[affende]

so over the past week i have searched, read, read some more, searched some more, drank some liquor, searched a little more, gotten divorced, and read a little more while drinking a lot more ....

so .... the plan is to shave my 14b to ungodly levels which will require shaving the ring gear .... possibly even a mohawk. typical 14b, ff, discs, 538s and a mini spool till i can snag an ARB for cheap ...

so how much is the absolute most you can shave off the OD of the ring gear?

TIA.

PS i hate women.

 

[JeffHPK5]

I've done one , took .875 off the dia. Be prepared , the hardened steel used in ring gears is flat out tough!

It was a job for a local off roader who supposedly researched and found that 7/8" was optimal.

I do know that he plans on running a .500 plate bottom with minimal ring gear clearance and should see a huge ground clearnce gain.

 

[affende]

I've done one , took .875 off the dia. Be prepared , the hardened steel used in ring gears is flat out tough!

It was a job for a local off roader who supposedly researched and found that 7/8" was optimal.

I do know that he plans on running a .500 plate bottom with minimal ring gear clearance and should see a huge ground clearnce gain.

thank you ... thats exactly the kind of info i need ...

what tooling did you use to shave it?

 

[JeffHPK5]

I used a small CNC mill, helps to work in a machine shop:flipoff2:

I decided against a lathe because there's minimal hold down area on the ID of a ring gear and with the tool pressure required to machine it I didn't feel like having my head knocked off!

I could have made tooling to hold it in a lathe better by using the ring gear bolt holes but it wasn't worth it for one job.



I will say again that this was some tough stuff!

 

[John-e Bravada]

I took off .75" off the OD. I chucked the ring gear in a lathe and ground it down with an angle grinder. It took forever but I got there eventually. I went slow so I didn't overheat the gear. I burnt in a .5" plate and had better ground clearance then my old 8.8"

 

[affende]

so we have 2 for .75 off the ring gear and one for .875 .... thanks guys ... keep the info coming ... when i finish the shop and grind im going to make a new thread with all the new info i found ... keep it coming

 

[Tim84K10]

I took off .75" off the OD. I chucked the ring gear in a lathe and ground it down with an angle grinder. It took forever but I got there eventually. I went slow so I didn't overheat the gear. I burnt in a .5" plate and had better ground clearance then my old 8.8"

If you used a grinder to cut it down anyway, it makes me wonder if you couldn't do the same thing buy removing the shafts, attaching a drill to the pinion and going to town with the grinder.

 

[guidolyons]

If you used a grinder to cut it down anyway, it makes me wonder if you couldn't do the same thing buy removing the shafts, attaching a drill to the pinion and going to town with the grinder.

In one of the "14 bolt shave" threads, that's exactly what one guy did. Don't remember who it was though... I'd be worried about all that abrasive grit in the same general vicinity of my ring and pinion, so suffice it to say that a thorough cleaning would be in order.

 

[HeyBeerMan]

If you used a grinder to cut it down anyway, it makes me wonder if you couldn't do the same thing buy removing the shafts, attaching a drill to the pinion and going to town with the grinder.

Your thinking right, except, you don't need to power the pinion, just bolt the ring gear to a carier with bearings and set it in your empty housing. Start grinding with a 6" or 9" grinder, The way you hold the grinder in relation to the ring gear, will determine how fast fast the ring gear spins in the housing. Trust me you can get that thing going fast enough to scare you. The ring gear stays ice cold this way, then all you have to do is bevel the edges with a sand paper roll.


couple pics here:
http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/showthread.php?p=7201007#post7201007

 

[noface]

I'd be intersted in some pictures of the case and cover modifications and the process used to button up the housing.

 

[rcurrier44]

so how much is the absolute most you can shave off the OD of the ring gear?

This is all going to depend on your contact pattern :shaking: you can't realy judge by other peoples setups because their contact area will be different for many reasons.... such as your ratio, ware you can get all your numbers for the gear setup in check.

What I did is setup the ring & pinion first then take note on how much room you have below the marks on your marking compound. Then pulled the ring gear, ground it down, cut & plated the bottom. I run mine on the road so I left 1/4" or so below my contact pattern. I was willing to give up .25" of ground clearance for the longevity piece of mind.

I used a vertical belt grinder a budy had for making knives. It made quick work of the ring gear. What would have been better would be if he had a constant coolant setup so I woulden't have to keep dunking the ringear to keep it cool. I ground it while holding it with my bear hands so I could moniter the temp.

 

[affende]

This is all going to depend on your contact pattern :shaking: you can't realy judge by other peoples setups because their contact area will be different for many reasons.... such as your ratio, ware you can get all your numbers for the gear setup in check.

What I did is setup the ring & pinion first then take note on how much room you have below the marks on your marking compound. Then pulled the ring gear, ground it down, cut & plated the bottom. I run mine on the road so I left 1/4" or so below my contact pattern. I was willing to give up .25" of ground clearance for the longevity piece of mind.

I used a vertical belt grinder a budy had for making knives. It made quick work of the ring gear. What would have been better would be if he had a constant coolant setup so I woulden't have to keep dunking the ringear to keep it cool. I ground it while holding it with my bear hands so I could moniter the temp.

[IG]http://www.m4x4a.org/ImageGallery/album157/DCP00493.sized.jpg[/IMG]

thanks for the info, and yes i realize that its going to be different for each setup, but it really wont vary extensively between setups.

and i plan on setting up the gears and mic'ing the distance from the contact pattern to the edge.

 

[affende]

TTT .... i need more info. go go go.