Reverse Gear

[FizMan]

I'm trying to learn and develop some ideas of mine. Unfortunately, my background in this type of mechanical engineering is somewhat lacking.

Now I'm trying to develop a way to have a wheel go in reverse withOUT having the motors reverse. That is, my goal is to have a single gearbox with all the motors in it, and implement a reversing gear for the wheels I want.

Is there another method to accomplish this besides a reverse gear?

Here's how I concocted my reverse gear (on the toilet no less); so I also need to know whether or not they'll be any change in torque/speed between the two gear settings. I used a pneumatic cylinder to push one gear out and put two gears in (changing the direction). The Cyan Gear on the left is the Input gear (say from the gear box) and the Cyan Gear on the right is the output gear (say to transfer power to the wheel). The Red Gear is one direction, while the Purple Gears provide the reverse direction.



-forwards-



-backwards-




('course, the "forward" and "backward" direction is completely arbitrary at this point... so if this is implemented, the "backward" gear in this example may turn out to become the forward gear)


See any problems with this setup? Any comments are much appreciated!