Tracy, please take another overall picture of the back side
of the broken  bulkhead out side in the sun. That is opposite the
shiny side.

Paul Lamar

Tracy Crook wrote:

Here is a full sun shot from the backside. If you wanted to bolt something
to it, I think your idea of brazing a 4130 reinforcing plate to it would
work well.

These discussions often go off in unexpected directions so I should clarify
the point I was trying to make.  The point was *not* that the Ford bulk head
was poorly designed or made of low quality materials.  The point was that
great care needs to be taken when a part or a design is modified.

For the record, I have seen NO evidence that the bulkhead or any other parts
of the C6 planetary gear train is subject to failure when used in stock
form.  That's why I went to great pains to use them in their unmodified form
in my redrives.  The Sun gear is the only part to be modified and that is
just to shorten it slightly.  This is done without heating the gear and
distroying the heat treat.

  C6s are used in some very heavy duty applications with large engines (460,
429 Cobrajet, 427 Wedge etc)and virtually every instance of gear failure I
have seen was a secondary failure caused by metal debris from some other
part.  My company is tiny and I'm told by my suppliers that I am the biggest
user of Ford C6 replacement hard parts in the world.  The reason is simple,
* they don't break *.   IMHO, spending those big bucks for the aftermarket
parts (in our application) is a total waste of money.  If you think you are
going to make 3000+ HP,  the Lenco stuff is no doubt worth it.   Buying it
to get around a critical step in Steve's PSRU design negates the low cost
advantage.

A question for you racing guys:  Is it true that no one uses standard type
manual transmissions (spur or helical gears on jackshafts etc) in the 3000+
HP racing categories?  If true, I think this says volumes about the
durability and power handling capability of the planetary gear set.

Tracy Crook
tcrook@rotaryaviation.com
www.rotaryaviation.com

 
The AirCraft Rotary Engine NewsLetter.              Powered by Linux.

http://home.earthlink.net/~rotaryeng/            http://www.linux.org