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I just disassembled a transmission to get a few more parts together for my mega strong transmission rebuild. As a veteran transmission rebuilder, I don't like to mess around. Therefore, I took off the pinion nut using my bench grinder. It's the easiest way not to mess up the shaft. Then I discovered I am out of new pinion nuts. I went on the interblag to buy a new nut, like I always do. Except much to my surprise, they aren't available anymore. What is the world coming to? I even placed an order with Jim Ellis Saab, who said they had it in stock, but they were lying. I can't even get it from Skandix. It is really not available.
So, I think to myself, I can machine this. But what size is it? It's between canonical M32 and M33 (could be that thread form M33 but is clipped or rounded on the shaft) but pitch is definitely 1.5. I go to the machine shop at work. Shop boss says the metric threading lathe doesn't work but I coax it into life. All the levers get pulled to positions they never go to and I do a practice piece. Hallelujah!
Next problem though. I notice the darn pinion nut appears to be heat treated on one side for hardness but not on the other side. Obviously the side that gets peened (or staked, or whatever you call it) is soft. The side that the bearings go up against is so hard I can't scratch it with my screwdriver. Plus there's the discoloration on one side.
So why did I post about this? To brag about machining things? To try and sell them? No, I am just screaming into the void to see if anybody has thoughts about the whole thing. Particularly:
1) Do I need to heat treat it? It seems that the factory wouldn't have done it if there weren't a good reason.
2) How on earth do they think we can get by with no more pinion nuts? Do they really expect us to just rebuild transmissions with old nuts?
3) I wonder if the ones available after the fall of Saab were just new old stock. If so, that's insane that they lasted even until 2014 when I last bought some.
4) Collet nuts for some metric machines are m33 x 1.5. Probably a bad idea, right? They look a lot like the nuts in Lancia Fulvia transmissions, and take special tools to remove.
posted by 140.247.10...
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