- Dec 26, 1999
- 19,765
- 1
It makes me laugh when I see stuff like this. (I work with engineers and as a general rule many have an overly high opinion of their abilities. I had one that I respect tell me it's because those were the kids he and I used to beat up on the playground.) Anyway...
I'm using my John Deere tractor today to push some rocks around and pick up some large one to relocate to my rock pile (I'm a rock rancher). Well all of a sudden I'm stuck, this is odd because my green monster is 4wd and this doesn't happen. So I extract myself baclwards up the hill I was stuck on using my loader to push me to traction and drive over to my shop door. I climb under and expect the worst but the front diff is locking up so I remove the driveshaft and find out that is my problem. See the front of the shaft is a press fit (remember this) in to the front universal assembly, not the brightest idea in my book but OK that's what I'm going to fix. When I go to remove the front universal assy from the splined shaft on the diff I see a snap ring. OK I remove the snap ring and it's not even a normal circular snap ring, it's a custom piece with an eliptical shape to it and it leaves about 3/4" open. But it's still stuck. I twist the assy and see a pin, OK that's what is holding it on the spline. So the snap ring is supposed to keep this pin from falling out I guess except the stupid snap ring spins in it's groove so that's not really a great solution. I pound out the roll pin and it's still stuck on the shaft. OK this is getting sill now we had a snap ring that really doesn't do much holding in a roll pin that was plenty tight as to not need anthing to keep it from dropping out. See roll pins are funny that way they are made for a tight fit so they don't come out. I clean things off a bit more and see yet another larger roll pin which I pound out and finally get the universal assy oof the splined stub.
So in review we have a roll pin to keep the universal assy from sliding off the splined shaft, things could have easily stopped here and lived happily ever after. But nooooo we need to have a smaller roll pin that gets pounded in to the larger roll pin to make sure it's extra tight because we don't want that big one (1/4") dropping out. OK fine lets be really safe but noooooo we also need a useless snap ring just in case bot roll pins fail. Oh and the loads on this pin? just about ZERO! Like all drive shafts it has a slip yoke to allow it to get longer and shorter.
No that everything is finally apart and I get a good laugh I fired up the MIG welder and made the press fit shaft a fused one. Tomorrow morning it all goes back together but I think the inner roll pin won't get replaced and I'll use a snap ring that stays in place and closes almost completly. :laugh:
I'm using my John Deere tractor today to push some rocks around and pick up some large one to relocate to my rock pile (I'm a rock rancher). Well all of a sudden I'm stuck, this is odd because my green monster is 4wd and this doesn't happen. So I extract myself baclwards up the hill I was stuck on using my loader to push me to traction and drive over to my shop door. I climb under and expect the worst but the front diff is locking up so I remove the driveshaft and find out that is my problem. See the front of the shaft is a press fit (remember this) in to the front universal assembly, not the brightest idea in my book but OK that's what I'm going to fix. When I go to remove the front universal assy from the splined shaft on the diff I see a snap ring. OK I remove the snap ring and it's not even a normal circular snap ring, it's a custom piece with an eliptical shape to it and it leaves about 3/4" open. But it's still stuck. I twist the assy and see a pin, OK that's what is holding it on the spline. So the snap ring is supposed to keep this pin from falling out I guess except the stupid snap ring spins in it's groove so that's not really a great solution. I pound out the roll pin and it's still stuck on the shaft. OK this is getting sill now we had a snap ring that really doesn't do much holding in a roll pin that was plenty tight as to not need anthing to keep it from dropping out. See roll pins are funny that way they are made for a tight fit so they don't come out. I clean things off a bit more and see yet another larger roll pin which I pound out and finally get the universal assy oof the splined stub.
So in review we have a roll pin to keep the universal assy from sliding off the splined shaft, things could have easily stopped here and lived happily ever after. But nooooo we need to have a smaller roll pin that gets pounded in to the larger roll pin to make sure it's extra tight because we don't want that big one (1/4") dropping out. OK fine lets be really safe but noooooo we also need a useless snap ring just in case bot roll pins fail. Oh and the loads on this pin? just about ZERO! Like all drive shafts it has a slip yoke to allow it to get longer and shorter.
No that everything is finally apart and I get a good laugh I fired up the MIG welder and made the press fit shaft a fused one. Tomorrow morning it all goes back together but I think the inner roll pin won't get replaced and I'll use a snap ring that stays in place and closes almost completly. :laugh:
