Recutting splines on the Transmission shaft for my Electric Jeep

I'm in the process of rebuilding a 1956 Jeep CJ5 and converting it to an electric vehicle, and the next hurdle to overcome was re-splining the transmission input shaft to mate to the motor. This was tricky, but I took my time working through it and I'm really happy with the result.
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/ jeremymakesthings

[@RotarySMP]

Love the windowed pulley drive dog. Great idea.

[@JeremyMakesThings]

One man’s thrash is another man’s machine tool.

[@warrenjones744]

I was thinking the same thing and said "Hey why not!"

[@The-Muninn]

Damn! that motor-transmission-transfer case unit looks clean! great job, I'm looking forward to the install.

[@Dellpodder]

Best series on KZbin! Making Jeep parts using machine tools older than most of us. Keep it up! 👍

[@williemickbillie]

best feeling is when your first plan goes according to plan

[@JeremyMakesThings]

That usually surprises me when that happens.

[@Rustinox]

That was indeed a challenge. Good thing it works fine in the end.

[@JeremyMakesThings]

A combination of patience and stubbornness goes a long way.

[@Blondihacks]

Splines are not easy to cut and you got a fantastic fit on that. Well done 👏

[@sjv6598]

You’re a clever man, Jeremy. Watching you learn your way through this is fascinating 🙂

[@mrcammclellan]

hell ya!!! the bellhousing and shaft videos were so good. Jeep is going to be fantastic, and have so much room under the hood.

[@scroungasworkshop4663]

Im so impressed Jeremy, you are a smart man with tons of patience. I’m thoroughly enjoying the Jeep build. Thanks mate, Stuart 🇦🇺

[@TheAukel]

Really enjoy the videos across all types of builds. Appreciate both the humour and the tenacity to keep going in the face of people trying to turn this channel into “Jeremy makes other people’s things.” Hope you enjoy the process and any rewards from the channel. I’ll watch as long as you’re willing and able to continue. Cheers k.

[@joemcgarry1106]

You're making it happen Jeremy. Looking forward to seeing it run.

[@michaelallen1432]

Keep in mind when you get it all together that electric motors produce their full rated torque at 0 rpm. Thats great from some perspectives, like low rpm crawling. But it has to be handled carefully when you start off. If you naively just switch on, you get a rante of problems, from excessive curent draw damaging the inverter to the sudden movement being imparted to the drive shaft acting like a hammer and breaking components. Its all totally solvable by bringing up the torque slowly,and this was probably something you already knew, but its subtle enough that i thought id mention it. I know if i had nor heard of that, ahd i was building an EV, Id probaby try a few runs at lower power levels, then think it was all good and throw full power at it and break something.

[@broheim23]

This video popped up in my feed, and I am SO glad it did. Your attitude about making mistakes is not 😢, it's "Oops, I made a mistake. Let's try that again," which is something I can stand to learn. You've earned a new subscriber, Jeremy! 👍

[@TheDistur]

That's really cool you managed to machine it right into an original shaft.

[@1djbecker]

A friend and I did an EV conversion of a first generation Miata. Using the original transmission avoided a whole slew of mounting problems, especially since the Miata relied on a 'power plant frame', a structure that avoids powertrain torque going through the unibody by having a beam connecting the transmission and rear differential. It would have been a lot of work to design and fabricate a substitute structure. We avoided the spline problem in the usual way, cutting the splined center out of the original clutch. It took enough hours on the lathe doing a simple coupling, and that was far short of cutting splines and the associated annealing/hardening. We considered Lovejoy couplings, but they fell so far short of our (modest) power goals that we immediately rejected that approach.

[@crichtonbruce4329]

You, Sir, are a much braver person than I attempting what you do. My hat is of to you!

[@gafrers]

Great job and fantastic result. Looks so simple and compact, which means a lot of work went into it

[@N.Cognito]

I'm so happy you're uploading more. That turned out very nice.

[@Kurt-tq6ew]

The adaptor looks like a factory part. Cracking stuff 👍🏻

[@zebdeming]

There are lovejoy type joints used in heavy equipment between big diesel engines and massive hydraulic pumps. Having repaired a few of them, they still need misalignment and runout kept very small. You are definitely on the right path here, I wouldn't mess with any type of lovejoy connector

[@robertpeters9438]

The heater uses a resonance to bounce energy back and forth from inductor to capacitor very rapidly. Then the magnetic field changing rapidly will quickly transfer energy in the resonant circuit to the ferous metal in the coil. The electronics must keep adding energy to the circuit to maintain the amount still bouncing back and forth.

[@JETHO321]

Keep turning these videos out. I love this series.

[@blaketatar1239]

I love your videos because you make old machinery work and your whole attitude is great. You are never afraid to try something even if you are not sure of it and you don't fear mistakes. You make really cool stuff too.

[@MichaelisanEngineer]

Found you off your comment on Mr Savage's power hacksaw adventure, and then re-discovered and watched through all your videos the past couple of weeks. Kind of weird jumping around all of them and remembering what you hadn't done yet. 😂 Definitely sticking around now for more rusty lumps and the jeep build. Cheers from California!

[@xrotaryguy]

EV diy-ers back in the 2000s and earlier could omit the clutch behind a series wound DC motor because those motors freewheel off throttle. I think your Smart motor may regen off throttle which could make shifting without a clutch more difficult. Hopefully it's not an issue or there's a good workaround. Love all the fab, machining, and CASTING!? So cool!

[@jeffanderson4979]

I love watching your videos. You are so amazing. Even tempered, you laugh at yourself while you are learning the trade. I’m a big fan sir!

[@rallymax2]

The best thing about the video is your attitude. WWJD “What Would Jeremy Do”

[@rogerdeane3608]

Great job, i am surprised your subs aren't a lot higher.

[@Vindex0]

I like these trial and error videos 👍

[@kevinerhart8461]

Your adapter is looking like a production quality part. I must also compliment you on all of your skills

[@NathanealGovender]

Awesome video! You remind me of This Old Tony

[@thomasdavis5514]

Seems like you get a lot of "suggestions" from other viewers. As I am neither a machinist, nor engineer, I am thoroughly entertained and impressed with the work you are doing. Can't wait to see it all up and running.

[@ShnitzlHaus]

I am enjoying this series, I also think the jeep platform would be a fun EV conversion. maybe when my 2a is done I will do one also. wish I could cast and make a conversion plate like that.

[@thepagan5432]

Having spent my working life in mechanical engineering, specifically in industrial gearboxes and mass produced gears for the automotive industry, I'm like a moth to a flame on any gear related post. People still treat gears and gearing as a black art, just as you have proven them wrong. Most of it is common sense with a sprinkling of engineering know how. Good post, really enjoyed it, thank you.👍

[@JeremyMakesThings]

So you mean my candles and incantations were unnecessary? 🤣 I keep coming back to the fact that 99% of the knowledge about this sort of stuff came from someone making something, testing it, seeing if it broke, and if it did, tried to make it better and then repeating the process.

[@BrianBoniMakes]

Looks good, can't wait to see it in the Jeep.

[@grippgoat]

So friggin' cool. Can't wait to see you driving that thing when it's done.

[@mumblbeebee6546]

Never gets old! Also, very lovely to watch you have that joy! That was a pretty slick spline cut, congratulations!

[@The_DuMont_Network]

Sometimes the simpler option, the gas axe is the best.

[@warrenjones744]

I have to admire your perseverance Jeremy. I thought for sure you were going to re-cut that center clear through to the outside and have to start again🤣 I really hope to run into you someplace when this thing is going. I want to put some eyes on this masterpiece. Well done and as always Cheers🍻

[@dannyzuko1843]

Excellent advice as always. Looking forward to the air cleaner video.

[@GenauMann]

Great job Jeremy....I really do enjoy watching all your content 👍🏻 All the way from little Olde England...K.

[@PeteBrubaker]

Great work through all this Jeremy! I've really enjoyed watching you figure shit out and learn about how you're approaching the drivetrain. I know this is a while ago and you may have already done something about it, but at 4:19, the camera's image stabilization artifacts were tripping me out! It was almost uncomfortable and nauseous.

[@Engineerd3d]

Nicely done! Electric motor torque may actually be very beneficial off road!

[@Everude3000]

i'm impressed man!

[@NightsReign]

From what I have gathered, bearing in mind I'm not an electrical/electronic engineer, the top reason for the indication heaters burning out comes down to ignorance of the undergirding theory. Apparently, its proper function involves "ringing" the electrical pulse (I'm trying to remember the actual terms used, since I'm operating entirely from memory, from several years back). The MOSFETs are oscillating between each other ("like ringing a tuning fork" was the context the presenter used). If I recall correctly, the method for forcing this occurance requires a spark gap or a contactor, since the operating theory here is it needs an immediate sharp spike in the sine wave, rather than gradually ramping up voltage/current, and then dialing in to find the resonant frequency. Hitting this ideal has a benefit of dramatically lessening inefficiency (wattage being dissipated as heat is as always the inefficiency killing this type of device). I'm not sure if any of this makes sense to you, I'm having a hard time switching my brain between Hobbyist and Autistic Special Interest modes today. LMAO

[@mylifeisdope916]

Super cool!

[@WiktorKa]

Thanks for sharing your thinking process, trials and errors and struggles on the way - it's really informative!

[@deancoley7987]

Brilliant honest workmanship, and great that you include your own learning curve on display.never been a truer saying as learned by trial and error. I know there's nothing new under the sun, but absolutely certain that your work will be gratefully copied and shared

[@joeo6378]

Pausing at 3:33 to ask some questions. Why are you putting a transmission in an EV? How will you shift without a clutch?

[@JeremyMakesThings]

Because I’m an idiot who hasn’t spent the past two years figuring this stuff out. Maybe I should use a lovejoy coupler?

[@joeo6378]

@@JeremyMakesThings I was going to mention it if you didn't bring it up.

[@Fosgen]

Great job, tonnes of patience, good too seeing it becoming a working piece.

[@billgilbride7972]

Problem solving demonstration at its best!

[@TheAyrCaveShop]

Cool project following along.. Nice work, looking good 👍

[@FallLineCanoes]

Amazing Jer! Never cease to Impress me!!

[@youwillneverguess]

I'm interested to see how this turns out...

[@tbrun1000]

an interesting follow up video could be an high level explanation of if it would feasible to utilize the clutch assembly and if so would the crankshaft would have been easier to machine

[@JasonPruitt]

I've messed around with the induction heater a bit, and from what I've gathered, the coil size is not arbitrary, and can affect how well it works. Also if I remember correctly you don't want to exceed about 1/3rd the volume inside the coil with your part. From my personal experience, as it looks like you've got a 12V supply, I got no where with 12V. I switched to 48V and it went vastly better. It is also easy to send the supply into over current protect, with too large of a part. Cool project keep up the good work.

[@Rubbernecker]

Wow, what a great project!!!

[@zerk773]

Fearless! I love it.

[@Wheel_Horse]

Impressive work! Thanks for sharing!

[@vr66luke]

Another fantastic video.

[@Cjarka_]

Absolutely love the result ... I would love to see, when the jeep is finished, a long video made from all of these shorter videos. Just one multiple hour long fully commented video of this project car.

[@jeffwood8109]

Nicely done.

[@clone4211]

Your work is impeccable. Your process looks a lot like mine did when I elected to re-spline the output shaft of a Borg Warner 3 speed overdrive transmission to mate to the torque tube driveshaft yoke in my 1950 Chevy. The only difference is I had to build the shaft up to diameter with weld first and I elected not to harden the shaft as its a low torque application. As I had no information on the spline type, I had to grind a custom HSS 1/2" lathe tool to single point cut the splines in a custom fly cutter holder.

[@cbonz7734]

I thought I was the only one who had to do things four times to get it right. (For some reason four seems to be my number) I'm glad I'm in such good company.

[@markgreen7701]

Nice job!!

[@neffk]

I would guess that it's a medium-carbon steel. It does see fairly heavy service but it is bathed in oil and hot-hardness is not needed. Most of the world runs on plain carbon steel, much to my surprise. ALSO, you can look up the hardening and drawing temperatures for most steels. Quench and draw temperatures are mainly effected by carbon so you can ignore a lot of the other elements. There's a diagram in Machinery's Handbook. For example, I make some custom odd-ball impact sockets out of 4140. That's 0.40% carbon. I heat treat at 1650 oF, quench in a medium oil (9 second) and draw to about HRC 41 by cooking them at 800 oF for 2 hours. Whatever you do, do not search the internet for this kind of information. There's millions of useless web pages that have atomized the information to the point of confusion.

[@johnjacobjinglehimerschmid3555]

Awesome !!!! New Subscriber!

[@MattFoster-ge5xf]

This is awesome!

[@dethmasterwithajaw]

beautiful!

[@JonathanSteinert]

I like that you use test pieces to work your way towards a cutting process that will work, but I'm curious why you don't use steel for your later test pieces so you know how deflection will affect your final?

[@624Dudley]

The word that comes to mind is “undaunted”. 😁 Nice outcome! 👍

[@ollysworkshop]

Those induction heaters are just very basic oscillators with no protection. You need to turn the power supply on and allow it to ramp up before connecting the induction heater. The power supply can ramp up too slowly, then the oscillator doesn't get the kick it needs to start and can just sit in one state and burn out (don't ask me how i know!)

[@JeremyMakesThings]

That’s a good tip. I’m also going to add a constant current power supply to it so it doesn’t try drawing too much. It seems like it could be a useful thing to have around if I can figure it out.

[@keithviolette5870]

Great video - Looking forward to seeing you drive it for the first time. Will it have more power that it did originally?

[@JeremyMakesThings]

Yes, a modest amount more

[@Raketemensch42]

Do you edit out the swearing, or are you really this chill while you work?

[@JeremyMakesThings]

Both? There’s a little swearing to edit out, but not much. Like I said, I generally foresee the problems coming, so I usually have a decent idea how to deal with them.

[@Andrew_Fernie]

I can only imagine how long you have spent looking at that dial indicator to get this done. Also, is that the largest banner Anchorlube could send you? Seems you are missing half the frame. 😉

[@guygillmore2970]

All hail the algorithm

[@cwthemachinist]

Nice work. Good fit on those splines. It will be really cool to see this run. Do you know what the output torque is of the motor?

[@JeremyMakesThings]

Max is 200nm or 150lbft

[@cwthemachinist]

@JeremyMakesThings that should be enough to do some crawling with the available gear reduction and lightweight of the jeep. Plus, full torque at zero rpm.

[@smallshoptalk589]

Alright!!! Let's go.

[@kendingsor]

I also like the part where you turn the thingy and the light goes on.

[@royburnham100]

I couldn't help but think about Marvin the paranoid robot sticking his head in a bucket of water when you quenched the shaft in water. The 42 reference at the beginning of the video started me down the path....

[@hinz1]

But with that hardening process, you have an area right in the middle of the shaft, where it is fully annealed, but below austenite transition temperature, i.e. about as soft as it gets. Hard machining or limited annealing where it just becomes machinable, would have been smarter.

[@kendingsor]

I like the part where it looks like you have no idea what you are doing and making it up as you go along!

[@ThePottingShedWorkshop]

Oh, those high quality chinese cutters! One, maybe two teeth doing all the work!

[@TalRohan]

Most of that was pretty much on the don't try this side of my skill set but you made it understandable and I appreciate that , thankyou. Now busting to see your jeep work with it...will it be a road vehicle?

[@JeremyMakesThings]

That’s the plan

[@TalRohan]

@@JeremyMakesThings very cool, In the Uk we have to have new design vehicles go to a special testing station, do you have to do that in the states or is it one of those situations where because all you are changing is the engine its fine?

[@JeremyMakesThings]

@TalRohan it varies state by state. When I am, it seems like I should be able to register it as normal (and it will be subject to annual safety inspections- I think that’s the equivalent of your MOT). There’s a slight chance they’ll want me to register it as a “custom vehicle” but it doesn’t seem like that’s too much more complicated.

[@TalRohan]

@@JeremyMakesThings thats cool, here the MOT is all you need on an older vehicle (90's and back) as long as you don't change the chassis or drive train, you're free to put a different engine in and mess with the bodywork if its not part of the chassis. for one of my landrovers I was allowed to cut the back of the bodywork off and add water gas injection, and as long as it passed the MOT I was good to go. Beyond that you can't even build and use your own trailer without an official test paper.

[@Nick_Tactical]

Exactly what machine is that you used in begging to cut the splines ? Just curious and how much would something like this be to get a custom spline shaft made ? Not for a vehicle though it’s for a machine my dad had passed down to me and the splines is worn and has corrosion

[@scotttryan]

But why male models...? Really great work!

[@borisbeaver]

But the fourth one stayed up!! :) :)

[@JeremyMakesThings]

What? The curtains?

[@stuartstephens]

There will be a lot more room under the hood now, will you be mounting batteries there? (no need to reply, just thinking out loud...I know that will come out in future episodes.)

[@JeremyMakesThings]

70% under hood, 30% under rear floor (hope I didn’t spoil that for you)

[@koen7281]

Its kinda weird seeing your mill being used without that long tool holder sticking out

[@JeremyMakesThings]

I’ve gotten used to it. It does feel weird looking over at it sometimes when there’s nothing in the spindle.

[@JohnDoe-zr6bk]

What kind of green cutting paste are you using? Never seen something like that....

[@JeremyMakesThings]

Anchorlube.

[@rkeantube]

Did you consider retaining a clutch system?

[@JeremyMakesThings]

I only looked into it enough to learn that most people don’t think it’s worth it. The trade off is faster shifts (that don’t happen very often) for weight, complexity (still need a flywheel) and space. As it sits right now, the motor basically only takes up the space where the original bellhousing was. Keeping the clutch would have pushed it farther forward, meaning I’d have to move my battery pack up higher in the vehicle. Ditching the clutch means I can keep the center of gravity as low as possible.

[@rkeantube]

@@JeremyMakesThings That makes sense, hope to see it installed in the body soon, great video

[@murraymadness4674]

yeow, so much work for such a simple thing. You could not find an input shaft that already fit? and just couple it to the jeep trans using a simple coupling. I coupled a motor for my porsche boxster ev conversion, was not this hard. I also have a project to convert a 944 transaxle to a direct motor connection which means modifying the input shaft (shorten it), and I think I'm going to do it the easy way and just cut it and use a spacer to the motor instead of respline it shorter, because that will just work.. I guess if you got the tools and time you can do anything eventually.

[@Comecarryme141]

i was wondering what was the electric motor from or model number because i wanna do a 2000 impreza

[@JeremyMakesThings]

It’s a Bosch smg180/120 out of a 2015 Smart car. The same motor was also used in the Fiat 500 and a few other European EVs

[@RobertoCarrera-f1v]

It's like I'm watching another jeepers creepers movie... this looks scary.

[@ADBBuild]

Can't wait for the first burn out!

[@slartimus]

17:45 - 18:00 : "Now KISS!"

[@Paulman50]

Ha ha, 😂🤣😅😂 42 is the answer to the universe.

[@dillinpicklesworth5698]

I believe they meant 26 and turned down to slip fit, 🤔🤷‍♂️

[@belatoth3763]

I managed to reveal the secret message at 0:42!

[@nraynaud]

I see you got the nice DIN standard, the not nice one is in German :)