaft and hold it all together with an M10 bolt. As for a flywheel, I plan on using a very light weight (~10lbs), high RPM rated one, which should help minimize the loads on the connection.


So the ultimate question is, does this look like a workable solution? Or am I setting myself for catastrophic failure in the near future as the shaft breaks off and the flywheel rockets out of the car and wipes out a busload of elderly bingo players heading off the casino for a night on the town? 



The attached CAD renderings should provide a good idea of what I tried to write. I am moving forward with purchasing a splined shaft and coupler, just to see how much play there is, while you folks educate me.


Bill


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## D a n n y^ (Aug 4, 2015)

dedlast said:


> Well, it's been along time since I posted anything in my own thread. Partly because there hasn't been a lot going on, but also because I'm actually pretty horrible at communicating what I've been doing. But I'll make up for in this post, at least for word count.
> 
> 
> 
> ...




Big congratulations on spinning the motor Bill! I am unfortunately unable to get mine to cooperate at the moment. 
When designing my motor’s coupler one of the challenges that caused me to lean towards deleting the flywheel/clutch was the length of the coupler. The extended length and weight of the existing leaf gearbox coupler would need to be supported on one or both sides in the adapter plate(s) to reduce stress and vibration from the added weight of the flywheel and the already heavy coupler. 

On my previous conversion, the AC24LS motor shaft was significantly more “beefy” and the flywheel mounting hub bolted directly on. No need for additional support to avoid “flopping around.” I found this difficult to replicate without deleting everything on the Lead coupler up to about the parking pawl lock’s gear.

In the end I opted to use a pilot bearing on the transmission end to assist in alignment and I tried to keep the coupler as short as possible. Most of my decisions though, were based on trying to reduce the timeline and cost that would be extended by having an intricate adapter plate machined.


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## dedlast (Aug 17, 2013)

After hearing your issues with putting all the wiring into the car, I admit that I am a little nervous about having the same thing happen. But I will focus on the mechanicals first.


As noted above, I'm going to go ahead and modify and use the transaxle housing to fit between the motor and adapter plate to keep everything stable and aligned, and to make sure the stack clears the firewall. Does it need to be that far out? Probably not, but better safe than beating on it with a hammer. It also minimizes the intricacies of the adapter plate. I'm looking at some through holes, some tapped holes and two blind holes to put alignment pins in. A total of 17 holes in a 1 inch aluminum plate.



Bill


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## dedlast (Aug 17, 2013)

Well, it's been next to forever since I have had anything to update but now I do so it's time to revive this old thread.

I finally got the hub machined and built up but when I got it all put back together, I found that there was massive wobble in the flywheel. Thinking the hub was off center somehow, I took a long time machining a new hub out of a suitable steel rod on an undersized lathe and am pretty happy with the way it looks. I'll take some pictures in the next few days and post them up here. However, when I got it all put back together, the expletive wobble was still there. I did some more troubleshooting and digging and found that the Leaf shaft is actually bent. The only thing I can figure, since it's a hardened steel assembly, is that when the machine shop welded the pin in to hold the splined coupler shaft into place, it warped the Leaf shaft by about 0.020". That translates to about 1/4" runout and offset on the edge of the flywheel. 

I'm going to have to track down a new shaft at the very least, and maybe a complete transaxle since I would like to do something a little different with that, too. I was looking on eBay tonight and some people are really attached to their salvage parts. I saw prices every where from about $470 up to about $1900 for the same assembly. I'm going to have to call around and see if any local junk yards can give me a better deal. Unless someone in the Settle metro area has one they are willing to part with for less than an arm or a leg. 

Bill


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## tylerwatts (Feb 9, 2012)

Sorry to read about your troubles Bill. Welding could have caused that which is a real shame. Hope you find a good deal soon and don't totally lose a use.for the bent motor/shaft.

cheers
Tyler


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## electro wrks (Mar 5, 2012)

dedlast said:


> The only thing I can figure, since it's a hardened steel assembly, is that when the machine shop welded the pin in to hold the splined coupler shaft into place, it warped the Leaf shaft by about 0.020". That translates to about 1/4" runout and offset on the edge of the flywheel.


Do you have any photos of your coupling?


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## dedlast (Aug 17, 2013)

No pictures yet. It's on my to-do list so probably tonight if I can keep from diving back into a new game I'm playing. Well, new being relative. I picked up Railway Empire for super cheap. Reminds a lot of Sid Meyer's Railroad Tycoon which wa a favorite for a long time.

Anyway, hopefully tonight.

B


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## dedlast (Aug 17, 2013)

Pictures are attached. They should be the shaft at 0.0" deflection, shaft at ~0.0055", the coupler back, coupler front and coupler side. It was an interesting challenge for designing, fixturing, and cutting that coupler on the little lathe. I may have gotten carried away by putting three keys in it, especially since it is a medium shrink fit, but it seemed like the thing to do. In order to get the coupler and insert together, I put the insert in the freezer and baked the coupler at 400F for about 2 hours. Then I pressed them together with a big-ish arbor press that I picked up at an estate sale last Friday for cheap. 

Cutting the keyways in the coupler was extremely time consuming and not really to my satisfaction. Neither my little lathe nor my medium lathe have anywhere near enough rigidity to make the cuts and the big lathe at the nearby maker space was only a little bit better. Since they are blind keyways, I couldn't use a regular broach and using a 3/16" piece of HSS tooling only worked up to a point. 

On the second shaft picture you can see the weld spot for the pin. I probably should have just had the shop put spring pin in there and it might have saved all this hassle. Hindsight does bring some clarity.

That's all I have for today.














































Bill


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## electro wrks (Mar 5, 2012)

Impressive amount of work!


dedlast said:


> The Leaf input shaft is hollow and the output bearing is 35mm ID. I can get a 1-3/8" 21 tooth spline shaft, which will barely fit through that bearing, and turn it down to fit inside the input shaft.


The hollow part of the input shaft is probably rough machined before heat treatment and not finish ground after HT, like the bearing mounting areas are. So, it could mean the male splined shaft pressed into the hollow shaft could have some run out at the spline. That would be all right if there is enough clearance between the two splines, and flywheel hub was properly aligned by other machined areas on the hub, where it attaches to the input shaft. In general, I don't think a slpined connection, by itself, should be relied on for the degree of alignment needed to run a flywheel/clutch set-up.

In the first two photos, a regular 3 jaw chuck is not a very accurate set up for measuring run out. Especially, that far away from the chuck. Using a steady rest or mounting between centers with good center holes in the ends of the shaft would be a lot better.

Also that's a pretty small weld. Are you sure it warped the shaft?

In the last photos, it looks like you are trying to use the face and the bore of the inner race of the bearing on the male splined end of the shaft for alignment. These are carefully ground surfaces on the bearing and should work for alignment. If this is the case, are you sure the short, thin wall section sticking out of the non-flywheel end of the hug is long enough to pick up the ground bore of the bearing's inner race? Some bearing inner races have a large, unground (less accurate) chamfers. Are you sure the keys(nice work, by the way) are not sticking up above the machined alignment surface?

That's enough for now. I have more tricks to try to salvage this part, if needed.


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## dedlast (Aug 17, 2013)

electro wrks said:


> Impressive amount of work!


Thanks. Although I wish it was a little less impressive, meaning simpler.




> The hollow part of the input shaft is probably rough machined before heat treatment and not finish ground after HT...


This crossed my mind, too. I had a thought that if I can get the splined insert out, I could machine/grind the inside surface of the shaft and either machine a new insert (I have another untouched splined shaft), or add a sleeve to it. As another fly in this ointment, the insert is not pressed and has a tiny bit of play in it, too. Probably a couple thousandths. 

My thought was I could fixture the Leaf shaft with a steady rest, or lock the bearings down at the right height, grind out the inside of the shaft while rotating it, and add a sleeve of the right thickness so I wouldn't to remachine the splined shaft. May be wishful thinking, though.



> ...a regular 3 jaw chuck is not a very accurate set up for measuring run out. ...


Agreed. I did bump the farthest bearing with the cross slide and that cutting tool that's just visible to see if it just needed to be lined up. Sort of like a half (or third) of a steady rest and that's when I saw that the bearing was still rising and falling.



> Also that's a pretty small weld. Are you sure it warped the shaft?


Not at all. It is an interesting coincidence, though, that the high and low of the apparent runout is right in line with that weld.



> ...it looks like you are trying to use the face and the bore of the inner race of the bearing on the male splined end of the shaft for alignment. ... Are you sure the keys(nice work, by the way) are not sticking up above the machined alignment surface?


Using the face of the bearing for alignment is exactly my thought. I am in the process of checking alignment and planarity between the flywheel surface and that raised lip on the splined insert. I have the hub fastened down to a rotary table on the mill. If need be, I can probably remedy any runout there with judicious application of an end mill.

The bearing looks like a ground surface to me but I will double check it to be sure. There is also an air-gap, for lack of a better word, between the face of the splined shaft and the inside face of the hub. My thought was that would help allow the bearing face and the insert lip to line up the hub rather than relying on the splines. I had the shaft drilled and tapped so I can bolt the assembly together to help with that and also so I could worry a lot less about the flywheel falling off and coming through the floor boards.

The keys are definitely below any interference height. I took a file to them to make sure.

Hopefully that made some sense. I do appreciate any ideas I can get. Especially if means I don't have to start over again for the second time. Or is it the third time?

Bill


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## electro wrks (Mar 5, 2012)

dedlast said:


> I had a thought that if I can get the splined insert out, I could machine/grind the inside surface of the shaft and either machine a new insert (I have another untouched splined shaft), or add a sleeve to it. As another fly in this ointment, the insert is not pressed and has a tiny bit of play in it, too. Probably a couple thousandths.
> 
> My thought was I could fixture the Leaf shaft with a steady rest, or lock the bearings down at the right height, grind out the inside of the shaft while rotating it, and add a sleeve of the right thickness so I wouldn't to remachine the splined shaft. May be wishful thinking, though.


I wouldn't bother. I don't know how how much play there is in your splined set-up. As I mentioned before it is probably a poor choice, by it self, for aligning a flywheel/ clutch set-up. This is because of the typical clearences between the splines. Think of the splined shaft as just means of transmitting the torque. The alignment is better done by other features of the hub/ shaft combo.




dedlast said:


> My thought was that would help allow the bearing face and the insert lip to line up the hub rather than relying on the splines.


Again, you need to make sure the lip is long enough to be aligned by the ground inner cylindrical surface of the bearing inner race, and be a tight push fit. Don't try to use the chamfer on the inside edge of the inner race. The chamfer may or may not be gound true to the other surfaces and would be an unreliable alignment surface, in any case. You may have to machine the end of the input shaft to make room for this lip. Although, you are asking a lot of that thin walled lip! Make sure the hub is well torqued down with your clamping bolt.

The more I think of this set-up, the more I think you may be asking too much of the friction between the small area at the back of the hub and the inner race of the bearing it is bolted to. With the potential for movement because of the clearences in the splines and the looseness of the splined shaft in the input shaft, this could be a problem. I've seen fretting wear(look it up) occur in set-ups like this. Great, another thing for you to worry about! You are in too deep now. You might as well try to make it work.




dedlast said:


> the high and low of the apparent runout is right in line with that weld.


If you think this is the case, you could pull the bearings off, and straighten it in a press.

Also, in your final assembly, you can rotate the hub to different positions on the splined shaft to try to find the position with the least run-out. And mark it for future reference.


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## mons2b (Nov 17, 2015)

dedlast said:


> Pictures are attached. They should be the shaft at 0.0" deflection, shaft at ~0.0055", the coupler back, coupler front and coupler side. It was an interesting challenge for designing, fixturing, and cutting that coupler on the little lathe. I may have gotten carried away by putting three keys in it, especially since it is a medium shrink fit, but it seemed like the thing to do. In order to get the coupler and insert together, I put the insert in the freezer and baked the coupler at 400F for about 2 hours. Then I pressed them together with a big-ish arbor press that I picked up at an estate sale last Friday for cheap.
> 
> Cutting the keyways in the coupler was extremely time consuming and not really to my satisfaction. Neither my little lathe nor my medium lathe have anywhere near enough rigidity to make the cuts and the big lathe at the nearby maker space was only a little bit better. Since they are blind keyways, I couldn't use a regular broach and using a 3/16" piece of HSS tooling only worked up to a point.
> 
> ...


You are very skillful with your metal work. I was wondering. Is there anyway to get a clone of that bent shaft custom made up for you or would that cost too much?


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