entropy_engineering

My torque tube bearings where starting to get a little noisy, and with the coming turbo I figured it was a good time to fix it. The rubber bushings where still tight and in good shape, but I felt more comfortable making pins to locate the bearings in place for the future. I was rather disappointed to find the plug missing on the bottom and rust along the bottom ahead of the first bearing. I stripped the entire thing down, lightly ball honed the end, treated the bad area with evaporust, cleaned with acetone, then sprayed some self etching primer inside as I assembled it. The bearing carriers got some light rust gently sandblasted, the new bearings covered with high temp grease, then a light coat of spray paint. The shaft itself got a light cleaning with a brass wire wheel, then a light coating of phosphoric acid (which leaves behind a protective phosphate coating). The pictures should explain the rest.

entropy_engineering

LT Texan

nice. much more professional than the job I did with locating screws.

davek9

Nicely done and a lot of work, please let us know how this holds up over time.

entropy_engineering

Thanks a lot I will. I would have loved to get the Constantine bearings, but I'm 1) Too cheap, and 2) Don't have tremendous faith in my torque tube shaft or transaxle holding up long term. I drive pretty easy and avoid shock loads...but still. I welded the nuts all around to the tube because I didn't want to weaken the tube any drilling a row of holes in it. If it makes any real difference, who knows. I must say though, with a couple dedicated plates and some all-thread rod rebuilding this is a cake walk; just use a drill and out the parts come. The longest part is stripping the paint off with a pipe sanding machine.

Imo000

Nice work but just tapping the drilled holes and using the nuts to lock the bolts would have worked just as well.

entropy_engineering

The wall is pretty thin. Would only grab two or three threads...but yeah it would probably work. Or go extra ghetto and use self tapping screws. Pew.

Imo000

These is no probably, it works. Nothing ghetto about it.

tailpipe

I just used stainless steel 3/16 pop rivets worked very well....

entropy_engineering

That's seems pretty good. No corrosion and a secure fit. You could even put silicone in the holes to prevent rusting of the tube. Part of the reason I went to the trouble of welding nuts to mine is because the upcoming turbo. I admit, it's very likely unnecessary, but I didn't want to weaken the tube any drilling holes in it...so I reasoned that welding a flange nut all the way around might restore the strength. Whether or not it makes any difference I really don't know.