Project: TLT Strengthen and Steer
 

As we all know a TLT axles steering is marginal at best. There are lots of things people do to upgrade the steering and here's my version. As far as strengthening, at the last comp I drove my 2.2 tuber to a rock and started to climb it and the left front wheel stopped spinning. No noise, no drama nothing. I figured my wheel had come loose, nope I sheared the inner axle at the dogbone. No wonder, the cross sectional area of a tlt shaft measures about .0158in^2 I plan on using 1/4" axles, necked down to .200" at the dogbones for an area of .031^2 or twice the strength. So twice the area, twice the shear strength. I also plan on using high carbon steel which is probably much stronger than a stock TLT shaft (guessing on that)

I hope to go from CAD models to finished parts in this thread. Just finished the CAD models this morning and I'm gonna head out to the shop and machine today.

1st thing I had to do was model up the stock TLT axle. At first I thought drawing up the axle would take forever but it actually went pretty quick. One thing I notice when drawing Tamiya parts is alot of the dimensions are in inches and yet the hardware, bearings, shafts etc are metric. I wonder if the designs are done in America...

Anyway here's the axle halves assembled:

Attachment 34158

Then I cut the stock C's off:
Attachment 34159

And modeled up some extenders:
Attachment 34160

I hope to improve strength (obviously) and also steering by reducing the scrub radius on the kingpins. I did that by moving the pivot for the tires under the wheel as much as possible. Can't get it perfect because the wheels available don't have enough offset.

Awesome!! I can not wait to see this happen! Are you heading out to the shop soon?"thumbsup"

Here's the axle CAD assembly about 90% complete.
Attachment 34163

To maintain akerman angles when steering, the line formed by the tie-rod end and the steering pivot should intersect the middle of the rearend.

So I drew up a plane (angled line in the pic below) that runs thru the steering pivot and the center of the rearend. Then I played with the tierod mount location until it lined up:

Attachment 34162

As far as strength, check out the stub axles!: 5/8" od at the dogbone. High carbon steel. I doubt I'll need to carry replacements! The dogbone pin is 1/8"
Attachment 34164

Hey 666,

As a matter of fact, Yes!

Think I'll make the extenders first. Gotta do a quick drawing.

Looking good so far! You designs definitely look strong enough. How much steering do you think you will gain with this mod? I got 50* of steering in each direction with a set of custom C's and knuckles on a TLT axle.


-Destroyer

In CAD, 45* looks good. I would have checked a little more angle but I realized my links would hit with anymore steering...

Holy crap it's nice out. I've got the A/C running in the shop!

Should be out crawlin...

cant wait to see this done.

this is going to be awesome

A little real time machining update:

sizing stock for the carriers:
Attachment 34285

Both carrier blocks roughed out:
Attachment 34287

Cutting out the knotch for the dogbone/stub
Attachment 34288

Looks sweet Ace..."thumbsup"

TLT Strengthen and Steer
 

Ace,
If you need a test done...I could give it some abuse.

Let me know.

Thanks,
John

And real time FU&% up!

Attachment 34290

The bottom of the knotch is supposed to be flat.

Doup. Entered the wrong depth for the cut.:roll:

SUNOFFA!

lol guys at this rate it might be awhile!

LOL! Looks like things are going smoothly!

Could be worse I suppose, coulda been my vice.

That would have sucked!! The worse thing about scrapping a part, with no extras, is going back and catching the new one up to where you were with the others. :x

Nice work as always, can't wait to see the finished product in person. "thumbsup"

My momma always said CNC is like a box of chocolates.

You never know what your gonna get.

Pic of last nights progress and one carrier.

Attachment 34292

How come the one you screw up is always the one you don't cut an extra blank for???

I wish I knew. :lol: