Input shaft repair question

Gots me a messed up input shaft on a 4 speed. The pilot end is all munched up. My plans are to chuck it in the lather and machine it down to press a sleeve on and machine back to specs. Has this been done before with no issues/problems ?

 

This can be done, but it should either be welded or pined to stay in place.--TV

 

Machine the bushing for an interference fit. Chill the shaft and heat the bushing. Press the two together. When the temperatures equalize, you should not need to weld or pin. Turn the bushing to the net diameter and you should be good to go.

 

Thats my exact plan, just seeing if it's been done before and if anyone had a failure.

 

I'm sorry, I thought you were going to cut splines in your sleeve. If it's just the nose its good to go with only interference.--TV

 

No problem, if it was that bad I'd just replace it.

 

I need to increase the end of the input on a Chevy trans to fit the pilot in a Flathead flywheel. I made a sleeve that was the right wall thickness but small on ID and OD. I just hammered it on. It has worked for 20 years.

 

Cool Andy. Anyone else out there with some input?

 

I have a pinion gear from a 37 ford rear, the end of the shaft is ******ed, will this work on my pinion gear ? How hard is this, does it need to be ground or can it be turned with a carbide tool ? Maybe some experienced machinist can answer this ? Sorry Johnny Gee I didn't mean to hijack your thread but I didn't think of this untill I read this thread.

 

I've done this before with a T5 and it worked fine. Interference fit works best.

 

Depends on the extent of damage. Let us see a picture. Pinions are heat treated

 

Its in a rear right now. I was just wondering it isn't that bad the ends were mushroomed a bit.

 

Ok guys, sent jimvette a PM with an answer to his ?, with out any complaint. Know lets keep it to my thread only. Use the PM or start your own thread.

 

It's in a rear right now I was just wondering if it can be done.

 

I did this on a 3spd ford box behind a y block but I machined it to suit a roller bearing, made me feel more comfortable as there is less chance of friction and heat, that could possibly make some issues. Seems to be ok so far!

 

I'm running a needle bearing pilot and thats why I need to address this. The shaft rides on the needle rollers.

 

Use a bronze bushing insted of a roller bearing. The bronze wont chew up the input shaft like the hard steel rollers will. Also if the repair sleave isn't hardened you could have premature wear with the roller bearing setup.

 

we used to metal spray input shafts that had worn at the pilot brg on HD truck transmissions...then they were remachined to original specs...(as long as the splines were not worn out)

 

Roller bearing stays, the shaft wasn't chewed up because of that. This a trans thats new to me and never been in my car. I did a full tear down and im repairing or replacing what needs to be. The sleeve will be stainless steel.

 

The biggest advantage of a bearing over a bushing is less friction. All things being equal, in most conditions and normal usage a bronze pilot bushing is at least as durable as a needle bearing.

The simplest fix would be to grind the shaft undersize until it cleans up, then make a pilot bushing to fit.

But since you seen to be anti-bushing, why do you think stainless is the best material choice for a bearing race? Although there are a lot of different stainless alloys, for this application most are inferior to an appropriate "regular" steel. If you want to do some research on this, an easy source of information is needle bearing manufacturers. Most needle bearing catalogs have advice, specs, and race material info.

 

The load types, that visit a pilot "bearing" are apt to smile when they encounter a bushed surface, since the PSI will be spread out...rather than concentrated along the contact line(s) of needle roller's tiny diameter. This relevant since the repair involves unknown hardness and wear resistance.

 

True about make a bushing to fit undersized pilot. I thought about it but do not what to have to change the pilot bearing each time the old ball goes in & out of car.

I'm not anti bushing its just the roller is in it now. As far as the stainless, I have about a foot of seamless 304 tubing that would finish to a wall thickness of .025" and it's I.D. is perfect so as not to machine down below the releif cut thats on the shaft now.

 

I just machined the pilot true then machined a bushing from Delrin to fit, no problems.

 

Thanks to everyone that replied. Do to the fact that some of you, including myself. The sleeve itself may not be compatable with roller pilot bearing. So today I called a few 4 speed builders and scored a replacement input for cheap .