Making the KOP gearbox shift

[sanddrag]

I'm sure it can be done. But I don't have one in front of me to figure out exactly how. So, has anyone done it? If so, pics please.

[Elgin Clock]

I'm sure it could be done since the KOP tranny's can actually be mounted to each other with all the gears inside the tranny's available in one arrangement.

I'm thinkin' you would need to drill out a place for a shifting mechanism to come in from the side or top though cause I don't think the holes in their will allow for that as they are laid out as of now.

[Ianworld]

My team used a nifty little solution last year to make the KOP transmission shift. The KOP transmissions are set up to tension chain by sliding and I saw this as an opportunity. I attached two v-belt pulleys to the output shaft. These were connected to opposite ends of a 6 wheel drive set up. Then by connecting the transmissions each to 2" bore pneumatics we would physically move the gearboxes back and forth. In one direction one v-belt was tight, and in the other direction the second v-belt was tight. It is far from an ideal solution but it is very, very simple. We had a prototype up and running in an hour and a half and the final design not much later. I wouldn't recommend this though unless you really want 2 speeds and can't go for stronger more robust method. The system was plagued by small inefficiencies and the v-belts would slip just before stall(saves your motors and you still get 90% strength, but sometimes you need that last bit.) A better way to tension and loosen the belts would probably be to create a rocking roller that would come down on the v-belts. They tension much better by pushing down in the middle than pulling on an end.

I haven't looked closely (we always buil our own) but it may work to use the ball lock shifting method by adding another shaft next to the output one, and putting another reduction on it.

[Peter Matteson]

I did it last year looking for a pic I posted.

Edit: Found the pick quicker than I thought! Thanks for CD-Media Brandon.

Here's the picture: http://www.chiefdelphi.com/media/photos/20426

I took Andy Baker's dog shifter design and came up with an external fork to actuate it. All I needed to was turn down the output shaft and cut a key way to lock the gears to the shaft.

I f you have any questions ask. I'll see about getting more pictures for next week.

Pete