Finished Work on New Right Drive Train, Started Working on New Left Drivetrain

Tonight I was able to wrap up work (mostly) on the new drivetrain body that uses bearings instead of flanges for the axels on the right foot.

The JB Weld that I used to secure one of the bearings had cured, so I was able to do final assembly.



I then hooked up a battery and ran the drivetrain both upside down and upside up to check its operation. (It's easier to test upside down when the wheels are pointed upward, but obviously this needs to run correctly upside up.) Both orientations seemed to operate smoothly with both wheels being driven.




The next moment of truth was to try it on the droid. I transplanted the foot channel and give it a go, and things seemed to work well.



With that out of the way, it was time to turn to the left drivetrain. I pulled that one off the droid.



And exploded it.



I fit the axels in, and they seemed to be ok.



But as I got ready to place the gears and chain opposite the motor side, I realized I had a problem. The new drivetrain body has the wheel base slightly wider than the old one, and the existing chain won't reach.



I will need to build a new chain that is one link longer. I'll deal with that later.

I decided I'd take this opportunity to install the four bearings on the left drivetrain. So far I've only JB Welded one of the bearings in place on the right drivetrain, and the other three are press-fitted snugly. However, I've decided I'm going to JB Weld all of the bearings in place on both drives, so I lightly sanded and cleaned up the bearings, and cleaned the holes for them with acetone on the left drive train.



I then applied JB Weld to the holes and pressed the bearings in place.




I'll let that dry overnight and then work on building chain for the wider wheelbase.