Quote:
Originally Posted by Gray Adams
We're probably going to try timing belt for next year, so that would be an interesting thing to test. Do you weld anything near your drive trains (or would you worry about warping ruining your tension if you did)?
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I'll give the basic run down of our chassis.
We use 3x1.5" 1/8" wall AL tube for the drive rails and 1x1x1/8" tube for cross supports and a 1/16" belly pan. We start by riveting on the belly pan and "framing gussets" to hold the assembly in the proper orientation for our welder. As he goes, he removes the gussets, but welds the belly pan to the chassis.
Next we put the belts in the tube. We put the belt around the pulley and feed the pulley down the tube using gravity (the chassis rails are tipped up.) This works because the pulleys are the exact same size as the inside of the tube and the belt is unable to slip off the side of the pulley. Once the center axle is placed in the center pulley (which already has both belts on it) the outside pulleys are next. Our bearing holes have a key which allows the axle to fit through. We slide the axle in the pulley and pull back on the axle until it is in the center of the bearing hole and slide the bearings on either side of the axle, securing it in place. This is the center to center location.
If you remember, the pulleys are the exact size of the tube, and the bearings are 1/4" long. This forces us to space the bearings out of the tube with a 1/8" spacer. On the ends, where the bearing holes are keyed, the spacers are riveted to the frame for extra support. We then use 4 10-32s and attach our gearboxes to the tapped holes in the frame.
This was the last time we touched our drivetrain the entire season. (We did do a dry run of the gearboxes before we took them apart to teflon the gears.)
Let me know if this doesn't make sense. We do plan on taking apart our drivetrain and putting it back together to make an instructional video. I also have been cleaning up our CAD model for publishing. Renders should be up in a few days and I will have a link for download.