part failures

[Cement Legs]

I am wondering if people would post pictures of any part failures they have had. I guess for some educational reasons, but also a little fun. Its nice to know that we can make some mistakes fall off the proverbial horse dust ourselves off and climb back up.... I'd just like to find out if there is a trend, especially amongst newer teams.

[Cement Legs]

I am wondering if people would post pictures of any part failures they have had. I guess for some educational reasons, but also a little fun. Its nice to know that we can make some mistakes fall off the proverbial horse dust ourselves off and climb back up.... I'd just like to find out if there is a trend, especially amongst newer teams.

[Moody]

Good idea.

We had our first driving day (and therefore first failure) last week - our halfshafts were at such an angle that moving even further into bump made for really really short shafts, and the CV tripods were able to jump right out of the housings. made for a non-functioning drivetrain, and useless tripods. problem fixed now, and we're driving again today, but here's a few pics:

--we are a 2nd year team--

http://www.unix.eng.ua.edu/~impact37/files/boot_fail.jpg

http://www.unix.eng.ua.edu/~impact37/files/tripod_fail.jpg

[buddy]

Don't think that design failures only occur after driving... I have a driveshaft here that was a 1/2" too short when it was built (to print) (from a previous year '99). It is nicely heat treated, shot peened, and never even went into the car.

buddy

[jack]

we had an axle that was too short pop out on a first drive once. its kind of funny how easy it is to screw that up.

[Wilso]

wow, that is exactly what happened to us in detroit last year - driveshaft too short. Any advice on measuring to cut the shafts? I'm going to do it this friday so we can drive this weekend.

[Nate Notta]

We sheared off a hub this year:
(from http://zeus.uwindsor.ca/fsae/index.html)
http://zeus.uwindsor.ca/fsae/Pics/test3.jpg
http://zeus.uwindsor.ca/fsae/Pics/test1.jpg

[rjwoods77]

What kind of transaxle is that under your welding table?

[scotty young Taylor Race]

The proper set up of the half shafts is very critical . Here are a couple things to keep in mind during this time.
1.The car must be at ride height to get the proper measurements for machining the axles.
2. If the half shaft is not inline with the diff ,measure from flange to flange diagonally.
3.Be sure that the fixed pivot plug is pinned into the axle so it cannot be pushed out by
the spring on the plunge side of the axle.
4. It is imperative that after the axles are machined they are installed on the car with out
the boots.With the car on jack stands ,and the springs taken out go the entire motion of
the suspension.If the tripod roller comes at least have way out of the housing during
full droop or full bump,than the axles are too short.
5. It is best to try and keep the diff and the wheel flange on centerline as much as
possible.Anytime the diff is lower than the wheel flange you will create a negative
plunge
Here is a link to an instructional drawing on our web site on axle lengths and cir-clip locations.
http://www.taylor-race.com/pdf/ACF1150.pdf


Scotty
Taylor Race

[Buckingham]

Accurate full car models (with articulating suspensions), while time consuming, can allow accurate halfshaft lengths to be determined in the design phase. This is the way to go if you ever get custom shafts made. It is also much much easier said than done.

Boy...this thread got off on a tangent in a hurry...

[-]

For the past two years we have had two people doing the calcs for the axle shafts seperatly and they would both check over each other's calcs to make sure they came up with the same lengths. This is a bit more time consuming, but you come out with the correct parts the first time.

[fade]

is that hub aluminum?

[buddy]

Donavan,

This was a solid model part, what happened was the design was finalized, the parts were sent out to manufacture (against my wishes) and the frame began manufacture. During manufacture changes were made for various reasons and not documented. Said driveshafts (out of sight, out of mind) continued on in original configuration until day of arrival at shop where is quickly became obvious they didn't fit. panic ensued.

buddy

[Nate Notta]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by fade:
is that hub aluminum? </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Yeah we always run aluminum hubs.

[jonno]

We eliminated our carbon diff carriers and our rear carbon boxframe is splitting in half too. The diff cattiers have been replaced with aluminium ones and the box is being patched up and braced.
http://www.brunelracing.co.uk/images/rearbox-fracture-800x600.jpg
http://www.brunelracing.co.uk/images/diff-fail.jpg

[Travis R]

We keep all of our failed parts to show the new team members what happens when you "get it wrong". We have a box full of them. In fact last year we had to add the box to the list of parts failures... it was so overloaded it split at the seams.
Luckily we were able to salvage it with judicious use of duct tape. http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif

[Daves]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">1.The car must be at ride height to get the proper measurements for machining the axles. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

This did not work for our car. Our longest axle length happens to be at ride height. After cutting our axles to that length (as specified), we had no droop suspension travel because the axles were holding the car up. We had to remeasure the shortest distance from flange to flange, which happens to be at full jounce or droop due to plunge. Then we reordered shorter axles.