Splined shaft? (where to get one)

[Crazymanneil]

Guys,

Am making some progress on my build now that I have the time. Have aquired a lot of parts but have run aground on getting a shaft made up for the output side of the engine (Smart CDI).

Basically I need to get a shaft turned up which has Flange -> Shaft (35mm) -> Splines -> Thead. (all on the one shaft). The splines and thread will be to fit a standard compensating sprocket off a harley chain primary drive.

I've worked out my dimensions and took it all to 2 engineering companies here but both said they don't have the stuff to make the splines on the shaft.

Any ideas? Guy in one place suggested getting a standard splined shaft from somewhere and cutting at it as required but I can't find anything.

I have to try a gearbox place who might be able to help although I have a feeling this will be expensive....

Ta,

Neil

[oldbmw]

Guys,

Basically I need to get a shaft turned up which has Flange -> Shaft (35mm) -> Splines -> Thead. (all on the one shaft). The splines and thread will be to fit a standard compensating sprocket off a harley chain primary drive.

I've worked out my dimensions and took it all to 2 engineering companies here but both said they don't have the stuff to make the splines on the shaft.

Any ideas? Guy in one place suggested getting a standard splined shaft from somewhere and cutting at it as required but I can't find anything.

I have to try a gearbox place who might be able to help although I have a feeling this will be expensive....

Ta,

Neil

Basically it can be done ( the splines, or gears for that matter) by using a dividing head and a hobber, mill or sometimes pedastal drill.
You will need to find an old engineering works with old equipment

[Crazymanneil]

Cheers Larry.

I have found one and only company in Northern Ireland which can do this seemingly impossible task but they want around £350 for the job (without yet having seen it so maybe more).

Alternate route I am chasing is to get the crankshaft from a harley for adaption. The sprocket shaft seems to screw into the flywheel on the harley so it may work for me but having problems at the moment locating exactly the right one to fit the sprocket I have. Still digging unless someone knows about Harleys?

Neil

[Stuart]

I've been looking into the very same thing for the Ruggerfields new belt clutch. Nobody seems to do it anymore I may have to adapt the old clutch parts.
There is still a remote possiblity that the internal splines there were from another clutch and have been cut out & fitted by means of a reverse thread.
I'll echo Dr Stuart McGuigan when he said at the recent KLR lecture "that they just couldn't find anyone in the UK that made things anymore." Very frustrating

[richard coles]

hi, when i built my bike i had to have a flange/sprocket carrier made . this is based on my solution.

http://img66.imageshack.us/img66/6727/flangeideauq4.jpg

hopefully the image link will work.
this is how it works,
-flange to mount to engine
-shaft with a shoulder at the end farthest from the flange (length of this
equates to that needed to align engine sprocket to the clutch sprocket)
-end shaft with keyway in it to locate sprocket
-internal thread into the end of the shaft which will hold the sprocket on
with the aid of a bolt and thick washer
-for the sprocket try www.fish4parts.co.uk have the internal machined
to the size of the shaft and also have a keyway machined in

Also don't worry about doing a quality drawing just remember all the dimensions and talking your needs thru with the engineer .

[Crazymanneil]

Cheers for that guys. My dad used to work in an engineering works over here but thats long since gone. In the good old days apparently this sort of thing would have been easy to slip under the door, but alas there is no door anymore!

I was thinking of a flange setup with a hole and taper bored in it to take the standard harly sprocket shaft as per here -

http://www.jpcycles.com/productgroup.as ... C54917B9A0

However, now looking at that fish4parts website and thinking of other ideas. The big advantage of a different sprocket would be that I could pick the number of teeth at the front. This would be a big advantage for gearing over the standard setup which would leave the engine revving a bit hard in top gear for my liking. Also going a tooth or 2 up at the front would lessen the torque on the gearbox. On the other hand the harley front sprocket has a mechanism which absorbs the engine power pulses (shock absorber type thing) which would have been nice to keep.

On reflection I think your way via fish4parts is probably the way to go although will need to make sure I'm ordering the right size of sprocket. Can get most stuff machined up except splines so as long as the keyway takes 130N/M then we should be ok.

Thanks

Neil

[oldbmw]

Cheers Larry.

I have found one and only company in Northern Ireland which can do this seemingly impossible task but they want around £350 for the job (without yet having seen it so maybe more).

Neil

In my youth I could walk you to four or five places that would do this as routine work. Sadly they are all retail outlets now. Seems we have ditched our manufacturing capability in favour of selling cheap imports from supermarkets

[Stuart]

I think this is the tool for my needs. Check out the Polikey video.

http://www.poliangolar.com/l_eng/04b_polikey2006.htm

[oilburner]

Perhaps you have already tried using Yell.com (equivalent of yellowpages.com here in America). Once I figured out that you call machinists "precision engineers" I did a http://yell.com search on "precision engineers" for "South East England" and got 1250 hits, 60 of them detailed listings. Here is one shop similar to the one I use. The kind of shop most likely able to do your work for a reasonable price is one that does repairs. Also look for a shop that does "general machining". The shop I use has been around for decades and has old manual equipment (one CNC mill/lathe I think) but as the saying goes they can fix "anything but a broken heart or the break of day". You will probably get the most reasonable labor rates but it'll still be expensive, though £350 is probably a bit much - £150-£200 would be more like it. From what I saw I'm pretty sure you can find a suitable shop in Northern Ireland or South East England.

Example:

S&GWooldridge Ltd
Rookery Farm, Rookery Chase,
Ardleigh,
Colchester,
Essex
CO7 7LH
Tel: 01206 230488

* Where Quality Counts
* Manufacture & Repair
* One Off, Prototype Batch Work
* Milling Turning, Profiling
* Precision Engineers
* Family Owned For Over 20 Years

My $.02

[Stuart]

Thanks for that Oilburner. It turned up lots in my area. Shows what a difference search critera makes don't it

[Crazymanneil]

Ta again!

For info I got a reply from fish4parts saying that they do ANSI sprockets although they are not on their website. I reckon one of those pilot bored would be just the job to take to my local machine shop with details for the flange and shaft length then ask them what they reccomend for attaching.

I am assuming that the harley primary duplex chain will be ANSI standard and not some special "heavy" standard etc. I can't find size info anywhere.

Might get a couple of sprockets to play with gear ratios...

Neil