Here some shots of the Dodge gears I am working with, the gear
ratio is a 3.21 to 1 and they come from the overdrive of the trany
that is behind a Cummins turbo diesel and by an eyeball engineering
standpoint if it can hold up to a one ton truck pulling a 12,000 lb
trailer it should hold up to a weeny little rotary.

    There is a big difference in the sun gears compared to the C-6,
first of all the gear cut is 15 degrees rather than 25 degrees in the
C-6 which means less loading on the thrust bearings compared to the
C-6, second of all the cut is in the opposite direction which means
the thrust is put against the planet and the planet gear set comes
with a thrust plate that slides onto the sun gear and it comes with a
thrust bearing but do to the high RPM  of the rotary it will take a
double stack of thrust bearings, at 7.000 rpm the prop shaft and the
planet will be turning  2180 rpm so the differential is 4820 and the
speed limit is 4400 rpm so it will definitely take two gearings
especially if if an RX-8 engine were used which I plane go to in the
future.
   To do a double I will half to toss the thrust plate in the trash can
and make a new one that will except two thrust bearings rather than
one and I may toss the Dodge bearings that are pressed all together
and replace them with off the shelf bearings and thrust plates.

    Another thing I like about this gear box setup is there is that the
sun gear is splined on one end and I can rework the clutch gear hub
and bolt it to the pilot shaft and the sun gear will slide on and
engage without the hassle of drilling, pinning or welding the sun
gear to the pilot shaft.
    Also the ring gear there are dogs on the outside that will help
lock it into the housing although about half of the ring gear will be
cut of and tossed into the trash can to save weight.
    With this setup the advantage is that I will be able to unbolt a
set of bolts that hold the gearbox onto the bell housing and then and
pull the gear box off and then just pull out all the gears and
replace them if needed.

     Ken Welter

Ken,
A good find !
Did you notice that there is also a 5 planet straight cut planetary as well,
this would eliminate the need for a thrust bearing at all.
Found it in the Slausons catalogue !
I notice they went from 22 degrees to later 15 degrees, the front and rear
planetaries are very similar to the Ford's but have only the 5 planets.
George ( down under)



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