Manual locking hub

Is this not the case anymore? Did the design change preventing someone from using their own inner CV joint? Or are you just saying you decided to supply it assembled?

 

Id just supply it fully assembled until i run out of the genuine spare inner CV joints. Id figure try to make it as easier to install once you get em. Since i have the spare parts, you could keep your current CV shafts fully assembled instead of missing an end.

 

Any chance of building these with the SDHQ high articulation CV boot?

 

That would be possible too. It would be the cost of the kit/shafts +$40

 

2 low is an excellent idea (which can already be done with 100% electronic hacks to bypass and simulate the ADD), for things like moving very heavy trailers around. I did it to mine and it is occasionally very necessary.

 

I've got the 4wd ecu tricking covered;

Now this schematic is actually intended for tricking the 4wd ecu into believing that the ADD is engaged, when in fact it is NOT, but some minor adjustments would have it do the intended job.

 

Another option I've been considering, is to just say "screw it" and build a total replacement for the 4wd ECU. It actually would be pretty easy. In fact, it would be easier than the 2-LOW schematic above.

This would be a really neat toy for doing the job;
https://www.sparkfun.com/products/13632

The 4wd ECU has 16 inputs
3 are for DIFF LOCK (control button, and two limit switches),
2 are for the dashboard control switch,
1 is for park/neutral position switch (AT),
1 is for clutch switch (MT),
(note that the park/neutral and clutch switches could actually share a single input, since they will never be together in the same vehicle, so we can count these two as "1")
1 is a speed input from combination meter to make sure you don't shift between H and L too fast.
3 are for the ADD,
5 are for the transfer case.

This ECU also has 8 outputs.
2 are for the dash lights (4H, 4L -- note that the DIFFLOCK light is actually controlled by the transfer indicator switch),
2 control the diff lock motor,
2 control the ADD motor,
2 control the transfer case motor.

That's a total of 23 digital I/O's. If you don't have a diff lock, that number drops to 17.
The bluetooth board I linked to above has 28, and it also has a serial interface if somebody also needs a controller for it.

Or instead of the bluetooth board, maybe something like this;
https://www.sparkfun.com/products/11061

That board has no bluetooth, but it does have a microcontroller, so it could be easily set up as standalone.

The inputs are pretty easy to deal with -- they're mostly (the important ones!) Hi Z = off, pull down = on. Stick an inline resistor just to protect the circuit, set the pin with the appropriate pull for that circuit, and otherwise just hook it straight up and watch their states. There are a few others that I'm not entirely sure about yet;
1) speed input -- is this binary? Analog? Timed pulses? It may not be practical to use this one at all.
2) clutch -- this could be a pull low (easy), or a pull high (may require a second resistor to split the voltage),
3) park/neutral -- see clutch.
The LED outputs are also very easy (Hi Z = off, pull low = on)

The motor control circuits are just a little bit more complicated. They obviously require some relays. There are cheap GPIO controllable relay blocks available that are typically of the SPDT sort. Nice thing about these is that they'll plug straight in to either of the modules I've linked to.

Common pin to the motor, normally connected pin to battery/negative, normally open pin to battery/positive. So say you have relay 1 and 2 hooked up to the transfer case, to turn the motor forward, you switch relay 1 to ON. To turn the motor reverse, you switch relay 2 to ON. Then you watch the inputs for when the intended state is reached, and shut off. You also run a timer in case it doesn't reach that state in the expected amount of time and bail out instead of burning out the motor.

Put this all together, and you have a 4WD ECU that will do what *you want*, instead of what THEY want.

Hmm, and with a bluetooth or serial connection, you can also read the device state to see what is going wrong instead of the idiotic blinking light and beeper that effectively means "eff you".

EDIT: I think I'm going to work on proof-of-concept using an rPi2B.
https://www.raspberrypi.org/products/raspberry-pi-2-model-b/
Its serious overkill for the job, and probably takes uncomfortably long to boot up (since it runs a full desktop operating system) at probably around 15 seconds... but, it has enough I/O pins and is very easy to code for. And, I have a spare in a box in the basement

This is going to be fun.
I don't have a diff locker, so I'll be leaving everything related to one out to begin with. I can actually implement this in a way that is entirely interrupt driven. An interrupt is a very powerful hardware programming tool. Think of it like this; polling: you can keep on going to the door to check if somebody is there, or INTERRUPT: you can go do something else and listen for a KNOCK.

So I'm going to set up the inputs as interrupts on both rising and falling edge (rising edge means transition from low to high, falling edge means transition from high to low), and with the internal pull up resistors active (means they will "sit" at 3.3 volts until they are tied low through the switch).

The "standard" state of 2H has the 2-4 line pulled low. The 4H position has both lines (2-4 and LO) pulled low. The 4L position has just the LO line pulled low. So what this means is that the 2H->4H transition involves a falling edge interrupt on the LO line. The 4H->4L transition involves a rising edge interrupt on the 2-4 line. The 4L->4H transition involves a falling edge interrupt on the 2-4 line, and the 4H->4L transition involves a rising edge interrupt on the LO line.

When we go into *ANY* transition, the interrupt function will perform the following steps;
1) read the current position of the transfer case,
2) record the target position in a variable,
3) start or restart a timer (to stop the motor if transition takes too long),
4) activate the output pin that runs the relay that turns the motor in the appropriate direction.
And that is IT.

If another transition interrupt (2-4-L switch changes position) before the previous transition has completed, NO PROBLEM, just re-run those same 4 steps!

Now the magic happens in the interrupts from the TL1,TL2,TL3 lines.
Say our target position is 2H. This transition is completed by a rising edge interrupt on the TL2 line. Similarly, if our target position is 4L, we are also looking for a rising edge interrupt on the TL2 line. If our target position is 4H, we are looking for rising edge interrupt on *either* the TL1 or TL3 line.

So TL1 interrupt function: stop the motor.
TL2/3 interrupt function: if target == 4H, stop the motor.
-- basically, if you're starting in 2H and target becomes 4L (or the other way around) before the transition completes, then you don't want the TL2/3 interrupt stopping the transition at 4H, you want it to follow all the way through and only get stopped by the TL1 interrupt.

The ADD controls work similarly, but with only two interrupt lines needed -- DL1 and DL2. Both directions will be rising edge transitions. Both interrupts can call the same function, which will stop the motor, regardless of what direction its turning.

Now while at first glance, these devices seem to have some redundant signals (in particular, the ADD line, L4 line, 4WD line, and RLP line), the reality is that the actuators could stop with the limit switches on the fringe of connected, which means that checking the states of the limit switches isn't a reliable way to check whether or not the actuators are engaged. So when we perform step 1 of the start transition function, if we are not already IN a transition, we need to use these lines, if we ARE already in a transition, we need to be extra careful -- stop the current transition, figure out where we *actually* are using combination of those 4 lines and the limit switches, and then, if necessary, begin a new transition towards the new destination.

 

@Sideline Hero this is very impressive! sub'd
Keep up the good work

 

subbed on a plus 2 lt kit... but the catch is how much is cvs gonna cost us or a bare shaft after we break one hahaha... you did create a great market if your can keep up with demand. if you quit next year everyone is SOL with this kit without your axels

 

As for the CV boots outers and inner ends you're kinda on your own. But if you break one of the 4340 stock length axle shafts(off-roading of course), id switch em out for you. Depending how well these things sell, i should have a few axles on hand. You'd have to send me the broken one back tho. Id want to work on any improvements if need be.

 

when can I get a kit with 2in plus shafts

 

Gonna be doing at least one set of +2" TC shafts for a customer soon. It would be easier to do a few at the same time. If you're serious about picking up a complete kit or the shafts and the seal spacers, id require half down and the other half before shipping.

 

pm sent

 

I actually *did* try to figure this out before, but didn't follow it through. There was a thread on this forum some time ago that involved the front end hubs of 1st and 2nd gen trucks, that got me to thinking about the conversion. Its been on the back of my mind since then to see about raiding a junkyard for the appropriate components.

This is worded a little bit awkwardly, but what I'm getting from it is that the custom components consists of the shaft (which needs to fit the 1st gen outer and 2nd gen inner), and the seal spacer? This is pretty consistent with what I was guessing at, based on staring at the parts diagrams.

I'm very interested in this. But I don't have any interest in fancy alloys that might break, I'm looking for maximum strength (snow plowing) and reliability.

 

Does this change the length of the axle shaft from the OEM one? Or is it just the custom spline combination to use the 1st and 2nd gen CVs outer and inner?

On a related thought: any concerns about the 1st Gen CV being strong enough to handle a boosted V6?

 

1st gen 3.4 with factory supercharger will make somewhere in the range of 245-265 hp, or roughly the same as an NA4.0. Which isn't to suggest that the joint won't hold.

 

I worked all of this out when I did my 4WD conversion, but I did it without the PLC, instead going with all relay logic. 6 DPDT relays to actuate the transfer case and one to actuate the ADD. I have them wired independently. I also made a Adruino circuit and code that would do all the things you listed above. Ultimately, I decided to just go with relays and two independent switches. I also designed a PCB with all the logic built in to be plug and play. I scraped the whole idea because I'm going to swap to an FJ t-case.

I'm interested in your project though. Keep my updated. I had a lot of fun learning all this stuff.

 

I want in. I have been wanting this for some time. Now, to get the funds.

Is there any documents on the install?

As far as the actuator goes, the manual does say to throw your truck into 4wd every once in a while to keep things all in order. I go into 4wd about once a month for my 6 mile drive home from work.

 

Where did you find DPDT relays rated for 15 volts on the coils?
Did you manage to source the sockets on the 4WD ECU?

 

http://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail.../782XBXM4L-12D/?qs=h3Xc2LqAeakL8fGKbK%2bXPw==

No, that was one thing I didn't spend a lot of time looking for. My PCB just had a terminal block, but there's a good chance you can find the socket. My plan was to supply a new wire harness to interface with the ADD, t-case, and my PCB since I was able to find the connectors for the ADD/t-case.