transaxle to half shaft adapter material

[mike_starling]

Guys,

I am a little concerned about making the adapter plates between the transaxle and half shafts out of 1018 steel ... hellova place to have a failure!

I've located some 17-4PH material to make them out of. This is a high strength stainless steel that can be heat treated. We are knifemakers and have computer controlled salt pots in which to do the heat treating and have done 17-4PH before.

This stuff HT'd to about RC 30-35 appropriate for the task?

Thanks,

[Mike Dozier]

Mike

DRB has been using steel for years...I'd think
if any adapters had failed they'd have seen it.

If you want to use 17-4, that's good stuff.
We use it in pump shafts, but we limit hardness
to 300 BHN MAX. I wouldn't go any higher.

MikeD

[mike_starling]

Any idea what this equals on the Rockwell scales ... my hardness tester delivers data that way.