Got the gears for my new gear box.
This is the back Ford  planet set with steel planet
carrier. Only about 7.5 pounds.

This will allow the p-port engine to rev to about 9,000
for take of making close to 300 HP.

It will be a while before I need it so I'll slowly gather
all the other needed parts together.

It will need a custom input shaft due to the large internal diameter
of the sun gear. I am not comfortable with a sleeve.

There are a couple of ways to get the torque out of
the rotating planet carrier.

1. EDM the roll pins holding the planet shafts in and replace
them with 1/2 inch shoulder bolts. The S-bolt hardness is only C32.

2. EDM a 7/16th hole in each shaft and use a regular 7/16th bolt.

Both methods have their good and bad points.

I'll probably try the first method  first.

What do you think Larry?

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I had a radical idea for a super simple gear box. The enabling
features are a large diameter, thick wall aluminum prop shaft
and thin section ball bearings. The planet carrier is merely screwed
into one end of the shaft and the other end is a Warp-Drive/Sensenich
type 4 blade prop hub. A conventional SAE prop flange is done
away with.

The housing is a super simple 6 inch thick wall aluminum tube.

The thin section bearings can be doubled up if one on each
end proves inadequate. The bearings are held in place with
snap rings.

About all you need to make this is a lathe and drill press.


Paul Lamar


What puzzles me about the shaft arrangement, whether alum, or steel, is how
it is held in place. The current design with the dragster axle, has the
planet riding inside the ring gear on a flat radial roller bearing case.
With the tube shaft we have opened up the end of the ring gear.

What am I missing? Is it just the thin bearings that hold it in place in
essentially the same manner as the tapered bearing used in a solid axle
shaft assm?

Ed Carver


Yes. Just the thin ball bearings. They are more than up to the job. If in
doubt use four. Two each side by side.

In the case of the axle shaft that Tracy
uses that is not a tapered bearing. It is a regular GM rear axle
bearing. It weighs about 3 pounds all by itself.

Paul Lamar