MTFCA Forum

jab35 wrote: ↑

Tue Apr 30, 2024 11:20 am

Jeff: Impressive effort, detail and design, thanks for sharing.

Any plans to bring an OEM-correct ignition lock cylinder to the marketplace in the future?

Thanks, jb

Jerry VanOoteghem wrote: ↑

Tue Apr 30, 2024 11:35 am

Very nice!

It may have been that the area under the spring mount was hollowed out in order to prevent shrink voids in that section, which might undermine the spring mount stud. This can happen in castings that have thick & thin sections. I had this issue in some bronze castings I had made. After the next iteration, maybe cut through that section to look for any internal flaws.

AdminJeff wrote: ↑

Tue Apr 30, 2024 12:29 pm

Jerry VanOoteghem wrote: ↑

Tue Apr 30, 2024 11:35 am

Very nice!

It may have been that the area under the spring mount was hollowed out in order to prevent shrink voids in that section, which might undermine the spring mount stud. This can happen in castings that have thick & thin sections. I had this issue in some bronze castings I had made. After the next iteration, maybe cut through that section to look for any internal flaws.

Quite possibly, esp given the crappy pot metal used back in the day.

AdminJeff wrote: ↑

Tue Apr 30, 2024 8:31 am

After rebuilding 100's of starter & generator brush holders and seeing what is available for replacements (they suck) I bit the bullet and decided have a casting made. I'm taking one for the team here. It's not cheap and is VERY time consuming, but these parts are failing more and more frequently, and somebody had to do it. All I can say is I'm glad I did well in most of my mechanical engineering classes. This is NOT easy. Round one is done as a proof of concept, but some adjustments still need to be made.

Here's the initial drawing. Lots of edits before we went to the mold. A couple important mods - I filled in the bottom of the often failing spring stantion for a little more support and made the brush wire screw (so often stripped) surface slightly thicker. I also drilled and tapped the 2 #6 mounting holes so it will be hyper easy to install these.
We're using zinc (as original) for the material.
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IMG_2877.jpeg

3D renderings
IMG_2878.jpeg
IMG_2880.jpeg
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First mold pop
IMG_2867.jpeg
Unfortunately the engineer made a mistake and the spring holder diameter is a bit too big, but everything else is good to go.
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Fitment
IMG_2879.jpeg

As with most projects like this, it is time consuming, rarely works the first time, and the smallest details matter A LOT! Hopefully rev 2 will make the cut.