I haven't done so much modding per-say, more just playing around at this point. With new-toy excitement, I started opening it up without doing enough background research.
I was rather hasty in my tweaks, so it went like this:
Checked the belt tension upon first opening it up, noticed that the reduction pulley to steering shaft was super tight and the motor to reduction pulley belt was fairly loose. Thought to myself "this can't be right", so loosened the former and slightly tightened the later thinking that leveling out the tension might reduce overall tension and hence drag without inducing slip.
Well that was a huge mistake. Turned out to increase drag AND induce tons of slip. I now know that the reduction to steering shaft belt (left hand one as facing the wheel from driving position) needs to be super tight in order to not slip. Took some experimentation to figure that out though.
When I first got the slip, I was convinced it was the motor belt slipping on the reduction pulley. It seems obvious now, but I figured there was no way the other belt was slipping since it still had a relatively high tension and I wasn't looking closely enough to see where the slip actually was. I assumed I misjudged the motor belt tension and had to get more friction there. I knew that loosening the belts reduced drag, so I wanted to find a way to increase friction while reducing tension.
I found my way to CRC belt conditioner from the local auto parts store. The active ingredient is some unspecified hexane isomers. Little research there shows that isomers of hexane are often a component to rubber cement. So it basically melts rubber. End result is it makes the belts tacky (for a time anyway).
I eventually figured out that the main shaft belt needs to be way tight, but with both belts now a bit tackier, I've reduced overall tension a bit while eliminating slip in all but the most extreme cases, so the feel is pretty good. The drawback is a bit of noise - the higher friction belts now make a bit of a hiss as they un-stick themselves from the pulleys.
I'm sure drag could be reduced much further with other mods (I think some of which used to be detailed in this thread) that I haven't tried yet.
So the feel is pretty good even on stock motors, not a huge difference from stock though. Given the depression I felt before I figured out the correct tension (with some help of your posts Kretz) as I thought I just ruined my new wheel, I don't know if I have the stomach for any major experimentation in the near term.
My next "fix" as it were is going to be a low-cost, minimally invasive method to keep the motors cooler. A 25 min session of Asetto Corsa fooling around got them hot enough to noticeably reduce force output. I noticed both left and right fans seem to be exhausting. First the left side one should be flipped I think to bring cool air in from that side. Then I'm going to try to source some drop-in replacement fans. The stock ones seem to be of a bargin-basement type. I'm thinking there are better alternatives out there from the PC overclocking/modding crowd that could do a much better job on a CFM/Amp basis. So I'll see if that helps.
I'll definitely be approaching future mods from a bang-for-the-buck standpoint as far as money and time spent. Not a knock on any of the more hard-core mods by any stretch, its just that I've already got too many hobbies and I could see myself getting carried away if I don't limit myself
What that means for long-term longevity of the limit collar is anyone's guess. It could tighten up on the thread, fall to pieces, or have no real effect at all. We will just have to wait and see.
What that means for long-term longevity of the limit collar is anyone's guess. It could tighten up on the thread, fall to pieces, or have no real effect at all. We will just have to wait and see.
