Solid D Main Shaft

[DemonRC1]

I've been thinking about this for awhile now and I think I'm going to weld my shafts together. I'm going to order some .319 ID tubing and put together a jig to keep the shafts straight while I weld them. I'll then grind the shaft back to 8mm and drill out the brake square to 8mm. Does anybody see a problem with doing this? The only thing I can think of is that you would have to pull both gear plates off the chassis to remove the shaft.

 

[grfilipp]

put some grab screws at 90 degrees as all the round mountings i ve seen use them.


if the alloy is weldable it should work.

 

[max 1]

I thout about taking the shafts to awelder and having this don also .i don,t see why it would not work.

 

[Sprint 77]

I have had no problems with mine. I can build my own jig have lathe everything and still chose not to do it.


From my first teardown before ever ran truck I built a aluminum thrust spacer that goes behind the bearing plate up to the coupler.


I felt they left to much thrust play in this shaft causing irraddic gear mesh on the ring and pinion in center. I also shimmed my ring gear shaft in the bearings which also had way to much thrust. with my tranny in all wheels on car off the ground you should be able to freely spin the whole drivetrain off of turning one center dogbone by hand.


Fix the thrust play in both above areas and the "D - Shaft" will quit giving you problems.


I also use green bearing retaining loctite on all my bearings.


Hope this helps you guys.


I strongly suggest not welding that shaft unless you have access to lathe to true it afterwards.

 

[max 1]

my brake sqare is not drilled stait and it wobles the end of the d swhaft causing c d gears to bind i one spot.I have bout 3 kits and got 1 out of 3 that was strait.

 

[DemonRC1]

I have had no problems with mine. I can build my own jig have lathe everything and still chose not to do it.
From my first teardown before ever ran truck I built a aluminum thrust spacer that goes behind the bearing plate up to the coupler.


I felt they left to much thrust play in this shaft causing irraddic gear mesh on the ring and pinion in center. I also shimmed my ring gear shaft in the bearings which also had way to much thrust. with my tranny in all wheels on car off the ground you should be able to freely spin the whole drivetrain off of turning one center dogbone by hand.


Fix the thrust play in both above areas and the "D - Shaft" will quit giving you problems.


I also use green bearing retaining loctite on all my bearings.


Hope this helps you guys.


I strongly suggest not welding that shaft unless you have access to lathe to true it afterwards.

I was gonna hack mine out by putting it in my drillpress and turning it sideways LOL. I don't see why that wouldn't work. Do you have a pic of that thrust spacer behind the gear plate? I'd like to see it.

 

[Sprint 77]

I was gonna hack mine out by putting it in my drillpress and turning it sideways LOL. I don't see why that wouldn't work. Do you have a pic of that thrust spacer behind the gear plate? I'd like to see it.

Hard to see my spacer in the truck and I did not take a pic of it.


The Rampage version 1 suffered from poor ring and pinion gear mesh and just general slop in tranny. That extra vibration and movement causes the D shaft coupler extra stress .


I am problem just one of a few that did a complete teardown before I ran the truck. But except for some shock issues I have had no drvetrain issues.

 

[kirkhayes37]

I have welded them together and it works great. In fact, I really question RedCat on why they do not produce a 1 piece pinion shaft in the first place. Mine used to wobble horrible no matter how tight I had the grub set screws. This two-piece shaft on the Rampage was not engineered well. It is that simple.


Here is what I did to ensure it worked when I welded them together.


1. I ground the ends of each flat side at a 45 degree angle so that the when I welded it and then ground the sides flush again, there was still a lot of weld left for strength. You have to grind a channel for the weld to penetrate, otherwise when you grind the sides of the hex shaft flush so that it will fit back into the aluminum brake disk holder, the shaft will fall apart under a load. I tack welded one side and then trued it up using a razor blade to make sure it was true.


2. I kept a cold wet washcloth wrapped around the pinion at all times during the welding process. I did not want the pinion to heat up and lose its hardness.


IT WORKS PERFECTLY! the shaft, gear, pinion all now rotate precisely without any wobble or lose grub screws. It takes some skill and time to ensure it is very close to being true, but is really worth it. Now I NEVER have to check my grub screws on the brake block any more! Many MCD cars have a one-piece pinion, so I knew it would work. It does. The entire drive trane runs smoother with this mod. But if you do not have good welding, fabrication, and grinding skills, I would ask a machine shop to do it for you. And tell them to keep the pinion covered with a cold wet cloth during welding.


Redcat needs to design a one-piece pinion shaft for people without welders! It is that simple.