Good news, bad news

From Daniel:

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If it does turn out as a Suzuki 26 spline then that's half the battle.

Unfortunately you would need to secure almost 100 deposits in order to guaranty an all-new model build.
That would guaranty us at least a partial return on our tool-up.
Other then that, assuming we have the spline, any interest at all will help the possibilities.
Is there anybody in your forum group who has a ring gear off of one who could measure the inside diameter and the pitch circle diameter (i.e., the furthest centre distance between 2 bolts).
It may take a couple weeks before I can get somebody onto pulling your assembly down for measurements.

BTW, the 1.07" to 1.078" thing is simply the measurement over the top land of the tooth anyways.
It's rarely very accurate as most good splines are rolled on.
We only use it because most people have the ability to measure this dimension.
I could tell you that the Vitara spline is a 26 tooth, 1 module, 45? pressure angle, class 5, fillet root spline (enough info to manufacture that spline) but I doubt most people could verify that for us.

I might have a Suzuki shaft in our archives somewhere (if you don't) to try it into your sample assembly.

I'll keep you posted.

-daniel

====================================================
Daniel J Bongard (MEng)
====================================================
Engineering Supervisor
ARB 4x4 Accessories, AUSTRALIA
http://www.arb.com.au
Email: dbongard@arb.com.au
Tel: +61 (3) 9761 6622
Fax: +61 (3) 9721 9415
====================================================
----- Original Message -----
From: Gary Campbell
To: Daniel Bongard
Sent: Monday, September 27, 2004 8:06 AM
Subject: Re: KIA SPORTAGE FRONT AIR LOCKER


Daniel,

There has been a bit of confusion in our group, but it may in fact help us and you. It would appear that the front differential may be a 26 spline unit across all years (the Kia part numbers for the assembly are listed as the same throughout all years of manufacture). This would mean that the original Idea of modifying a Vitara differential may be a goer. I will try to source an axle from a Suzuki this week and drop it in to you (or have it dropped in) to see if it will fit into my diff splines. If that works, we may have short circuited some development time and costs.

The 26-28 spline difference seems to only apply to the rear differential, as described in my previous email.

Please feel free to completely disassemble the Kia differential for all the measurements needed and an absolute verification of spline count.

Regards

Gary Campbell

----- Original Message -----
From: Daniel Bongard
To: gkcampbl@bigpond.net.au
Sent: Friday, September 24, 2004 10:27 AM
Subject: KIA SPORTAGE FRONT AIR LOCKER


Hi Gary,

I have your diff sample and I will have it measured to put through our database to match it against current designs.
The fact that you claim the spline to be Ï27 x 28 tooth suggests that this is a spline that we have not previously tooled up for.
Unfortunately the tooling to cut a side gear spline is a very expensive unit that we have custom made for us overseas, which means that a diff model would have to represent a significant number of sales in order for us to break even on the upstart costs.

In other words, you may need to find several KIA mates willing to commit to a purchase.

I'll keep you posted on what I find.

Best regards,

daniel

====================================================
Daniel J Bongard (MEng)
====================================================
Engineering Supervisor
ARB 4x4 Accessories, AUSTRALIA
http://www.arb.com.au
Email: dbongard@arb.com.au
Tel: +61 (3) 9761 6622
Fax: +61 (3) 9721 9415
====================================================