charles harbert wrote:

Joa asked:

     With the Ross reduction how much of the gears are "under" (bathed in)
     oil while operating- where is the oil drain located?

 Ross units have about 3/4" of oil in the bottom of the case which covers the
bottom of the ring gear by about 1/2". The oil is supposedly carried onto the
ring gear which lubes the planetary gears, and then the sun gear. At high spd
(5-6K rpm sun gr), I don't believe that there is adequate lubrication due to
centrifical forces on the oil. Oil does both lube and cool (which is critical
under high loads (hp)). That's why I added the oil spray onto the sun gr.

     Does the oil drain out after shutdown or does it pool?

The normal arrangement is that the 3/4" of oil stays in the gbox because the
3/8" drain line is 3/4" abv the bottom. In order to increase the oil flow thru
the gbox, I added an electric scavenge (fuel) pump which tripled the volume.
Again, it's critical to keep the oil cool to avoid thermal breakdown. My oil
cooling system keeps the return oil at 180-190 degF before it enters the gbox.
Depending on load, the temp rise thru the box is 20-30 degF.

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