Bill of Materials

The bill of materials for the gearbox was not too extensive luckily most of the
parts were donated with an exception of the partial slip differential. At first the gears that
were needed to complete this gear train were going to be very expensive and way out of
the budget. Staring with the gears, the prices were as follows for the small helical gear
having 15 teeth was going to be used the price was around 95 USD. Next, would have
been one of the most expensive parts to date for the gearbox which is the large helical
gear having 50 teeth was right around the 300 USD mark. For the last two gears from the
gear train were the spur gears were not as high priced as the helical gears due to their
simplicity. The small spur gear started at around 35 USD about a third of the price of the
small helical gear with 18 teeth. For the last gear the large spur gear price is about 190
USD. All of the prices came from one manufacture, Quality Transmission Components.
The grand total just in gears alone would have been 620 USD plus shipping which would
have been impossible due to the fact that the budget was only 300 USD, with that in mind
the best option was to try and get the gears donated. At first it seemed that the
manufacturer wanted nothing to do with donations to any organization after one attempt.
The second attempt it seemed that the company had already reached its maximum
allowance of donations. So how were the gears donated? Luckily for the sake of the
project, the Baja team did a clean up in the lab where resulted in finding 3 out of the 4
gears that were needed to complete the gearbox. The gears that were found in the baja lab
were the small helical gear, small spur gear, and the large spur gear. Unfortunately the
one gear that was not found was the most expensive the large helical gear. After talking to
the baja team, they agreed to donate them on one condition, completing the gear box

before competition. Now for the last gear and the rest of the parts needed the grand total
was still past budget of 300 USD. The large helical gear if purchased from QTC (Quality
Transmission Components) alone meets our budget not to mention that a new partial slip
and partial slip case are needed as well. After a few phone calls, the large helical gear was
found at no cost, thanks to one of the baja teams captains Mark Garza. He got a hold of
the pervious senior design group that was working on a transmission for senior design
that had left the gear that was needed for this project at a nearby shop. After contacting
the shop the shop agreed that it was left from a previous group and allowed someone to
pick it up. After inspecting the gear and comparing it to the previous gears it was an exact
match for what was needed. At this point all of the gears were donated and the total
savings was over 700 USD. Now back in business the only parts that were needed to
complete the inventory were the partial slip differential, partial slip case, bearings, shafts,
keys, and gear fluid. The most expensive part from that list is the partial slip, which was
around 380 USD not including shipping. After getting an approval from Dr. Sarkar, Dr.
Fuentes, and Dr. Freeman to exceed the budget by 80 USD the partial slip was ordered
from ATVOUTFITTERS.NET for a grand total of 393.31 USD. The last major part that
was needed was the differential case, since budget was surpassed by about 90 dollars the
team decided to split the cost of the case between three team members. The total of the
case was right around 100 USD the rest of the small parts were also donated by the baja
team such as, the bearings, shafts, fluid, and the keys were homemade. The grand total of
the working prototype was about 500 USD, which did exceed the budget but was
dramatically decreased from previous expectation of the working prototype if the gears
were purchased.

Parts On Hand
After receiving all of the parts, inventory and measurements were taken to see
what parts are needed to start any manufacturing. Starting with the spur gears the weight
of the large spur gear was right around 10lbs and when compared to the previous group
large spur gear weighed about 5lbs so right off the bat the goal was to get the weight to
below 5lbs. Below are photographs taken of the two spur gears next to a ruler to get a
relationship of size.

Photograph 1: Photo above shows the unmodified large spur gear that was used in
the gearbox.

Photograph 2: The photo above shows one of the unmodified gears that were used
in the gearbox.

Photograph 3: The photo above shows the gearbox case from previous years along
with the bearings that were previously press fitted into place. All of which were agreed
constraints from the customer (Baja Team).

Photograph 4: This is one of the gears found in the baja lab that was later donated
by the team.

Photograph 5: The photo above is the gear that was left from a previous senior
design group that had already been machined down to thickness.

Photograph 6: The photo above shows the gears that were donated from the baja
racing team. These were the parts on hand before actually receiving the partial slip
differential along with the case.

Photograph 7: The photo about shows the most expensive piece that was
purchased for the gearbox, the partial slip differential mounted inside the case along with
the clutch pack that comes along with the partial slip differential. This is the piece that
mounts on the last large spur gear that drives the actual CV shafts.

Now after receiving all of the parts and having the finite element analysis
completed it was time to start manufacturing the gears. For the most part the parts that
were going to need extensive modification were going to be the large two gears. These
two large gears had the potential to reduce the most rotating weight than any of the other
parts in the gearbox. The main goal for the manufacturing was to do as little as possible
due to the time constraint. For starters, the actual cut outs of the gears were to be done by
a professional machinist to ensure balance in the gears when rotating. Luckily there is a
machine shop down the street from UTPA that uses water jet cutting to cut through metal
and other materials. After consulting with the Baja Team, they advised that Amidas
Machine Shop sponsors UTPA Baja Racing. After contacting the shop and speaking with
the lead technician all that was needed was to give time to complete the modifications
along with the solid works files to complete the work along with no charge.
Manufacturing
Before taking the gears to be dropped off at the shop some basic machining had to
be completed in the manufacturing process lab. The only gear that will need to be
machined in the process lab before being transported to Amidas is the large spur gear.
Thanks to the previous senior design group the large helical gear was already machined
down to the required thickness. Now for the large spur gear the lathe was used to turn
down the thickness of the large spur gear. The large spur gear was right around 2 and
half inches thick and needed to be turned down to of an inch to maximize the weight
reduction along with making it easier for the machine shop to cut through the gear with
less material. The cutting tool used in the lathe was a carbide tip that is very strong and
the amount of material being cut was very minimal to reduce the chance of either damage

the part or over cut and even possibly damaging the cutting tool. In addition, 20
thousandths of an inch was cut off the gear at a time while running the lathe at about 110160 RPM depending on what part of the gear was being cut. Remembering back to
manufacturing process lab the key is to get pieces that are breaking and somewhat in a
gold color and not to have any pieces that are continuous. Having pieces that are breaking
and gold in color means that the cut is clean and smooth. Each side of the gear had to be
evenly cut to ensure balance and allow for the inner part of the gear to be an even
thickness on both sides to prevent the spokes from the design to be too thin. After
completing the thickness of the spur gear the next part that needed to be modified was the
hub diameter to be able to fit through the hole of the gearbox that is connected to the CV
shaft. The hub diameter had two different diameters kind of like a step from the base of
the center of the gear to the outer part of the hub diameter. The diagram below will show
what the thickness the gear had to be turned down to with respect to the final design.
Using the same lathe and the same cutting tool the hub was turned down to the two
different diameters the larger one being 1.575 inches and the small diameter of 1.115
inches. The smaller diameter has a thickness of .549 inches before reaching the larger
diameter. The schematic below will be a better way of describing or showing what parts
are being modified before taken to the machine shop. The cut out of the spokes are the
only pieces being cut out by Amidas machine shop using a final design file from solid
works.

Figure 1: The figure above or blueprint above was used to turn down the thickness
of the spur gear to the specified inches along with the two different diameters for the
hub to fit through the gearbox.
The other part that was modified that is difficult to see on the schematic is the
other side of where the hub is. This part needs to be cut inward towards the hub in order
to have the partial slip differential rest on it and go through the hub and be reached on the
other side for the CV shaft to grab on to. Now this part was beyond difficult, using the
mill with the right cutting tool could have cut the time but due to inexperience the lathe
was used. The diameter had to be 3.152 inches the exact diameter of the partial slip
diameter and a depth of .170 inches to give clearance for the partial slip differential
adapter to fit though the hole. After this was completed the next step was to transport
both large gears to the machine shop to be cut out by high-pressure water jet system.

After a long two weeks of waiting for the machine shop to complete the cut out
there was some minor modifications that needed to be completed. Two weeks from
dropping off the gears at the machine shop they were completed. Unfortunately, the gears
werent the job on the agenda for the machine shop since the service they provided was
free there was no rush for the shop to complete the service. After receiving the phone-call
that the cut outs were completed there was some missing modifications that needed to be
done. For example, the large helical gear needed a keyhole to be made to mount onto the
small spur gear through a shaft. After consulting once again with the shop they were more
than happy to finish the keyhole and the rest of the minor modifications were going to
have to be completed in the lab. In addition, the assumption was that the water jet was
going to be able to complete the step in the hub, that was not possible due to the way the
water jet system functions. The modifications that needed to be done, aside from the
keyhole that was going to be completed by the machine shop, were to thread the spokes
on the large spur gear along with finish modification the two different hub diameters.
Now using the lathe once again the hub diameters were turned down to the specified
measurement. The last part that was needed was completed was to thread the spokes of
the large spur gear that in the end has the partial slip differential case mounted on it. The
first part that needed to be completed is to use a chart to determine what kind of drill bit
will be used to make the threads that were required. Then, A 5/16 18 tab was used to
thread the 10 spokes on the large spur gear while mounted on a mill. Unfortunately, there
were not any photographs taken to record the technique used.
The next part was to ensure that the threaded holes aligned properly with the
partial slipcase along with making sure that the threaded holes actually function.

Fortunately, there were once again some minor modifications that needed to be done once
the partial slip was mounted onto the spur gear. Everything fit like a glove with an
exception of the spline shaft of the partial slip would not fit through the inner bore
diameter. Moreover, the partial slip outer diameter was too large for the modifications
that were previously made so once again the lathe was used. The lathe was unable to
allow the diameter to be enlarged due to the orientation of the cutting tool mounted on the
lathe. To ensure that the partial slip fit snug a mill was used along with a cutting tool
instead of using the lathe. Along with the help of technicians both of the diameters that
required to be modified and were completed using the mill.

Photograph 8: Photo above shows the spur gear mounted on the lathe to be cut.
This photo shows that thickness was already turned down to thickness and the hub
diameter was being modified at the time.

Photograph 9: Photo above shows the modification of the large spur gear after the
water jet cut outs, threading, and the hub diameter modification. This at the time was
modifying the inner diameter to allow the spline shaft to fit through the bore. In addition,
this same equipment was used to create the indention where the partial slip would go
mounted on.
One of the parts that expected to be modified had to be modified. The partial
slipcase was a part on the list that was to suppose to be just part of a sub assembly and
not to be modified since it came directly from a manufacture. Luckily the modification on
the partial slipcase was very minimal only the outer diameter of the spline side had to be
slightly turned down to be able to fit through the gearbox hole that attaches to the CV
shaft. This was once again turned down by using the lathe with the same cutting tool used
before just cutting a very minimal amount off the case.

Photograph 10: In this photo above the partial slipcase is mounted on the lathe
and is being turn down by the cutting tool. Luckily it was the only piece that needed to be
modified from the partial slip sub assembly.
Now before the assembly process was taken place the strength of the two sets of
different gears were measured. The measurements were done using the Rockwell Wilson
hardness tester to compare the previous gears to the new and improved lighter gears.
These tests were done to conclude which of the gears were going to be used for the first
stage of testing for the mini baja car. Unfortunately, the results were not looking to
benefit the gearbox. The first results started off not looking good for the large helical gear
the original hardness for the old gear was an average of 121 HRB and for the new helical
gear the average hardness was 77 HRB. Now for the large spur gear the results were
looking great, the average hardness for the previous gear used was at 73 HRB and for the
new hardness the average was 84 HRB mainly because the sides that were tested were
both machined which slightly heat treated the gear making it stronger.

At this time a decision was made by the customer to not include the helical gear
into the first assembly and testing process. The decision was made due to the change in
factor of safety. At first the understanding was that the helical gear was donated to the
previous team was a specific model from the QTC catalog that specified that the hardness
was an average of 194 HRB and below. Unfortunately, at the time of donation this was
overlooked which faulted in not including the gear in the gearbox. The assumption that
was made that the average hardness was right around the 194 HRB that would allow a
higher factor of safety. Now the new factor of safety was brought down to about 1.2 this
isnt very reliable due to the fact that for the first test hit the baja car was going to be
under heavy usage until something were to break. Plus, the site where testing was
conducted was way to far from the university to travel back to for one broken tooth in the
first few moments of starting her up.
Gearbox Assembly #1
For the gearbox assembly there were two times that the case was opened and
closed. For the first assembly the new pieces were the two small gears, the large spur
gear, and the new partial slip differential with case. The assembly begins with the partial
slip differential along with its case. The partial slip differential alone had multiple pieces
within its self. The partial slip differential has many components within its self, including
2 sprints that go in the center of the diff and two clutch packs that follow right after. The
only pieces that actually had to be assembled from this partial slip is to take apart the
clutch pack that came pre assembled and insert the two springs into place and re assemble
the partial slip along with add the gear fluid that came with the package. Below will be a
figure that better shows how these pieces look before assembly.

Figure 2: The figure above shows the partial slip differential that was purchased
and dis assembled in the figure. All of these parts all came pre assembled from the
manufacturer the two springs in the center were the only pieces that needed to be
inserted. In this same figure one can see the where the spline adapter attaches to the CV
shaft through the spur gear.

Photograph 11: The piece that is show above is the input shaft that is attached to
the small helical gear that transmits the torque onto the next helical gear. This was
mounted using the key seen in the center of the photograph.

Photograph 12: The photo above shows the small spur gear that is mounted onto
the large helical gear through a connecting shaft and keyholes. This sub assembly was
previously used in other years and was selected by the customer to be used in first test
hits.

Photograph 13: Above is the new spur gear that was used in the first test hit for
the baja team. This photo shows the sub assembly of the partial slip differential along
with all the bolts bolted onto the large spur gear.
The next parts of the assembly consist of mounting the small helical gear onto the
shaft that is connected directly to the CVT. This is mounted using a key made by
measuring the shaft keyhole. The next part is to mount the existing small spur gear that
was used in previous years onto the previously used helical gear. In previous years the
small gear was mounted onto a shaft also using a keyhole and key and mounted onto the
helical gear. The next sub assembly is to mount the previous sub assembly of the partial
slip differential and case onto the large spur gear using the 10 bolts provided by the
partial slip case manufacturing. Now that there is several sub assemblies completed one
of the final assembly is required to complete the gearbox. The final assembly is in a
specific order is to mount all of the previous sub assemblies into the gearbox case.
Starting with either the small helical gear assembly or the large spur gear assembly, place
on to the larger gearbox case with the indention for the partial slip differential. Next

carefully place the last sub assembly onto the hole where the bearing sits in between the
two previous sub assemblies. The next important piece is to add small amount of gear
fluid into the case and apply silicone gasket maker around the rim of the case into the
small indention made for the gaskets.

Photograph 14: This photo above is showing the larger part of the gearbox case
along with the two first sub assemblies mounted onto the case in-between the two
bearings.

Photograph 15: This is another photo where the sub assemblies are in their final
position before applying silicone gasket maker and sealing the gearbox case.

Photograph 16: The photo above shows where the liquid silicone gasket maker is
applied to the rim of the gearbox case to prevent any leakage of fluid.
Test Protocols
For the test protocols there were only a few test protocols due to the difficulty of
determining how the gears behaved inside the gearbox. For example, the only part that
would be damaged if something were to go wrong would be the gear teeth due to the
stresses they will experience in the first few moments. So for the first test protocol it was
very simple to determine if one can continue with the rest of the protocols. To make sure
that nothing else will be damaged the mini baja car will be mounted on a jack stand and
turned on to see if the gears spin and finally see if the gears turn the tires. For the first
couple of test protocols only the new spur gear and new partial slip differential are used
while using everything else from the previous gearbox. So at this point there was a total
of 2.5 lbs less of rotational mass. This was done because our customer decided it was not
safe enough to put the new helical gear in as well to prevent further damage from
occurring. The hardness tester gave us the final determination as to why the large helical
was not used. Back to the test protocol one all of the parts were assumed to be good
seeing that the tires both were spinning. So now that test protocol one did not seem to
damage any noticeable parts it was time to move on to the test protocol two. The test
protocol two consisted of a similar run that will be conducted at the competition and that
is a run to determine acceleration from 0 to 100ft. Cones were set up to know the start
and ending points along with multiple stopwatches. The run was measured on mud terrain
and at the time it was very moist and would attach directly onto the tires. For the runs the
average time from the runs were right around the 4.5 second mark which plugging in to a

final velocity equation translated to a final velocity of 31.4 miles per hour. This was done
multiple times to get average time in similar conditions to the competition. The next test
protocol that was done was to take on an uphill climb to determine if there was enough
torque output to climb up the hill. There was no time measured in the hill climb just took
on a direct 45 degree angle hill to see if it was possible to get to the top. After the first
attempt it was clear that this car could most definitely climb up a hill effortlessly with the
new gear train. During the final attempt of going up a similar hill the baja car driver hit a
boulder that caused him to flip the car back over from the top of the hill. First thought
was what broke and how do the gears look after a 30ft roll drop. Luckily both the driver
and the baja car including the gears were all good with some minor damage on the
suspension. The next protocol was very simple and was used to simulate the courses at
the baja competition. Test protocol 4 is just that driving in a mud terrain with a small
jump at full speed. At this point was were something in the baja car broke and stopped all
testing until further dates. The part that broke was the trailing arm that luckily did not do
any damage to any of the gears, partial slip or the gearbox case. After those initial results
it was time to conclude the current testing and modify the final gear to be used for the
next testing.

Manufacturing #2
For the second round of manufacturing the only modification that needed to be
done was to modify the helical gear. At first we assumed that the gear that was previously
donated to group was the stronger of two gears and it was not. The initial data concluded
was that the average hardness was right around 77 HRB and the old helical gear was right

around 120 HRB. The customer at this point did want to use this gear in not only testing
but also the competition. In addition, the customer stated if the gear was possible to
increase its hardness up to around 100 HRB then it will be safe enough to use in testing.
So after researching some practical heat treatments along with consulting with multiple
parties the goal was to heat-treat only the gear teeth. This can only be accomplished by
either using a induction heater to warm up the teeth or using a torch to get the teeth
cherry red. Unfortunately, the university does not have a working induction heater that
can heat only the teeth of the gear and using a torch isnt very practical and can cause un
even treatment. The purpose of only heat-treating the teeth is to increase the strength but
allow the flexibility in the spokes created in the center of the gear when torque is applied.
After some consulting with lab technicians and using a mechanics handbook along with a
book on Practical Heat Treatment a decision was made. The final decision was to stick
the whole gear into a furnace and heat treat it up to the temperature recommended by
both the book and the manual. The only part that was un certain was the time required to
leave gear in furnace. After looking at a TTT diagram and consulting with the lab tech the
final decision was to leave gear in the furnace for one hour after the furnace has reached
steady state temperature then quench in oil. The gear was to be quenched in oil to have
rapid cooling and not become brittle as if it was quenched in water. The actual
information that was used was that the gear was 1045 steel and our goal was to harden
the material. That was to Austenitize the gear in the furnace at a temperature of 845 C for
1 hour, then quench in a tub of oil. The results from the heat treatment were significant
and got the gear to right around the hardness that the customer required. The original
hardness was a mean of 77 HRB and after the heat treatment the increase of hardness

went up to a mean hardness of about 109 HRB. With that data numbers were plugged into
the finite element analysis and a new factor of safety was outputted to 1.8.

Figure 3: The figure above is the TTT diagram for 1045 steel and was used to
determine what heat treatment practice would be best for the helical gear used.
Assembly #2
There was a second and final assembly that was done to include all modified parts
into the gearbox. This was completed as soon as an inspection was done on the large spur
gear that was included in the case. The FEA analysis showed that all the stresses that the
gear will experience are directly on the gear teeth. After inspecting all of the teeth of the
large spur gear it was immaculate and was approved by customer to be placed in the
gearbox once again. Adding in the large helical gear into the gearbox by following the
same assembly process as stated above completed the second and final assembly.

Photograph 17: This photo is a close up of what the spur gear looked like after
cyclic loads from the mini baja car.

Photograph 18: This photo above probably the nicest looking photo taken to date
of the project was showing the final assembly before using the gasket maker to seal the
gearbox case.
Test Protocol (Phase 2)
The second phase of the test protocol only involved repeating test protocol 2 due to the
time constraint. Test protocol 2 consisted of repeating 0 to 100 feet and measuring time.

This time around all of the new gear train components will be used to see if there was an
increase in velocity. The average velocity for the test protocol on concrete was around
34.5 miles per hour. Which was a significant increase from the previous runs done in the
mud. First test hit done in the mud got an average 31.4 miles per hour then on concrete
using the complete gear train the average velocity was 34.5 miles per hour.

Initial Data
Some initial data that was collected before the gearbox assembly was the total
weight reduction from the gear train. Starting with the old helical gear, the original
weight of the previous large helical gear was about 4.5 lb and the new helical gear weight
was 2 lb. Now for the large spur gear the previous gear weighed 5.8lbs and the new
modified gear weighed 3.3 lbs. Adding the two reductions results in 5lb less in rotational
weight just in the gear train. Now for the overall weight of the previous gear train the
total weight of the gearbox is at 16.8 lbs. That weight consisted of a large helical gear,
small helical gear, large spur gear, small spur gear, a partial slip differential, and a idler
shaft. The weights consist of a large helical gear of 4.5 lb, the large helical gear of 5.8 lb,
3 lb for the partial slip, 1lb for the small helical gear, and 1.5 lb for the small spur gear
giving the total weight of 16.8 lb. The weight of the new gear train is as follows the
weight of the new helical gear is 2lb, large spur is 3.3 lb, the partial slip differential is 3
lb, small helical gear 1 lb, small spur gear is 1.5 lb and the shaft is 1lb totaling to 11.8 lb.
When compared to the previous gearbox the total weight reduction was 5lb when
compared to the other gear train.

The main purpose of this gearbox was to increase efficiency and improve on acceleration.
Our customer requested a better gearbox to improve on their performance in the SAE
mini baja competition. The best way to show if there was an improvement from previous
years in competition is to compare to the previous best. The best year that the Mini Baja
team has competed in was back in 2013 in Tennessee. The results from 2013 for the
acceleration competition the measurement that was recorded was the time taken to go
from rest to 100 feet. For the time run 1 the time was 4.281 seconds and for time run 2
was 4.263 seconds. That gave a overall rank of 21 out of 80 cars and a overall rank of 20
out 80 cars which put the team in the top 20 percentile. Now for the results from this year
it was very important to improve on the acceleration on previous years but more
importantly to improve on the previous best ever from the Mini Baja team. This would
help get a foot up on the overall competition leaderboards. So the final results from the
2015 competition and now the current best time was for time run 1 of 4.052 seconds and
for time run 2 of 4.005 seconds. This gave a final rank of 18 out of 80 cars that competed
in that category. So this was not only a great victory for the mini baja team but also for
the senior design team seeing that there was a significant improvement even on the
previous best from the mini baja team. During the competition there were a number of
parts that were broken. Through the intense competition there was concern that the gears
would fail and cause a loss of points in the competition. Luckily that was not the case
there were many other parts that failed before any damage was done on the gears. There
was a lot of skepticism that the gears would fail either during testing or most importantly
the competition. With that being said there was a long list of parts that were broken and
no broken teeth on the gears. First the CV shafts were damaged that caused damage onto

the partial slip due to the shaft slipping out of alignment and causing indirect forces onto
the partial slip differential. The partial slip differential did get damaged which resulted in
damage of the large spur gear because of the miss alignment of the CV shaft connection
to the partial slip. The large spur gear was damaged on the inner diameter of the gear that
caused a wobble in the gearbox that caused a loss of power transfer to the wheel due to
the scraping of the gearbox. Now for the endurance race there was a lot more broken
pieces that cause multiple pauses in the race including, welds on a steering column, the
CVT Cover, a trailing arm, tie rods, and a bent upper A Arm. With that being said the
gears proved to be durable and proved to have an increase in acceleration when
comparing to a previous best.
Future Work