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Reinforcing my cross shaft fork

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About to put my cross shaft back in the bell housing with a new pin. Am thinking, should I place a secondary hardened 1/4" bolt in the fork? Can this be done on the bench with a good hardened drill bit or will I have to seek out a machine shop to drill it? Now I have to go find a #8 1/4" bolt and everything is close on Saturday afternoon. Lowes I wonder.....
 
It really should be drilled after you get the fork and shaft all in place with the new tapered pin tight and in place. That pretty much leaves the machine shop out of the picture. If your careful, you can pretty much eyeball the angle of attack. Don't drill it out to the 1/4" size in one shot. I would first drill with a 3/16" or 7/32". Then when you drill with the 1/4", the hole will be not come out too over-sized or ovaled. Another alternative is to use 1/4" spring roll pins. They hammer in and remain very tight. The idea is to prevent the shaft from starting to spin in the fork, and thereby gradually wearing out the original taper pin. The last time I did this job, I installed two spring roll pins on each end of the fork, and things never loosened up.

If you check out McMaster-Carr, and search for "spring pins", you'll see what I'm talking about. If you get the coiled ones, they are very strong, and one should do.
 
You should have no problem drilling it with a hand-held drill. As for 'hardened bit'... I think both the fork and the shaft are pretty soft stuff so any bit for metal should be adequate.

Rather than use a 1.5" bolt (which would have been the right length) I used a 2" bolt and cut a half inch off it so the shank would be long enough to not have threads inside the hole. I found a suitable grade 8 bolt & self-locking nut at Ace.

I used fine thread... they also had coarse, not sure that it matters much. I may have used a washer under the nut if the shank was too long -- I recall I thought I might have to but can't recall if it was necessary.

cross%20bolt.JPG
 
Bill,

FWIW- I am having mine machined for a 1/4" ,
high strength spring pin at exactly the location
shown in the photo above.

Plus I am having a 1/8" hole drilled into the top
of the taper pin hole, so I can push it out in the future should it break.

Thanks to Alan for the instructions.

d
 
Spot weld works wonders too! Quick & easy, if you've got a welder and thought that you did own one.
 
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