Strength of dana rear?

x-bird

Hit the salvage yard the other day for an off-road buggy project and brought home an ez-go 36v electric of unknown vintage. steel body panels and frame.
Anyway, i clipped it for spare front hubs and the rear axle assembly.

The rear axle setup is going into a locked live axle swing-arm type suspension. What i'm hoping to do is put a chain sprocket in place of the ring gear, convert the carrier bearings to sealed bearings and chop it to run the chain through the gear side of the c-section.

Dimensionally the axle tubes, overall width and ring gear hub location are spot-on for my needs. I've already torn it down and everything will fit.

My one concern is whether or not the spider cluster (believe that's the term--the 4 bevel gears inside the hub and on the axle ends) will hold up to a 150 cc (and later possibly a 250 cc) GY6 type engine making about 15-20 hp.

Will i have something along the lines of a limited slip or will it mostly be a peg legger traction-wise if i keep the gear cluster intact? I'm running Maxxis rubicons, 22x12.50 on the rear and am killing the present china-made axles and hubs despite doing some extensive mods to them. (there's a picture of the rear in the yamaha section--was looking into Y hubs for it, but got the ez-go for scrap price.)

If strength or the latter is an issue, then i'm thinking of putting in a female splined coupler tube to connect the axles.

Any and all comments/input are welcome. TIA

BGW

__________________
This advertising will not be shown in this way to registered members.
Register your free account today and become a member on Buggies Gone Wild Golf Cart Forum

TheWiltz

the differential is Open so you will have one wheel drive, i assume that is what you are calling a peg leg, however if you weld the spider gears to each other you will have a fully locked rear end. 4x4 builders do this all the time. Id bet if you youtube welding spider gears you will see a lot of this.

scottyb

The spline drive hubs have a minute amount of slop in their fit. They will not withstand the type of use you describe.

x-bird

Open is what i figured--good ol peg-legger. Oh well .... i'm not a fan of welding on hardened, but it'll do the trick for now.

Most of the "buggies" of this type are either using splined hubs or keyed hubs. I'm not a fan of the keyed hubs as i've seen plenty of hubs split and have also worn out the key groove on a few of them myself. Splines hold up well if the lock nut is kept tight and the axle/hub are of good quality.

Issue i'm mostly having is the metal quality is garbage, myself and others are shearing the splined portion right off these particular axles.

Some pics showing: The "twist" beginning with about 5 minutes of moderate ride time.

The mod i did to be able to move the load on the hub to a larger diameter area.

The added bearing support to help prevent bending and welded one side of a 2-bolt lock collar to the hub.

Modding this axle was a short-term job as it was twisted and bent to start with. it's not riding flush against the bearing and is slowly getting worse. However, it has survived about an hour of very aggressive riding-- unmodded, i'd have already seen my rear tire go rolling on past me.

The ez-go axles definitely look up for the task, the drum hubs are on the heavy side for my tastes, I may look into other hubs for a match the spline./dia.

I just grabbed this on a whim and dimensionally, it fits in every direction. Working with some of this china-built stuff these days, that's the proverbial needle in a haystack.

More current video of the latest test-run to give an idea of terrain/riding type i put it through.

Attached Images

	AXLEt.jpg (272.3 KB, 0 views)
	axle3.jpg (125.8 KB, 0 views)
	ax3.jpg (311.9 KB, 0 views)

x-bird

So to date i've been slowly getting this rear end to fit.

After researching some of the LSDs and lockers, it looks like welding the spider gears is the only option as this will be running without lubricant. I'll be replacing all the bearings with new sealed ones. A buddy of mine will be welding a plate in to close off the cut-off end of the case.

I was mistaken regarding the type, looking at the motor again, it is from a 36 volt cart. I'm thinking 1970s-early 80s marathon, anyone have any ideas in that regard? I already returned the cart remains to the salvage yard. The gears are in nice shape and i was thinking about posting them for sale/trade but i want to make sure i list them correctly.

Attached Images

	diff1.jpg (168.8 KB, 0 views)
	diff5.jpg (177.5 KB, 0 views)
	diff7.jpg (124.7 KB, 0 views)
	1.jpg (214.2 KB, 0 views)