Finished Rebuilding Left Drivetrain, Tested on Droid

Today I was able to complete work on the left drivetrain body that uses bearings instead of flanges to hold the drivetrain axels in place.

I had to build a new chain for the side opposite the motor. I pulled out the old left over chain to measure out how much is needed.




I explain the basics of building chain here, and I followed those steps again. I placed an add-and-connect link and a connecting link in place on one end of the new chain and wrapped the chain around the gears and added some slack for the idler gear, to identify where to break the chain.



I used my chain breaking tool to remove the pin on the identified link. Note that it matters which pin to remove; with the pin removed I need the inside part of the chain link to be exposed.




With the chain now back together, I can place it on the gears to determine where to locate the idler gear. Slack on the chain is intentional, so as to not have the chain be over-taut. The slack shown is not enough to cause the chain to slip on the gears.




I marked where to drill with my punch, and drilled the hole for the idler gear at the proper location.




I then transplanted the hacked off piece of axel from the motor from the old drivetrain body to the new one, and installed the gears and chain on the non-motor side of the drivetrain.




I then reinstalled the motor mount and motor, and did a test of the drivetrain on the battery. Things ran nice and smoothly.



Next it was time to try both the updated drivetrains on the droid, and I'm happy to report that things seemed to work well.



The last item of business for the evening was to remove the right drivetrain and use JB Weld to secure the three bearings that were press-fit in place (the fourth is already JB Welded in place). Almost done.