alloy front gear box top

[alfonzo]

Particularly aimed at Cooper, this post;

Well, I've started my build. Now I've actually seen a gearbox top with my own eyes I realise that it would be quite a job to reproduce from billet machined aluminium. Not impossible though. How desirable would an ally front gearbox top be? i.e. would it really make a big reliability improvement, or would it be more of a 'bling thing'

Laters

Al

[chris burgess]

the big problem with an alloy front gearbox top, would be this:-

in the event of an impact that would normally only break the gearbox top, if an alloy one replced it, what would break instead?

Personally, I think just recreating the part of the gearbox that holds the bearings and the crash pins in alloy would be a good idea, and probably a lot easier. Then we would have to cut down the front gearbox to accommodate the new piece.

But the same applies as above - what else would break?
It has to be the chassis, where the mount would screw in, or maybe the front wishbones, in my opinion at least.

I have spoken to a few machine shops, and they have all said the same thing about the gearbox top, and that is "I'd like to see the mould for that!" and the only way to reproduce it, would be to make a wax mould, as the programming time alone for such a piece would be at least a day.

The obvious answer really is to crash less often I suppose.

[alfonzo]

Mmm.. think I'll get some track time under my belt to help decide. Rest assured, yours truly will soon discover the X10s damage tolerance ;D

Al

[Cooper]

iA bit more plastic around the edges (come on ttech just mill out you mold a bit! not much work! )
and a crash pin like it is now but something that isn't lost when it pops out.

I use antenna tube with paperclip inside it, antenna tube alone wasn't strong enough.