This block of steel is about to become the first ever CTS-V Billet Diff housing!! - Page 5

JonCR96Z · #61 (**permalink**) 12-16-07, 01:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by thebigjimsho

Good point. p00f, no more darkman...

I normally try to ignore your posts as well, but this one is a good one.

urbanski · #62 (**permalink**) 12-16-07, 02:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by thebigjimsho

Good point. p00f, no more darkman...

UnsafeAtAnySpd · #63 (**permalink**) 12-16-07, 04:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dkozloski

I think this is a great project. It's well thought out and ought to produce interesting results. Has anybody thought about approaching the problem from another angle and weld some reinforcing onto the original aluminum housing. Fifty years ago we used to weld a lug on the inside of Ford differential housings so we could screw in an adjustable bolt with a big lump of brass on it that was set for a few thousanths clearance on the back side of the ring gear. When the ring and pinion loaded up and started to separate the ring gear would hit the bolt and it would support it.

It seems to me that if there is a basic weakness in the aluminum housing that reinforcing can be TIG welded onto the outside to beef it up. Careful preheat would reduce warpage. Bearing bores could be welded up and remachined for the correct alignment. Since the housing is cast it has to be a weldable alloy. The very best facility I know of that does this kind of work is Nickson's Machine Shop in Santa Maria, California. These guys have been doing unbelievable work for over 60 years. This place oozes extreme craftsmanship. It would be well worth somebodies time to take a cracked housing to these guys and see if they think they can improve /reinforce it. It would be well worth anybodies time to just take a shop tour and see how it's done by the old school masters.

Another absolutely first class operation is Precision Engineering in Seattle, Washington. These guys also perform machining miracles.

My brother-in-law works for John Deere in Waterloo, Iowa. He makes obsolete parts from billet stock using CNC tooling that were originally made from castings that are no longer available. They bring him a print of a part that hasn't been made for 30 years and he turns it out. He also machines prototypes and makes "impossible parts". Every manufacturer from time to time designs an impossible part that it seems like it just cannot be made by humans and he figures out how to untie these Gordian knots. In my estimation he has the best machine shop job in the world and he makes really good money.

Maybe I'll have to break mine and take it over there. I live in Santa Maria.

ZEUSROTTY · #64 (**permalink**) 12-16-07, 07:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nutzabout_v

i second that... seriously... if the dude wants to try. why all the bull shit?

ZEUSROTTY · #65 (**permalink**) 12-16-07, 07:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dkozloski

4130 can be normalized by heating to a cherry red heat and letting cool in still air, a simple heat treatment. 4140 is more prone to distort and crack with heat treatment. I was suggesting something better than mild steel that the average bear could handle easily. I was a journeyman machinst when I was 17 years old 50 years ago and I 've been in and out of the field ever since, grasshopper.

so you must be one of the guys that machined the first wheel?

urbanski · #66 (**permalink**) 12-16-07, 08:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ZEUSROTTY

so you must be one of the guys that machined the first wheel?

Silver Dollar · #67 (**permalink**) 12-16-07, 11:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ZEUSROTTY

so you must be one of the guys that machined the first wheel?

Actually, Koz started the first fire.

His son machined the first wheel.

BigJimSho invented the first tweel.

trukk · #68 (**permalink**) 12-17-07, 12:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by thebigjimsho

C'mon...How would you be if you spent all day in NY/NJ traffic, rolling into Southern VA at around 3AM, only to get up at 6AM to spend a day changing tires and brakes and baking my ass all day while driving around a 4 mile track I've never seen before??

I'd say I was Prattin' brilliant considering...

I keed, I keed

Quote:

Originally Posted by thebigjimsho

How should we be? For 4 years, we've heard about supposed fixes that either don't work or never get going. Even from "reputable" outfits.

We all WANT this to happen. We just know better that for some reason or another, it probably won't...

This is very true. Doesn't exuse people for acting up, but it is the cause.

-Chris

**The Tony Show** · #69 (**permalink**) 12-17-07, 01:32 PM

I think people are tempering their expectations considering past failures.

It's a lot easier to say "I told you so" than to get your hopes up and be disappointed in the end.

urbanski · #70 (**permalink**) 12-17-07, 04:03 PM

OP noted on another forum "Updates will now happen here first. Thanks."

so why should i leave this open?

trukk · #71 (**permalink**) 12-17-07, 04:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by urbanski

OP noted on another forum "Updates will now happen here first. Thanks."

so why should i leave this open?

I vote keep it open. Closing this thread will just add to the draaama. Try and take the high road Urby.

-Chris

**JimmyH** · #72 (**permalink**) 12-17-07, 04:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by urbanski

OP noted on another forum "Updates will now happen here first. Thanks."

so why should i leave this open?

Because before we worry about how good the ride is, we want to know what the price of admission will be.

I estimate custom jobs all the time, and I still have not scene even a ballpark price either here or on "the other forum" (that grand old forum.) Is anyone really going to pay $thousands for a steel diff case that still needs guts? I still wish them luck though.

trukk · #73 (**permalink**) 12-17-07, 04:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JimmyH

Because before we worry about how good the ride is, we want to know what the price of admission will be.

I estimate custom jobs all the time, and I still have not scene even a ballpark price either here or on "the other forum" (that grand old forum.) Is anyone really going to pay $thousands for a steel diff case that still needs guts? I still wish them luck though.

Just FYI, you can get the quaife 'guts' for 1.5K.

-Chris

**JimmyH** · #74 (**permalink**) 12-17-07, 04:35 PM

I think I shall stick with my ?diff? and drive like a normal person. You guys play how you want, and I wish you well.

**The Tony Show** · #75 (**permalink**) 12-17-07, 04:44 PM

The OP is overreacting to some legitimate questions and some (admittedly) premature bashing- let's not compound the problem by overreacting to their overreaction. LS1tech has 1/1000th of the CTS owners that this site does, and Custom Gear would be foolish to concentrate on that forum simply because no one over there intends to purchase and therefore bothers to ask any questions.

Custom Gear- A lot of people are watching this thread silently, and even those asking questions or doubting obviously have interest in the results- otherwise, they wouldn't be posting. This is the largest and best Cadillac forum on the Internet, and I highly recommend you work WITH the folks here through the process. Your potential returns on this one web site far exceed those of every other Cadillac site on the 'net combined.

Again, good luck with the project.