Pulling a Diamond Drive

garyl62

garyl62

Active member
OK,so I've got everything off I need, but the nut at 11:00 is on a bolt, not a stud and it's just spinning. I know there should be an easy solution but nothing I'm finding spells it out. One rag said it takes a torx but there is no place for that. Here are a couple photos after I pulled the secondary and before I got anything else off. It's the one top left. Any suggestions?

20130309_110531.jpg 20130309_110543.jpg
 
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byrn71

Member
Gary did you try using an impact to take it off? Otherwise ia there anyway to hold it from spinning? Also make sure you take the bolt out that connects the dd to the drive shaft. Hopefully you can get it out.
 
garyl62

garyl62

Active member
byrn71 said:
Gary did you try using an impact to take it off? Otherwise ia there anyway to hold it from spinning? Also make sure you take the bolt out that connects the dd to the drive shaft. Hopefully you can get it out.
Click to expand...

Didn't try an impact but not sure that would help as everything turns together, Honestly I didn't try real hard to look at the back side but at first glance it looked too tight to get anything in there to hold the head of the bolt. Haven't loosened the bolt holding the drive shaft yet as I didn't have a long enough extension at the shop when I started tearing it down, but I knew I had to to that to pull it out.
 
garyl62

garyl62

Active member
Well I've tried again with no luck. Tried to put pressure on the bolt with a screwdriver and it still spins. Can't get behind to hold or even see for sure what type of head is on it. Read some more places that that call it a "torx-head cap screw/lock nut". To me that means it should have a torx drive in the end of the bolt to hold it with a torx drive but as you can see by the photo it's just a typical bolt.

So I decided I'd try to tear it down in place. I tried to loosen the 16mm driveshaft cap screw from the brake side and at first it wouldn't budge. I got a lot of muscle behind it and it slowly started to turn. I've turned it probably 2 or 3 complete revolutions and it is still almost as tight as it was when I started moving it. Seems like it should have at least started to get easier to turn so now I'm worried something else is going wrong.

As some additional info, I did pull the cover off the case and the gears look good, but they will move both in and out a little, and if I pull them out (maybe 3/8") they have a lot of up and down play. I'm hoping this means its just a bearing, but not sure if that is part of my problem with not getting the driveshaft screw to free up.

Still looking for ideas.
 
garyl62

garyl62

Active member
Will try again today sometime, but track doesn't spin. I already knew that however because when it crapped out on the trail something broke and I could run the engine until the secondary would engage but nothing would engage the drive or track so there is no longer a connection between the shaft and the track.
 
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fishcrib

Member
Sometimes I had to have someone hold the break tighter than the lock can.
The last time I took the drive off that bolt had snapped(sometime when driving) and I was able to take out the diamond drive after I got the other nuts off. I got the screw out with an easy out, so if you snap the bolt it's not the worse thing. The bolt was a standard size I got from Menards 7/16 x14 x13/4 grade 8. Now I have the problem of the out put shaft and drive shaft wearing down. The spindles are wearing out and if I really hammer it grinds( not a good sound). Hope you can get that out today.
 
garyl62

garyl62

Active member
Well I got everything apart. Just needed to hold the brake harder, and was able to wedge the tip of a channel lock around to the back side to put enough pressure on the bolt hold that in place.

Ended up grinding down the teeth on the transfer gear and the planetary gear is screwed up too. That may have gone first and caused the other to grind off.

Anyone have some good suggestions on stock vs. aftermarket parts?
 
garyl62

garyl62

Active member
Here are some photos.

This is the transfer gear with the teeth ground down.
DSC04996.jpg

Here is the inside planetary, see the wear on the small gears.
DSC04998.jpg

These two show what seems to be some metal out of place inside the planetary on the left, and the one on the right is another area that is clean.
DSC05004.jpg DSC05005.jpg

Question now, is the what I will get when I buy a new planetary. or is there another part still on this assembly? I can't see how this comes apart, but the parts diagram doesn't seem to contain the cover with the 9 holes in it.
DSC05007.jpg
When I look at bd-extreme it doesn't look like this is the entire assembly.

Thanks, again guys, especially fishcrib for the replies. From the looks of things, and the price it looks like for replacement parts, I've got plenty of time to work on this as that last "extra" trip to the Keweenaw is definitely out of the budget now.
 
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snoluver1

Active member
The ring gear ("cover with 9 holes") and the 5 pinion planetary are separate pieces. The ring gear should just slide off the planetary set. Your's is probably a bit stuck from all the metal shavings mushroomed in there.
 
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anonomoose

New member
What a huge disappointment this technology has been. Getting rid of a chain drive was a good idea but obviously this diamond drive was not the right answer.

I believe I read that Cat is dumping this drive system and going back to a chain. While the idea was great, seems the components aren't taking it over time.

What a disappointment.
 
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