Jon March
Member
i recently shared that i had a shop tap new sleeves onto my pitted driveshaft ends - only to learn a couple things 1) they add friction by compressing the double lips by another 11 thousandths - seems minor, but you can definitely feel the added compression/friction 2) the widest sleeves made are only a couple MM wider than the spacing of the lips on the seals - making it too likely that the lips would ride on & off the sleeve when in use
the surfaces in this area should be 100% virgin clean metal - no pits
Two solutions --
option 1: tap TWO speedi-sleeves side by side onto the driveshaft end, with the seams meeting exactly in between where the seal lips "ride" . In order to know where this location is, you probably have to use a steel ruler & flashlight to measure the exact depth from the "stop" that the stub axle buts against under spring pressure, to the middle of the seal lips you have installed in the tranny.
With luck, your seam between the two speeves will stay between the lips, but youll never really know when its running whats happening down there, and you will have increased friction and wear of the seal from the slightly increased diameter
option 2 - Best:
remove the stub-axle ends from 1/2 of their u-joints Than have them carefully measured for the original correct diameter ....then turned down by 10 thousandths (20-thou total from side to side diameter) ..... then send to a specialty place that does spray-welding or laser cladding to be built up by 20 thousandths on one side (40 thou in diameter)....then carefully cut and lapped /polished back to the original diameter (aprx 35mm).
This eliminates screwing around with speedi sleeves, worrying if the lips on your seals are being cut up by the edges of the sleeves, and the additional wear and friction of the extra stress on you seal lips caused my the slight increase in shaft diameter.
the surfaces in this area should be 100% virgin clean metal - no pits
Two solutions --
option 1: tap TWO speedi-sleeves side by side onto the driveshaft end, with the seams meeting exactly in between where the seal lips "ride" . In order to know where this location is, you probably have to use a steel ruler & flashlight to measure the exact depth from the "stop" that the stub axle buts against under spring pressure, to the middle of the seal lips you have installed in the tranny.
With luck, your seam between the two speeves will stay between the lips, but youll never really know when its running whats happening down there, and you will have increased friction and wear of the seal from the slightly increased diameter
option 2 - Best:
remove the stub-axle ends from 1/2 of their u-joints Than have them carefully measured for the original correct diameter ....then turned down by 10 thousandths (20-thou total from side to side diameter) ..... then send to a specialty place that does spray-welding or laser cladding to be built up by 20 thousandths on one side (40 thou in diameter)....then carefully cut and lapped /polished back to the original diameter (aprx 35mm).
This eliminates screwing around with speedi sleeves, worrying if the lips on your seals are being cut up by the edges of the sleeves, and the additional wear and friction of the extra stress on you seal lips caused my the slight increase in shaft diameter.
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