Now tranny problems to top it off!

[cory_Alaska]

Wow, I cant seam to catch a break! I have had my argo a total of 6 weeks now, taken it out once on a 50 mile glacier trek, and stripped the teeth off of the right side brake disk/drive sprocket. And after about 2 weeks waiting for the parts to show up I started troubleshooting the charging problem and pulling the disks off. In the process I found out I have the exact same problem with the left side output shaft on my transmission that M350 had with his. It appears that the shaft was worn down but the bearing looks fine, like it had been replaced, or just did not wear like the shaft did. Has anyone else ever had the same problem? I am hoping this is not all that common, but it is odd that it is the exact same story in two differernt machines.

[m350]

Cory ,,That does seem kinda weird,,, my trans,,we had also been driving it around I think we put on 25 or so hrs,,,when we pulled the trans apart,,the left output shaft which was bad,,see pics,,the bad section was rusted,,like in an old injury to it. If it was recently worn down,,it would have been,,clean,,no rust,,,plus there was silicone around the case gasket too,,mine also had 2 bearings, towards the top,,near reverse gear,,that had been chewed up,,by something,,,,must have been in the first detonation !
pic 2 is the chewed up bearing in the cover
pic 3,I bet when they got to this point,,they sid F@%$,,,,, that's why the shaft did not get replaced,,,it looks worse then it is
pic 4 I also had another problem,,,the Bearing Plug Plates had popped off,,,leaking gear oil,,
pic 5 is the old shaft my son fixed in school,,,turned it down,,made a sleeve,,pressed it on,,,turned it down again to correct size for bearing. Good Luck Cory !,,,Mark
PS. The output shaft was like $65 bucks from ARGO,, not to bad of a price,,,But I ordered the wrong one(6-spline newer,,instead of 2-spline older),,,D'oh,,and we had all the other stuff, to start the rebuild,,so thats why my son did the machining!

[mysterymeat]

the material being used is probably bad. wrong heat treatment, or just the wrong material.

[bearclaw46]

Sorry to hear all this

Geez Cory, sorry to hear all the problems you're having. Was hoping to buddy up someday but looks like it'll be awhile for your Conquest to be back to operational status. Keep us posted on the progress.

Dennis

[trebmaster]

I had the gear on the disk wareafter 50 or so hours, after investigating it turned out to be the chains were not tight enough. I keep them as tight as I can get them and have not seen the ware since replaceing parts. 350 hrs

[whipper-ag]

My guess is this is the problem, 1 of 2 things. The shaft is the wrong material with the wrong heat treat or no heat treat at all, or the bearing dia. on the shaft was undersize. That shaft should be a press fit in that bearing. That's so the bearing turns & not the inner race on the shaft. I think Argo might have a quality control problem. Run a corner of a file across the shaft. If it cuts it , it's too soft.

Whipper

[cory_Alaska]

Geez Cory, sorry to hear all the problems you're having. Was hoping to buddy up someday but looks like it'll be awhile for your Conquest to be back to operational status. Keep us posted on the progress.

Dennis

Shouldnt take too long to get it put back together. The only thing I am still really worried about is the batt charging issue, that one has me stumped. I found the parts today for the tranny so I should have it back together in a week or so. I will let you know how it goes!

I had the gear on the disk wareafter 50 or so hours, after investigating it turned out to be the chains were not tight enough. I keep them as tight as I can get them and have not seen the ware since replaceing parts. 350 hrs

That is exactly what happened to mine. The previous owner let the chains run too loose and it wore the sprocket down pretty bad. Then on my glacier trip it finally stripped the teeth off completely. It has a little over 450 hours right now. That is something I will be checking before and after each trip from this point on.

My guess is this is the problem, 1 of 2 things. The shaft is the wrong material with the wrong heat treat or no heat treat at all, or the bearing dia. on the shaft was undersize. That shaft should be a press fit in that bearing. That's so the bearing turns & not the inner race on the shaft. I think Argo might have a quality control problem. Run a corner of a file across the shaft. If it cuts it , it's too soft.

Whipper

Whipper, I think that is exactly what the problem is. My question is wouldnt the severe heat from the brake disk on that shaft soften it over time from the heat/cool down cycles? I just took a file to it and it cuts into it pretty good. I think I will take the new shafts and have them heat or cryo treated prior to installation. I will also use some retaining compound to keep any slippage from happening. No way to tell how the fit was prior to the wear. I agree, it could very well be a quality control problem on argo's part.

[whipper-ag]

The heat from the brakes would never get hot enough to anneal the material. Besides you can't anneal something that is all ready soft. In my opinion,they should be heat treated & the problem with getting them heat treated is , you don't know what the material is, so no heat treater would know what process to use. If the shaft doesn't press into the bearing it probably won't last very long.

Whipper

[m350]

As I recall,,we ran a file across the bad shaft,,,just mild steel,,we also used retaining compound on the shafts that needed it, on my trans rebuild.

[Roger S]

Cory you're right about the primary chains, They probably are the most often needed adjustment on the vehicle.