in my quest to design/build a kit car ( some ppl here who post at piston heads may allready know me by my silly unanswerable questions) i had trouble finding a decent reverse gear box that was fairly cheap and practical for a mid mounted bike engined car, so i designed one my self, i got my patent application number and filing date the last week and im now looking into if there is an interest in the thing before i start building a prototype. the unit is ring shaped and bolts onto a quaife atb diff (open mounted, with no casing), (or anything similar if any others exist) where the crown wheel would usually go, and the rear sprocket of the bike drive chain bolts to the reverse gearbox, there are no moving parts whatsoever when in foreward gear so it would be 100% efficient, and shouldnt be very heavy at all. all the parts are quite simple also, so manufacturing and hence the price should be very cheap compared to the big beasty quaife/powertec versions, as well as being much lighter due to the lack of casings etc. also due to the compact nature of the unit, it may make it possible to use a bike engine in a front wheel drive production car, where it would usually be necessary to convert to rear wheel drive. along with many other possible applications. but like i said, im just testing the water at the moment, any comments appreciated.

Cheers,

Russ.

i would be very interested to see it, i'm sure MK maybe too, i will even point it out to him when i see him next, the GT1 is mid mounted bike powerd.

If it's reliable and not too expensive, you should sell quite a few. I doubt if you'll drum up any orders until the public sees how it performs.

I would be intrested in seeing it

Russ,
Sounds good, and like others, would be interested for my MK GT.

However, my brain is hurting tryin to understand how it works and what it looks like!

Don't worry, I'm not trying to steal the design and get my own patent (couldn't if I tried!) but am very curious - could you try to explain it like I'm a small child!

Sounds good so far though!
Adam.

lol, cheers for the replies. i can safely tell you about how the gear box works now that i have the filing date for the patent.

it is a very simple mechanism really, consisting of an inner ring gear, which bolts to the diff, and an outer ring gear with internal teeth that the sprocket bolts to. between the 2 ring gears are pinions in a planetary arrangment, constantly in mesh with the inner and outer ring gears. there are 2 locking mechanisms, 1 between the ring gears, which engages in and out of the teeth locking the ring gears together for foreward. the second locking mechanism locks the shafts of the planetary pinions to a fixed point on the car chassis, so that foreward motion on the outer ring gear goes through the pinions and produces backwards motion on the inner ring gear. the main challenge now, is to make the thing fit between the outer diameter of the diff and the inner diameter of the sprocket. shouldnt be too hard.

Hi, spoke with Martin today, he would be interested and maybe worth you giving him a call or E~Mail, where you at ???

cool, cheers jon. ill knock up some proper drawings and refine the design a bit more and email mk a little later. im about to buy a house so im not in the best financial position at the moment, im actually buying the house because its got a garage to use as a workshop. got to get the priorities straight , but that is my main concentration right now.

ps- im in barnsley, south yorkshire (yeah someones got to live there )

[Edited on 16/7/03 by suparuss]