Bugatti Type 57S differential rebuild

The rear axle from Bill’s Bugatti was not in a good state of health. They have a notorious weak point in the differential bearing journals and they are prone to cracking and failure. I was only able to help Bill with part of the rebuild due to other work commitments in the USA with Mazda Motorsports and Ford Chip Ganassi UK. Michael from Brinetons completed the build. 

Crownwheel issues

Bill asked me if I could solve a problem for him. When he visited the Molsheim factory he also purchased a set of new differential gears, to include: Crownwheel and pinion, planets and sungears. He had given the crown wheel and pinion to Guest Gears in Walsall to run them on their pairing rig. They could not achieve a suitable pattern. Taking a look at the original one from the car it had tip relief on the tip of the teeth, the one from Molsheim had zero relief. After grinding the relief onto the teeth and rolling by hand the difference was immeasurable as can be seen by the picture with the paint on. It did indeed pattern up fine when Michael did the final assembly.

Crown wheel and pinion after super finishing

Pinion spacer

Pinion housing

Crownwheel