AngleDrive Gears

[Jan van de Wouw <Jan@xxxx>]

Hello everyone,

I'm confused; Today I took apart my old (broken) Angle Drive to see how it was
constructed. I was curious, since I thought it used a wormgear, driving a drum
gear, but that kind of construction is impossible to use "backwards"; driving
the output and spinning the input like this...
I also wanted to see if I could use the recepticle for the output cable (lower
speedo cable) for fixing my adapter cup, since I forgot to order one and thought
I might be able to glue the recepticle in place in stead.

I allways understood that the AngleDrive used plastic gears and they were the
main reason for failure, the HardCore Drives fom PJ Grady have SS gears and on
top of that should have a detachable drive cable (the short bit going through
the axle) if I understand their website correct.

When we opened up my drive I was surprised to see there were METAL gears in
there, the little cable however was pressed into place. The recepticle for the
cable was also made of metal, probably hardened steel: it fractured when we were
trying to modify it and hardened steel doesn bend, but breaks...
I also found the reason my drive failed: on the lower gear (the output) a piece
of one of the splines had broken off, causing the unit to jam. Since the wheel
keeps spinning when you drive the cable through the axle had been twisted to
bits and since this cable was pressed in there was no way of repairing this
without getting a new drive.

Unfortunately I wasn't able to get a HardCore AngleDrive, since PJ Grady
absolutely needs a core and mine had been destroyed by one of the previous
owners (remember http://www.vdwouw.demon.nl/epoxydrive.jpg ?). They were
absolutely great on helping me anyway, but their suggestion would have taken too
lang, which would have meant I would have to put my car in storage untill I got
the drive, since my annual inspection was due and without it I am not allowed to
drive the car. Too bad, so I went with an OEM, lubed it really well, got the
wheatherproofing kit and installed a new cable support bracket.
Hopefully this will keep up for a reasonable period of time, at least I know now
that when it does fail on me again I WILL have a good rebuildable core...

Anyway, to get to my initial question: are the gears in the Angle Drive plastic
or not?

Thanks,

JAN van de Wouw
Thinking Different... Using a Mac...
Living the Dream... Driving a DeLorean...

#05141 "Dagger" since Sept. 2000

check out the Delorean-Files at:
http://www.deloreanfiles.nl/
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