Quote:
Originally Posted by magman
Sounds like a cool project James...seeing as I weld, I will be curious as to your axle fabrication goes. What grade steel are you going to use for these?
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Well, the steel will most likely be thin wall tube, possibly conduit. I will get materials together and whip something up. The center section will be a large diameter piece of tube that is cut, opened up and made into a U shape. Ends will be weled onto that and the axle tubes will be welded to those ends. The ends will have cuts to allow the outdrives of the diff to slide in, and the axle tube will have notches as well. I will fab C hubs for the axle tube ends and use the cnc hyper knuckles I have laying around. The axles will have trusses top and bottom, to reinforce the tubes. The tubes will most likely be 1/2" dia, The center section will have to be about 1 1/2 to 2" diameter. I will use thicker flat material for the axle trusses, as they will take a beating. Most likely have 3 of those trusses, 1 in the front parallel to the ground, and the other two top and bottom. I will make a rear plate for the center section that will hold the snount of the diff. This piece will come off with a few screws to facilitate getting at the diff easily. The knuckes will most likely have to come off as well, to allow the cvds to pull out enough to slide the diff out.
Link and shock mounts will be thicker material and most likely cut to lock into the trusses. All will be welded together quite a bit for strength. I imagine this axle will be a bit heavy, but also stout and I will attempt to use thinner material where possible and not have too much excess.
Servo mount will be on one side, setup for an upside-down 1/4 scale servo with the arm facing backwards. Steering linkage will be based on a full size truck, with the servo arm acting as a pitman arm. Another idler arm will stick out in the same location on the other side of the axle, and join the servo arm with a link. Then a link will come off each side and join the respective knuckle. Kinda complex, but it will allow me to get the linkage out of the way of the driveshaft and the axle.
Not sure if any of that makes sense, but it does to me!