Removing Bosch Drill Pins - Cause of Failure?

[Al Skierkiewicz]

Originally Posted by sanddrag

Okay,
Is there a direct correlation between removing the pins and drill tranny failure?

Many teams leave the pins in for one reason or another. In my experience more teams have been hurt by leaving the pins in place than not. Depending on many factors (like robot weight and speed and defensive strategies) when the locking pins click into place, all of the robot forces are now transferred to that one spot in the transmission. It is not designed to take that kind of force. The locking pins were designed into the drill/screwdriver to allow users to tighten/loosen screws without the need to pick up a different tool. When disassembling the transmission, go slow and watch how it comes apart. There was a complete instruction set with pictures on the CD site last year. I believe this is a Power point presentation on how to do the mod... http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/pa...le&paperid=150
The locking pins are very obvious, they are about 3/16" in diameter and about 1/4" long and fit at the end of the "dog bone" in the assembly close to the output shaft. When you reassemble the transmission you need to rotate the output shaft a little to get all the parts to mesh. The case only goes back together one way so you may want to mark it before you disassemble. This is a very simple mod and can be performed in a very few minutes.