Hello All,

Picked up a second hand inline reverse gearbox the other day, which was advertised as being of westfield origin. Turn's out its actually something called a 'Reverseron' made by Formula 21 sports cars (who i don't think now exist).

Anyone know anything about them ? Picture below - trying to decide if its worth opening it up and having a look inside....



Cheers
Tris

the question was asked last year, by another owner, so there are at least 2 of them

previous thread

seems to be almost no mention of them on the web though

Here's number 3!

reverson

Confessions of a serial hoarder.

I bought this is good in 2006 from a guy whio i think had had it in a F27, with a pair of props.
Never used it, ought to sell it really.

I suspect they are OK, if not , like the others, a bit leaky?

After a bit of digging there is reference on t'web with them being used in agricultural equipment,.. maybe not the same box, but the same make,..

perhaps they are still about?

Originally made by these guys and their still in business

http://www.advico.co.uk/

Hope that helps

Yes commissioned (or at least adapted ) by Steve Porter who setup Sterling Autoparts which led to Formula 27 . Steve was a pioneer in BEC 7's and a good engineer if not the most easy person to get information from.

Resurrection of an old thread,
I bought the ReverseRon that ReMan had for sale,(Thanks Mate),
Being an engineer, the box was in bits within 30 mins of being in the garage, Nothing basically wrong other than it was leaking oil and FULL of Molyslip or similar, the box must have been modified in the past as the selector indent plunger is missing, and a spacer ring has been inserted in the reverse dog, Im assuming this is to limit its throw to make it super quick to get into some semblance of reverse gearing, (Car Park Sprinting Trials)?
None of this is a problem and quickly rectified. the spacer ring is on the wall, The horrid Gloopy semi Liquid grease has gone and oilways cleared out the same gunge, A new indent plunger has been machined, and a sealing ring made to hopefully stop the oil leaking out of the gear lever hole, the trouble being the lever sits in split Teflon lined Top Hat "D" bushes, being split, allow for the oil to seep along the split and out of the lever hole
I contacted Ron at Advico last night, he was gracious enough to reply, and said the boxes are quite tough, and only one was ever returned for repair, (Designed by Ron Valentine of Weslake) then went on to say there were over 50 sold!! so to dispel what people think there must be more than 3 in existence.

[Edited on 2/5/14 by ian.stewart]

It's defiantly gone to a good home and in the right hands.
Look forward to seeing it in action.
Good info for the archive too, more than I ever knew about it, though it does sound like its been played with doesn't it.
Good luck mate

I bought one a few years ago, and opened it up and changed the bearings, unfortunately I forgot to take pictures, but it is a very simple and robust gearbox. I do have some vibrations when I cruise in low speed, never in acceleration, I think wider bearings would sort that.
Do you have some picture, I would like to compere it to mine to se if the bearings and washer are the same, I have shim/washer next to the bearings and I think they are there because the former owner didn't found the right width on the bearings.
/Christian

Hi Christian,
I will try and get some pics later, This spacer ring does seem a bit odd, it was in the centre of the dog, limiting its engagement. If I keep the spacer in situ, the selector indents do not engage.
Might be a really stupid question, but, My logic says the gearbox should drive straight thru the dogs and give forward motion, and reverse should be. geartrain engage/deselect the dogs and then you have reverse, the problem I have there is a LOT of backlash in the dogs, or am I seeing this incorrectly and its a counter rotating box in fwd, and straight in reverse.
I have something to try but TBH I think its just wishful thinking with indexing the sliding dog on the shaft,

That's right, when the dogs are engaged it is in forward and when the gears are engaged that's reverse. I to have a lot of backlash in the dogs but the dogs looks like new so I think that's how it should be. It only means that there are some noises and clonk when changing gears, but if I wanted a smooth and comfy car I wouldn't build a Seven and certainly not a BEC.
My biggest problem is that even when the bearings are new I still have some backlash in the shaft, very little but still, and I think that that's why I have some vibrations when cruising in low and even speed.

Christian, I have been looking at the internals of the gearbox, I cant see a simple way to reduce the backlash other than build up with Braze "false Dogs" a lot of work to for a bit of quiet, the spacer I have removed, I took a pic of to show where I found it. its in the bin now, 1 to visually show the amount of "clearance" in the dogs, and 2 pics to show just how much lash there is,

To bad i didn't took any picture on my gearbox internals, would be good to have something to compare with. But the dogs look a bit smaller than mine and mine were machined like a "V" to ensure they won't slip. But with the play in the gearbox and the play in the reverse gearbox I have almost a quarter to a half turn play in the drive line set up.

On the other hand I think the dog on the gears are the same width as mine, it would be almost impossible to get them engaged if they were any bigger, but I can see there are small chips missing from the dogs and maybe the "V" shape is worn to, making them slip.
/ Christian

I had a good look at those "Chips", they are actually grinding marks where the reverse gear has been dressed and the grinding stone touched the dogs, all the dogs have 3 little marks on them like that,

I have dismantled my reverse gearbox and took some pictures of the internal bits, and as you can see i have almost no backlash on the dogs.
But i can see that you have a different kind of bearing were the two axles joins and i have a bushing with a very big play and that results in a very large amount of vibrations in the propshaft, thinking of replace it with a needle bearing, but that have to wait until winter because that will need a lot of work and I dont want to have it in the garage in this nice weather.
//Chrilla


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That's interesting, Thankyou,