Junkyard Dog wrote:Is there any way you can put the clutch on the engine flywheel? Then you could use a 2 gear case between the clutch and the transmission input shaft. Martin Gear etc make all kinds of spur gears, the case would be merely (yeah, right! sounds so damn easy ) a matter of fabrication.
http://martinsprocket.com/
Another long shot: tilt the engine and transmission 6 degrees each and use the Casale V drive.
putting a clutch there isn't impossible. but it's far from easy. the clutch disk and pressure plate end up needing to be custom items because they need to handle a 4" shaft through the center.
also, there's the issue with not having a bellhousing to push against for the disengaging of the pressure plate.
the transmission and the motor already come within an 1/8" so to tilt them the bottom of the trans would have to go down. it's already impossible to unload from a trailer without the transmission leaving a divot in the grass. there's less than 3" clearance under there, i can't afford to lose more. tilting the motor would certainly be possible. there's no reason i can't other than it would require redoing quite a bit of work that is already done and works well.
I really do think a box with a few gears in it would work well. that Martin place does not do gears that will handle the speed and RPM that i need because it's over their limit of 1000ft/min of pitch speed. plus, having priced out stuff like that before it's a much better idea to scavenge from existing products.
something like this would fit perfectly: http://www.profabmachineinc.com/monster.html it would just be missing the clutch, but i could fabricate something for that (or pull a speedy cop and not put in a clutch at all)
this one would also work: http://www.scsgearbox.com/4x4-transfer-cases.html
but you guys don't want to know what the prices of those things are. it may not blow the judge's budget exempt view of this build's limits. but it blows my personal limits.
the only thing that looks semi-promising right now:
i'd have to merge the two boxes together. neither of which are expensive enough that i would feel bad welding the two together (the transfer case is cheap and the casale was $200 and available all day long)
i'd likely need to add an oil pump to the whole contraption to bring oil to the casale up top, but that isn't hard. heck, some well placed scrapers would probably do it. the transfer case's chain would pick up plenty of oil i bet.
i even have the tailshaft housing coupler from the GM transmission so i could weld that to what's left of the angry hamster box and the whole thing could hang there. (probably with an extra support rod or two to not snap off the whole thing) then the remaining gap could be bridged with a simple drive shaft.
but i'm not entirely happy with that solution.