Saturday, October 18, 2008

Another Look


Today I tried to contact the machine shop, but they were closed for the weekend. So I decided to take another look and my coupling and see what needs to be done.
The problem was that there was a ticking sound coming from the adapter system. That turned out to be the bolts from the torque converter and the motor skimming off each other. And that occured because the coupling was slightly loose and pushing back when the torque converter was pumping and forced back.
My dad and I came to the conclusion that the coupling was not gripping the shaft like it should have. Well after a few hours of looking over everything, I went to put the coupling back on the motor and realized what was really wrong!
When I first recieved the coupling, I pressed the support pins in and bolted it together and then placced it onto the shaft. When I did this, I didn't actually get the taper piece in all the way and there was enough give to allow it to slide up and down the motor shaft. When I went to place it back on the shaft, I had used a wrench to tighten the bolts and it pressed in all the way. So it wouldn't go onto the motor shaft because it was tightened! Then when I loosened the bolts, it slipped on like it did the first time I installed it! So this was a user error and not a machining error. Which is good, because I spent months getting that design right and a total of $600 for the whole adapter system.

2 comments:

Justin Sawell said...

Would recessing the motor bolts have prevented the ticking noise? It would mean you'd need to use a socket instead of a spanner, but that's what I'm planning for my adapter plate.

Or does it all come down to cost/benefit?

Great work so far David, and good luck with the controller you're building too...

David Harrington said...

Recessing would have worked better, but I didn't since it would have costed extra money at the time to do it. The real problem was te coupling was slipping and the torque converter pressed the coupling back, and if it went any further it probably would have started to leak fluids, so it makes a great little "danger" alarm.

Tomorrow I am putting it all back together and see what happens!