pic: 571's new gearz loose weight

[JessR]

As a follow-up thought, these improvisations were an interesting experiment, though one we didn't want!
As a brand new design, we were worried about a number of things - plastic teeth stripping, setscrews, tooth binding from sideplate movement, shifter engagement etc. etc.
In practice driving, the only problem was a setcrew-only gear loosened up.
We tightened all setscrews and check periodically at competitions - everything has stayed tight since then through the finals in two regionals.
Metal parts - All the metal gears and output sprockets (either keyed-only, keys captured, or key-and-setcrew), have locktited setscrews. Bearings use a slip fit in shafts & Loctite retaining compound, made assembly very easy.
[remember - For Metal parts - Locktite is your friend. DON'T use Locktite 242 on plastic, it will crack/melt many plastics.]

So we are fantastically happy with the result, as these transmissions were designed from scratch in January, and completed, modified and running a week before ship date. A bit risky for something this complicated but it came out well.
We are looking to simplify and improve the design for next season.

PS,
We have prototype drawings for the parts on AutoCAD - if you want them, email me.
I'm excited to see of course how we do at Championships tomorrow (Archimedes)

Later, Jesse.