Constantine's Torque Tube Bearings--VERY nice!

[LS1Porch]

I just had to show these off! The mailman brought me some pre-production versions of Constantine's torque tube bearings...and they're even nicer than i was expecting! These are for the 944's.

Constantine tells me that the rubber molding on the final version of these bearing will be even cleaner. (and please note, i didn't take the cosmoline off for the pictures)







Comparison, old vs. new:


Anyone who has done the TT bearings knows what a PITA it is to do, and how hokey the current fix is. These will definitely be worth every penny....

He's currently working on some loaner tools to help with installation/removal process, so once those are finished i'll begin the installation and document the procedure with lots of pretty pictures

[KuHL 951]

Can you elaborate on why the new ones are splined? They look rock solid. Any more info on price, etc?

[Mike B]

Constantine has history with Rennlist...he has developed other quality products for the 928 including the "Super Clamp"...pretty much an engine saver for the S4's.

My .02 cents from both sides of the fence. I'm not sure if he has a website...his company is:

Black Sea R&D @ 772-713-1289

[951Saga]

One Torque Tube disassembled and waiting.

[DanaT]

Is it worth disassembling the torque tube if doing a clutch job and having the bearing replaced?

-Dana

[V2Rocket_aka944]

that thing is pretty freakin meaty

[Tom M'Guinn]

Originally Posted by KuHL 951

Can you elaborate on why the new ones are splined? They look rock solid. Any more info on price, etc?

+1

[LS1Porch]

I asked Constantine in our last email if he had any idea on price, and he said he doesn't know at this time. He did bring up that 3 bearings can be used in the place of 4 (in fact, the 928's use 3)--so that could help with price.

@DanaT: It seems like just about everyone with >100k on the clock has a noisy #4 (near the transmission) bearing.

As for the "splining"--I'm not an engineer, but i was talking to my dad last night who is an ME. Long story short, the splining is to allow the driveshaft more flex since these are much thicker than the originals (at several thousand rpms the driveshaft oscillates wildly). The engineers tell me it's better to allow the shaft to "float" and not try to control the oscillations. On a side note, this is another reason why using Delrin or aluminum to rebuild the originals is not ideal.
I know Constantine has worked with some engineers on this project as well as being a pretty smart feller himself, so hopefully he'll chime in here

[V2Rocket_aka944]

i just put new bearings in my torque tube but made the mistake of using aluminum carriers instead of the plastic ones so my #4 is still pretty noisy, not a very nice sound it makes. might have to redo that.

[Constantine]

Thanks for the kind words Chris! Thank you also for your patience in waiting for these to try out in your project.

As can be seen by the pictures (heck there were some cleaner looking ones in the package I sent Chris ) these new bearing units were designed to surpass what Porsche originally designed for their torque tube (TT) internals.

For background, when we were doing research for the 928 Super Clamp project, we rebuilt some TTs and became aware that the TT innards for the 928 were getting older and the overall bearing assembly was not that impressive.

The few TT rebuild pieces that were being made, one being the delrin inserts for the bearings, were also less than optimum in our opinion. The pricey "rebuilt" TTs we took apart all used recycled old pieces except for the bearings, which were not the correct ones either.

We then decided to re-engineer the TT innards to a higher, more modern standard. The results for the 928 Super Bearings are in my Avatar. The 924/944/968 family of Super Bearings are now ready and our first order has been placed with an arrival date in October 2009.

These new bearing units have been increased in length which helps to hold the bearing units firmly in place in the TT. It also affords the use of more rubber to help isolate the vibrations inherent in the drive line.

The bearing has been increased from a 6006 to a 6008 size. It is good for 14,000 RPMs and is rated for over 300 degrees F. Given the increased size and operating parameters, they surpass what Porsche used for this application.

The ribbed bearing insert was designed to allow the drive shaft to be pushed through much more easily than the Porsche versions. Once the drive shaft is set in place, the rubber holds onto it much more tightly and will not allow the drive shaft to spin within it as does the Porsche version, hence the bright shiny rings found on the drive shafts.

The ribbed inner rubber is also thicker and longer and helps absorb not only vibrations but the inherent misalignment of the drive shaft between the engine and transmission. This misalignment, however slight, was directly transferred to the bearings in the Porsche design.

Although they will not be cheap, they will be at or below the price of a rebuilt TT without the shipping costs of a TT back and forth. We believe that the standard HP/TQ 924/944/968 road driven cars will only need three of these bearing units. The enhanced power versions or raced versions should probably have four installed as Porsche originally designed them.

However it's interesting to note that Porsche only placed three bearing units in the 928 5 speed models and sometimes only two bearing units in the 928 automatic versions. Those who race their 928s only use three bearings units in their TTs.

Hope that answered some questions. Sorry if it put some to sleep.

Cheers,

[CurtP]

Wow, those look incredible! Thank you Constantine for bringing these over to the 944/951 market!

[sh944]

I have a torque tube waiting and will be placing an order for four when you say the word. Great idea!

[Constantine]

Thanks Curt for the kind words! Your set will come from the order of 50 we have coming in October, 2009.

Scott, we will make another announcement when our shipment comes in. Thank you for the interest!

As Chris mentioned, we are currently designing TT rebuild tools to help with the dis-assembly and reassembly of the TT of the 924/944/968/928 family of Porsche's. This came about from customer feedback who have rebuilt their own 928 TTs using our current cheap and primitive method and who found that, although the concept sounds and looks easy, actually doing it isn't that easy. They were successful but worked a bit more at it than they imagined.

The 924/944/968 TTs are a bit harder than the 928s and we thought that while we're here to make TT rebuild tools that will make this job much easier and not have the potential of harming the new bearing units. We were not impressed with using the threaded rod technique or other methods currently being used since problems do come up with them.

Chris will be our first tester of these tools, so wish him luck!!

Regards,

[Tom M'Guinn]

Can I aslo get on the dibs list? I'll be rebuilding mine very shortly as well. Always grateful and supportive when someone takes the effort to make a part for these old cars.

[Constantine]

Hi Tom,

Thanks for your support! You will be added to the list of initial recipients.

Thanks again,