Carryall 272 locking transaxle in a DS

[mjribeiro]

I've taken over Bulky's locking transaxle project. As we know the rear is wider than one from a stock DS. The tubes are thicker too, but we will get to that soon enough.

The first part to tackle is the stock spring perches. They are approximately 3/4" too wide for the DS. They also incorporate a frame snubber mount. Here is a picture of the standard axle tube and mounts:

OEMMounts.jpg

Bulky had the great idea of welding new perches to the top of the axle and having the axle mount under the leaf springs instead of over. I already had a Jakes LT kit on the cart, so I already had a flipped, stock axle with extra height from aluminum blocks. When I compared the finished height of the two solutions, the new perches would have lost an inch or so of height compared to where I was. Plus mounting the new perches on top would have put them close enough to the brake bracket to make welding them a pain. I decided to cut off the stock perches and slide them over a bit, reusing the aluminum blocks.

The new axle housings are thicker though, by 3/8". The blocks would not fit over the carryall tubes. Using a router table and a carbide bit I was able to CAREFULLY machine the blocks to fit.
Block1.jpg

They fit tight now!!!!
block2.jpg

For comparison, here is what they look like on a stock DS tube (after the machining is done)

Block3.jpg

More to follow!

[mjribeiro]

Here is a side by side of stock tubes (on top) with the snubber mount, and my modified version below. Compare the two, and you can see how the spring perch on the bottom is moved in some - in the stock location, the perch lines up perfectly with the snubber mount.

before and after tubes.jpg

Here is the entire axle mounted mocked in place to get the spring perches tacked.

Mocked in place.jpg

After welding and paint, I added new axle end bearings in the tubes, and made sure all the brakes were free. Here is the final product waiting for installation.

ready for install.jpg

Then for the reinstall. Here is the 'business end' of why I'm doing this - Shift on the fly locking mechanism, right from Club Car. Here you see the cable bracket, switch lever and lock housing. In this shot I have everything bolted back together, just missing the rear brakes and the shifter mechanism.

cable bracket switch.jpg

More to follow!

[mjribeiro]

Rear brakes? The Carryall has rear hydraulic drums with a manual parking brake. I'm trying to make the cart usable again for Halloween, so I'm going to postpone getting juice to the rear brakes. Besides, I already have hydraulic discs in the front, so I had my stock DS drums dialed way back anyway. For now I will just hook up my stock cables to the parking brake levers. A little temporary, but better than nothing.

Here are the DS cables on the 272 bracket - woops a little short!

stock cables too short.jpg

I did Rube Goldberg one proud with this temporary extension.

brake.jpg

More to follow!

[mjribeiro]

Track width? Bulky determined the axle is 6.75" wider than stock. I was using 2" all sports spacers to get my rear closer to the front width of the Jakes LT. But the rear track width was still too narrow.

Rear track width is now 1.5" wider than the front, .75" on each side. I can live with that.

Rear to front, it's hard to tell..

back to front.jpg

Rear wheel

rearwheel.jpg

Front wheel

frontwheel.jpg

I think its a better now than with the 2" spacers.

Keep going!

[mjribeiro]

The last issue to tackle is engaging the rear. I bought the CC lever and cable. But where to mount it? I think I've settled for the dash board, but the stock cable is too short and the plastic dash will need some reinforcing. It still seems like the best place. The cable is just a bicycle brake cable - that will be easy to replace. The dash will take some work, and may have to wait a couple weeks.

lever.jpg

Stay tuned - I'll report back soon.

[mjribeiro]

Finally got to take some test runs tonight. No leaks or funny sounds. I lost a few MPH top speed wise. I had 22 MPH before with the stock axle and only 17 now. Does that sound right? I'm sure I picked up some low end power, but not enough to really notice.

I had to reset the governor shaft when I installed the brackets. The manual says pull the lever back to simulate WOT, then rotate the shaft CCW and tighten the nut.
Would this setting be messed up by me having the governor spring zip tied before I performed the procedure? I wouldn't think so.....
Also, what happens if you don't turn that governor shaft completely to a CCW stop? Does the governor kick in sooner? I'm assuming it would.

[Bulky]

SWEET! Looks awesome! Glad it made it in a cart. As soon as it snows, i'm coming down for a ride.

[mjribeiro]

I finally mounted the shift lever. It works great!!! You can engage the lever at speed, since there is a spring at the end of the cable and it puts slight pressure on the lever until the cogs seat and can lock the axle. Although steering is much more limited once you are in locked mode, so it's not a smart thing to do at high speeds.

I used a 3/16 aluminum plate to mount the lever to. Routed out the edge to fit snug in the dash indentation.

IMG_5171.jpg

Here we are all buttoned up - Unlocked-

IMG_5306.jpg

Locked -

IMG_5307.jpg

I think this may be one of the few Gas DS with 'factory' locking rear. OK - not OE, but definitely Club Car! I can't wait to play in the snow!!!

[twistedup]

looks good all you had to do on the rear spring is turn your rear shackle around for the rear end to bolt up to the perches instead of welding new ones on.i got the front and rear end out of a 272 in mine everything bolts right up done a litte fab to the front for more lift also to get the ride soft.but i will say i love the way mounted the locking lever mine is mouted right off the air box

[mjribeiro]

twisted, I'm not sure I follow, swapping the spring shackles would move the rear of the springs outward, maybe even enough to hit to stock 272 perches. But the springs would not be running parallel any more. In fact to hit the perch which was 3/4" off at the center of the spring, you would probably need to move the rear of the spring out 1 1/2". From the top, wouldn't the springs look like this / \ ? I'm probably missing your technique.

At very least you would still need to chop off the snubber bracket if you were doing the axle under spring lift.


In case anyone else was following, even a locking rear axle doesn't help get me through 2+ feet of snow!!!! I think I need a side by side!