Almost a week ago now we set about fabricating the main supports for the reverse. All went pretty well, although we did decide that we should put something on the back too - so I need to sketch something and get it water cut so that it will bolt straight onto a chassis tab that I'm yet to make also.
Naturally its all just tacked at the moment... although that didn't stop me from connecting a battery and seeing if it worked...
I did even have a video but I managed to delete it by accident, clever lad that I am. Actually I've been a bit dull. 2/3 times the gear seems to work a treat - out it pops'n'spins turning the prop flange as planned. However, 1/3 times the bloody gears don't mesh properly and you get a nasty chattering sound. Why? Well, neither gear has a chamfer to help it mesh. DAMMIT! The point is that no real harm is done at the moment but its only trying to turn a shaft in a high quality bearing. It's going to have to move at least 515kgs.
So, what now? Well, I thought things through enough when I 'designed' the system that I've had the expensive gear hardened so that the the cheaper one wears. This was a great idea at the time. Unfortunately convention would have me chamfer the smaller gear. Ah, woe is me. Time to adapt; either try to chamfer the big gear with the Dremmel or get a chamfer put on it by a machine shop and see what happens. I've not decided what the right thing to do is yet.
In other news, last weekend's racing at Donington Park was originally planned to be my RGB debut - hilarious level of optimism obviously. Not being able to drive a glorified climbing frame, I travelled up to watch yesterday instead. Most folk seem to be going faster. Al Boulton dominated Class F as normal while Tim Gray took another outright win by a country mile. Perhaps the most important thing for me was the fact that Paul Rickers' 4C8 R1 is still going strong. Good news!
Next time - a sexy water-jet cut dash mount.