Stecktank drivetrain alignment

Peter D. Nettesheim · Post by **Peter D. Nettesheim** » Thu May 11, 2006 7:54 pm

D,
I am struggling with this on one of my current projects (1931 R16). Although you asked about the alignment on a Steck tank model, the issue is the same. You have a couple of things to look at here. The first is the axle alignment (have you looked at this yet?) In other words, you have the alignment of the driveshaft with the output flange of the transmission and then you have the alignment of the axle perpendicular to it that ties the right side rear of the housing to the left side frame. Do you understand?
All this alignment has to be done with the engine and transmission free within the frame. You are in essence aligning everything and then securing it to the frame. This is tough on a straight bike, tough to impossible on a bent one. Also, tell me what the dial indicator shows as out of round on the driveshaft drum. What is the out of round on the two holes in the output flange on the back of the transmission?If you have a specific question for me you are better off e-mailing me as I don't check the forum often. Good luck.
Peter D. Nettesheim

Darryl.Richman · Post by **Darryl.Richman** » Sat May 13, 2006 2:06 am

Peter, the problem is I don't have a specific quesiton. I managed to break the driveshaft, just ahead of its entrance into the final drive, on my R52 last weekend. We may have found the culprit, the double ball bearing inside the final drive is bad. But I don't know if that is a symptom of something else or caused the problem itself. The driveshaft itself may have been weak, as it's not original and the work indicates that it didn't fit perfectly when it was originaly put together with the brake drum and the bearing and pinion gear. So many avenues of investigation...

VBMWMO · Post by **VBMWMO** » Mon Feb 15, 2010 2:51 pm

Who (Peter?) can give me some hints about how to get a stecktank bike's drive train aligned? These bikes don't have a Hardy disk per se, but have a bit of rubber cushioning inside the driveshaft brake drum. And they don't have a U joint at all. So the transmission output shaft and the final drive input must be pretty closely aligned in two dimensions.

How can one tell if they are aligned (well enough) and how can one adjust them if they aren't?

There doesn't seem to be any means of making this adjustment normally; one must depend on the frame to properly align the transmission with the final drive.