New owner with ventilation problem

There is a buy it now price. And it’s for a single item. You can buy from yahoo via a broker. I do this all the time.

 

Thanks, Elliott. So with Japanese taxes, fees, GST, etc.. another 20%, then postage costs.... so probably A$300

 

I'd be interested in these!

 

Hi all,

Happy Holidays!

My vent direction motor assembly 63307100 is back in the F355 and working well. However, with the straight-cut gears, it's a little noisier than the original part. I still like the idea of salvaging the worm gear and pressing on a new helical gear, and as such, I've carefully generated a CAD drawing of the original gear and am having a couple printed in white nylon.

Would anyone be willing to sell (or donate) a 63307100, or even just a bad gear? Of course I intend to share my work here as previously done. Please PM me if you have some extra parts around. Sincerely appreciated!

Jim

 

To be clear, I was referring to a non-working 63307100.

 

Purchased this gear from Yahoo Japan, that I linked to in previous post.
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Is there anyone in Sydney who can copy these (for less than A$300), Elliott, or did you fit it already?

 

I moved forward with drawing up the little gear and having a couple made. It took two rounds to get the mesh with the pinion gear perfect. The tooth configuration/shape is tricky as it's slightly different than standard mod .5. The mfg. process is high-resolution stereolithography and the material is Acura Extreme White 200. I purchased through Xometry.com and they delivered in 4-days for each round. This approach allows use of the original helical pinion gear and the operation is much quieter than the straight cut gears from my first approach. The helical gear is press-fit onto the original worm gear.


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Looks like an excellent solution. Do you have plans to distribute these or are you willing to give us your improved CAD file, especially those not in the USA?

 

Ian, If you need one of the gears, just PM me and let's get you set up. You will have to turn down the end of your worm gear in order to fit the new helical gear onto it as I've shown in the photos. It's easy to do if you have the tools, otherwise you might need to find someone local to you that does.

Jim

 

Ah.. no turning tools, but thanks for the offer. I did see some interesting cutting bits in my late father's garden shed, but sadly nothing which resembled a lathe. Not that it stopped him creating some amazing gadgets/art pieces.

I was hoping for something more "plug and play".

 

F-86, Have you considered making the gear such that it would fit over the original disk after the old gear ring was removed. The inner disk of the new gear could be offset so the gear was properly centered and the disk could have "pegs" that engage with the holes in the original disk. Once in place, a soldering iron could be used to melt the end of the pegs to secure the new "ring" to the old wheel.

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New "ring gear" would slip over long part of shaft (from behind in the picture below) and pegs which protrude through the holes melted to hold in place.

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Even if the peg were omitted the ring could be secured with some type of adhesive.

Anyway, what's the cost of your current solution. I have 2 actuators that need fixing.

 

That's a neat idea, John.

I think the trouble is to make something like that, sell it to someone and expect them to get it on square opens up a whole host of "your part is bad/wrong/etc"

IMO, single piece is the answer.

sjd

 

No. The way I envision it the part would look like this. The center disk would have a hole in it that was the diameter of the shaft of the original part. So it would be self centering. And if it had the pegs, they would also align it.

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Without the pegs it would really just be a mod to F-86's part where the disk was offset and the hub was the same thickness as the disk. Maybe F-86's gear could be adapted to use thus way.

 

Right, but the teeth are so fine, relying on the customer to ensure its square, is not the correct direction for proper product development.

sjd

 

??? It would be made as one piece. When assembled the center disk lies flat against the original "wheel". Everything is perfectly square. That's the point. The new piece shown in black here. In the post above the colors were for identification. The way F-86 has it relies on the center hole being square the turning down of the shaft to be square and the friction fit of the gear on the shaft must be sufficient that it doesn't slip. The pegs in my design make it impossible to slip but even without the pegs, a good adhesive over the the greater surface of the disk would provide additional resistance to slip.

Juts trowing out some ideas.

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I perfectly understand the concept. Perhaps I'm misunderstanding the labor.

Who is doing the wheel adhesion/affixiation?

sjd

 

I understand you have a 1 piece solution. That's fine. But I think anyone who can manage to get the actuator open without ruining it could make the repair the way F-86 has, or I have suggested if the part was available. On the other hand, you can buy a new actuator for $30 and adapt it. I've looked at a couple. Just haven't found the right one yet.

 

John,

Your idea is very clever and thank you for taking the time to post the graphics for clarity. Inspiring!

The challenge is the original disk is right where you want the gear to be and then there's the taper to the worm gear. I like that original worm gear b/c it's strong and straight and there's no question about a solid gear mesh so my focus was dealing with the helical gear. It took about 15 minutes to turn down the worm gear with a little Dremel based mill. A gentle press fit of the new gear and some thin CA and that was that. I do like to keep my vehicles in original condition - it's what I enjoy. This approach was the best I could do to keep this part in it's original state.

I paid $75 w/shipping for single piece through the aforementioned vendor. At 10 pc. quantities, the price was quoted at about $40 each. I tried a couple of the less expensive processes such as selective laser sintering and 3D additive printing but the resolution was much too low.

Jim

 

I haven't look closely at the worm gear. If the taper was a problem then what I was proposing could just be flipped as below. As you note, the original wheel is where the gear is centered which is why on my proposal the mating surface of the disk in the new part needs to be offset 1/2 of the original wheel thickness so the gear is centered correctly.

Just a fun exercise. Problem is, as always, cost for tooling up.

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Do only the teeth crumble on the old wheel or is the core made if the same crumbly material?

 

My primary concern with Jim's approach of placing a new gear on the original shaft is possible slippage over time. As a typical engineer, I came up with an elegant but overly complex solution. My original though was that perhaps the gear could be keyed to prevent slippage. But how to cut the key ways? Then It dawned on me. Thus, in keeping with the principle of KISS, why not, after securing the new gear to the shaft just drill a small, 1/16" hole at the interface between gear and shaft and slip a short piece if 1/16" piano wire or the like in there. From the end vied it would look something like this.

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John, a couple of things to think about. First, the idea is to have a press fit so the gear is tight on the shaft even without adhesive. Secondly, and from an engineering perspective, there's very little torque on that gear due to the significant gear reduction. Note that the motor pinion gear is press fit only and it slides on and off the motor shaft easily with a small screwdriver - does not slip during operation. The motor will stall before the press-fit gear slips even without adhesive. That being said, there's nothing wrong with a key. One thought would be to update the drawing of the Helical gear to include a protrusion (like one of the two circles you drew) and then slot the worm gear. That would do the trick!

I still like your approach and I don't think it's over complicated. It's just another drawing and a few iterations to work out the bugs. It's too bad each prototype gear is so expensive but we should be thankful these options are available to us today. I can't imagine having to resolve these issues 30 years ago.

Reflecting on the original purpose of the over-mold gear, I believe a softer material was selected to make sure the motor assembly was very quiet because it's inside the cabin. And, the selected material just gave up over time. Reminds me of the fun we have all had with the rubberized black interior coating. I've owned my F355 for almost 20 years and never heard that motor run. With both of my solutions, I do hear the motor which is somewhat of a bummer. At some point, I may investigate different gear materials but that's getting a bit manic.

I'm done for now as I've got my system back up and running. I hope the information I've shared inspires others as much as your ideas have inspired me.

 

Maybe a dab of silicon grease on the gears would quiet them. But how often are you changing the vent position anyway?

But, as I said, I was lucky to find a new OE actuator to replace mine at reasonable cost. And frankly I can hear the actuator grinding away at that time if I change vent position. So, maybe you just never paid attention to it before?

 

Wait a minute, 63306700 is available, its for the recirc flap, is it possible its just a matter of swapping the electrical plug from square to round ?