You may have noticed that your Cardan Drive Shafts is not moving freely as they used to. The shaft is now no longer meeting the deck perfectly straight and you may be getting signs of a wear a problem.
Wear is the most common cause of misalignment in hard drives and there are a number of reasons why it can happen. However, a major contributor to wear is using low-quality material in the shafts.
The reason why there are wear problems in cardan drives is that when they are made of good quality materials and fitted correctly, they will move freely. But if they are made of poor quality materials or are poorly fitted, the shaft will experience excessive pressure as it moves with the deck and will begin to move slightly out of the plane.
If this occurs then the deck will go out of line, which results in a freewheel. This is why the deck should be fine and the deck should be tight.
However, if the Deck is of low quality, and does not meet the shaft in perfectly straight alignment, it will develop faults over time, especially if the deck is subjected to regular abuse. These faults are known as wear.
Wear happens when the shaft bends or compresses. Because it is constantly being pushed and pulled by the deck, it is constantly moving out of line with the deck.
The most common wear associated with Cardan Drive Shafts is due to the stress that they are subjected to. The shafts are not as strong as they were when first designed and will tend to de-form over time if they are subject to many stresses.
The wear of the shaft has more to do with the usage of the decks than with the actual thickness of the shaft itself. A thickness of one centimetre in the deck will cause a significant amount of wear, especially in extreme cases.
The best way to deal with fear is to fix the deck to the shafts correctly. This is known as aligning the deck correctly.
The alignment of the deck on the shafts is usually done by fitting them together in a way that gives the deck enough clearance to stay level. Correctly fitting the shafts to the deck is therefore important.
In order to properly fix the deck to the shafts, the deck must be cut accurately to fit. Cutting the deck too large or too small will cause severe stress on the shafts.
Allowing the deck to be cut to the correct size will ensure that the cardan drive remains level. The correct deck for the correct height will ensure that the deck does not move out of alignment.
