Torque Tube Damper (Bandwidth Warning 1mb)

[Dan]

Just took out my old donut and compaired to the new one. Thought you might be interested.


http://134.39.170.26:86/opelgt/DSC00691.JPG

http://134.39.170.26:86/opelgt/DSC00693.JPG


I'll resize them Monday when I get to work, didn't realize they were so huge.

[Gary]

Dan,
There is a link to a great, free, image editor called Irfanview in the Downloads section. You can quickly crop, edit, and resize pics. You can also create your own Photo Album here and save your home bandwidth.

[Dan]

Bandwidth is free for me, so is drive space. It is my own server at work =)

I just forgot to resize them before I put them over there and didn't feel like doing it again. I have Photoshop at work so I'll edit them a little when I get there. Thanks though.

Dan

[baronbors]

For some of us new people- Uh, not me -the other new people- could you kinda review what a torque tube or donut is and whats involved in replacing it. And even more important- why it should be replaced. This isn't for me,you understand. It's for the other new people on the list

[Dan]

The opel driveline is in 2 pieces, a standard driveline you would see in most old rear drivers that is about 20in long and a second driveline, about the same length that is inside a tube. The second driveleine has a bearing and a rubber damper (donut) to keep it placed properly inside the tube. I'll try to get some pictures today and post them up.

[kwilford]

Here's a picture of a disassembled torque tube and driveshaft (and thanks to propmark; these pictures are in the "members photos"). The donut is the rubber ring in the bottom right. It sits in the center joint, (which is just above it in the photo), and supports the center bearing (just to the left) which in turn the rear drive shaft rotates in. This whole assembly is at the end of and inside the torque tube, which provides the "third link" of the Opel rear suspension.

There are two common rear suspension faults in many Opels. The torque tube bushings (between the driveshaft and tube in the photo) get torn, and the donut becomes perished. The first causes the tube to bang around inside the center joint on acceleration. The latter causes the rear shaft and bearing to bang around inside the center joint on acceleration.

If the donut is just a bit soft, but still otherwise intact, one common trick is to stuff the inner void in the donut with old fan belt sections. There is a thread on that subject at

http://www.opelgt.com/forums/showthr...=&threadid=384

HTH (and look at the next picture too)

[kwilford]

And here it is, all installed:

[kwilford]

In fact, if you do a search on "donut", there are a whole bunch of postings. Here's the one I was looking for regarding stiffening it up (and no bad jokes!)

http://www.opelgt.com/forums/showthr...=&threadid=703