Hello, we have the Swerve Mk4s using the L1 configuration and we are using Neo motors. We’re having an issue with the steering motor pinion. We are using the Aluminum spacers, and we have also gotten .25" spaces to put on the motor shaft. We are unable to mount the pinion onto the shaft, it seems to spin freely on one of our Neos, and on another neo, it catches when we press fit, but can be easily pulled off by hand. The included pinions dont seem to have a keyway. so we are not really sure what to do at this point. It seems as though on the slightly thicker neo shaft it may work, but also that it would probably start slipping if it was under any real load.
The press fit issue issue is caused by the slightly smaller shaft diameter of recent NEO motors. Unfortunately all vendors’ press-fit pinions do not press fit on these shafts. Please use Loctite 609 or 638 retaining compound to permanently bond the pinion to the motor shaft. This is a proven method of attaching slip-fit pinions to motor shafts. Be careful to not get any retaining compound in the motor’s bearing.
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Thanks! We’ve been scratching our heads on this for a minute.
And just to confirm, even when using the aluminum spacers (Spacer, Motor – Swerve Drive Specialties), we need to use an additional (not provided) 0.25" spacer on the shaft before the pressfit pinion?
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While drying it may be helpful to point the motor facing the ground so Loctite doesn’t drip towards the bearings.
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We ran into the same issue with the pinions.
I dont believe the assembly instructions call for any spacers on the steering motor shaft. But the drive motor calls for 2 spacers on the motor shaft when using the .25" motor spacer. A .1875" spacer which was included in the kit and a .3125" spacer that is missing.
Maybe @PatrickW can clarify.
The .3125"L spacer for the drive motor shaft is included with the SDS motor spacer kit. The steering motor pinion on the MK4 does not use spacers as it is attached with either a press fit or retaining compound. That gear also has a face width of 0.75" which allows for a wider range of acceptable mounting positions.
Just to clarify for anyone reading, this is only for MK2,MK3, and MK4 modules with NEO motors. MK4i modules do not use the motor spacers or the press fit pinion.
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Our kits included the .25" motor spacer kits, but only one shaft spacer was included. The directions call for two spacers one .1875" and one .3125".
We searched every bag of hardware in the kit and assembled the modules completely (minus the motors) and there are no other spacers in any of yhe 5 kits we ordered.
None of the MK4 kits include a .25"L shaft spacers. Are you sure these are not the 0.1875"L spacers? The .3125"L spacers are included with our aluminum motor spacers. I believe some of the early AndyMark plastic motor spacer kits did not ship with this shaft spacer.
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I was referring to the .25" motor spacer that looks like this:
We do have the .1875" shaft spacer, but not the .3125" shaft spacer. We ordered ours from andymark.
Would a 3D printed spacer work?
You may want to reach out to AndyMark. I think they may have started including the 0.3125"L spacer.
This is the .3125"L spacer that we(SDS) include in our motor spacers kit. Or a 3D printed spacer should also work.
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We were also running into this issue last year. Is another feasible fix, on top of using Loctite 609/638, using 8 mm Push On Retaining Rings to keep the pinion in place?