Night Train

You could add a splash catcher to catch the oil that is flung from the chain to the top of the casing and then drain it into the bearings. that will keep the oil in the right place. A carefully placed (and fixed) bit of tin can would do it. The gear change will depend on how the gears are selected. If it is dog clutch then you may stand a chance. If it is sliding gears then less easy. I used to double declutch high to low and back with a S3 transfer box when I had used the yellow knob while moving. Then I resolved the red knob yellow knob problem and happily did high low changes on the move. It was just a slow change with lots of rattling.

The electrical dangers I am aware of so what I make will be 'safe' in that respect. I was more concerned about the moisture content in wood hence I was thinking of tufnol or similar. I need to work out what cross-sectional area I would need to handle the current. As I am not switching under load there won't be the arcing or contact erosion to worry about with it being DC. I have opened up some old isolator switch boxes and the blade switch elements don't look big enough based on my 'seat of the pants' feel for engineering components. It even comes down to 'knowing' that welder switches can handle the current and voltage but generally not for 30 minutes at a time. Maybe I will be investing in some Kilovacs or Albrights and faking the switch.

Cheap and tacky! Someone has let the design student, on day release, have a play with some plastics!

I am thinking of a zero budget reversing switch for a motor. No money to spend on contactors and don't like the 'CLUNK CLUNK' noise either. I have thought about wood, it was my first consideration but I wasn't sure how effective it would be in use compared to traditional insulators. I can look into that. I have lots of industrial switch gear to rob copper knife switch components from I think. I am thinking that if it can handle 200A 3ph then it should be fine at 200A dc if it is not actuated under load. Maybe a knife switch with the base in a 90deg V would be good, it would limit the swing of the handle.

I am looking for ideas to make a really big DPDT change over switch, something that will be able to carry around 200A at 96V but it doesn't need to switch it, just carry it in each position. Something like this from a welder springs to mind. (random search image) Any thoughts as to either getting one or making one? What would be a good material to build it from? Cheers. Mods, Please delete if too OT but just thinking folks here would have some good ideas. Thank you

In theory I could get my elderly dad to insure my car for limited miles and social use only and then go about my business as usual and not get picked up by the APNR system. Cool! Not!

It seems sensible all round but it still can't catch a car that in uninsured, has a photocopy tax disc and is on cloned plates. It will, probably, catch those with a vintage car in the shed being restored but still on the old green logbook.

Yep, just need a steady hand, good lighting and then cut between the scribe lines.

How about converting to use one of these?

I'd really like a dash like this in my electric trike but I doubt I would get it through the MSVA or IVA. However, I am already collecting vintage ammeters and voltmeters like this one on my electric tractor.

I'm watching this one on Ebay. http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=320638510983&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT And also this one. http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=270686316466&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT One option with very high reading tachos is to double the signal count so that your 7000rpm V8 reads 14000rpm. That will confuse people.

Depending on the length of the cut and the working position there are a number of ways to cut straight. The main thing to remember is to do a dry run to make sure that you are able to move the grinder in a nice smooth straight line without losing your balance or bumping into something or adjusting your grip. Scoring the line with the cutting disc first can help. You can use a length of angle laid with its open edges downwards so that the angle forms a 45deg slope away form the cutting disk, that way it won't get in the way. Here's a splined shaft I cut with a 4 1/2" grinder with a standard cutting disc on it. I held the shaft in the vice pointing downwards and cut vertically for each spline.

That looks just like what I want for my electric vehicle heating. It could well be similar to ceramic heaters where they self regulate their current flow and hence temperature. Safest way in a car as it stops it melting the dashboard if the fan fails to blow.

Look up 'Silent Chains' Again Ashcrofts should be able to help on that one too. I remember speaking with him on it 20 years ago when I was designing my Tbox.

Excellent! I am so glad I have the gf that I have. She does exactly what post 2 recommends! I'm going to value her even more now!

Where did you see it? Website link? Visibility would be really bad and those wheels would only work in a swamp buggy race. Looks more like a kids RC model of some B movie superhero's mode of transport.

When I have 'borrowed' gears from another application I used a feeler guage to check the backlash before dismantelling and then recreated it afterwards. Automotive gearboxes don;t need to be efficient in the lower gears as they are not used for long and there is plenty of expendable power to play with. Also straight cut gears will be noiser but more efficient then helical cut gears as there is no sliding contact area on the tooth profile, just a rolling one, however, helical gears would still be a better choice due to noise and overall strength. If you can get into the BMW box with a feeler guage, then count teeth you might be able to find what you want but it could be the first gear set and that would mean a big hole in the middle of one gearwheel where the syncros go and the other gearwheel will be a forged part of the layshaft. Don't know if it would be much use that way. I remember you advising me, on my BMW box, that it might not be weldable if the shaft wasn't what I wanted. Machinery gears might be easier to work with then automotive. Have you thought about an epicyclic gear train from an automatic box? It may be worth asking Ian Ashcroft if there is a simple gear set that will offer a 2:1 reduction like an old Laycock overdrive unit.

I was looking for a 1:2 gearbox for my electric reverse trike conversion a while ago but wanting to speed up a motor from 2500-5000. I also looked and asked about a V8 duplex timing chain and agricultural boxes. It wasn't promising. I looked into using the gearbox BMW K100 motorbike, it is an under drive box hence wanting to speed uo the motor drive to it. It has very small straight cut gears on big splines with lots of backlask in the splines due to lack of syncro. I don't think they would cope with the torque. They feel very, very hard (glassy hard) and will probably shatter before you get to wear them out. I am now opting for a Honda VFR chain drive swing arm but thinking of getting my single drive reduction with a duplex chain to the rear wheel. If you make your own you should use helical cut gears to keep the noise down and for strength. There may be some Land Rover Tbox gears that might help but if you can do a deal to have ones made then all the better.

Along side my reversing lights on my car I have a pair of bullet type front fog lights under the bumper. They cast a wide low foglight beam pattern across the ground so that I can see low lying obsticles and also allow the light to pass under my trailer when reversing it into dark spaces. The lights are switched with a no volt contactor triggered by a microswitch and only active when the reversing lights are on. That way they self cancel when I come out of reverse.

Merry Christmas!

It's probably that chap delivering apples to the cider factory. Wasn't coming up the lane but crossing it.

Isn't it what Clarkson would do? He put a flag floor in a Merc with a wood burning stove to make it a cottage. I do like the floor, not sure how it would cope with chassis twist and penetrating mud and grit though. Without the floor it would look a bit like Apple had got hold of it and turned it into an i-Defender. The headlight surrounds makes it look like it has the mumps.

Many yaers ago whe I was with a Land Rover club in London we did a club event where we included a trailer reverse. The course was a short oxbow shape and the vehicle was a SWB diesel with a short 4 wheel tipping trailer. It was harder then most people thought. I have done some very long and convoluted reverses with my trailers. When I did my C+E the instructor told me that I reversed the rig better then I drove it forwards!

Here's a Euclid with both flat and inflated tyres. Just chalk a line on each tyre and then drive it to see if they make the same number of turns.

My 2p It depends on the tyre. That is all. Some tyres will hold the same rolling circumference at a wide range of pressures. Other tyres will grow a little extra circumference at higher pressures. Some tyres will, at very low pressure, maintain tread contact, others will bunch up. Also it will depend on how extreme the pressure diffence is. At maximum pressure the the rolling circumference calculations holds true, and allowing for any change in circumference for the specific type of tyre. With no pressure the wheel rim will roll on the side walls and the tread of the tyre will bunch up in the foot print area. Then the rolling radius calculations will hold true. At various pressures in between there will be a transition between the rolling radius and rolling circumference calculation being true. Where that happens, in the pressure range, will depend on the specific tyre. Other variables will be the sidewall rigidity of the tyre, the tread thickness (and hence stiffness) on the tyre and the effective weight of the vehicle over that tyre. A light car on lorry tyres will probably show little or no difference in rolling radius even when the tyres have no air in them at all!