Photos needed. Shed full of S**t Auction

[Tony Wheeler]

Originally Posted by Tony Smith

The attachment of the cranking shaft to the drive gear seems too over-complex for a fixed alignment.

What about a piece of box section or channel, which fits over Dawn part A, or similar but thicker fabricated part A, and slotted for upward removal of the post and shaft assembly, which can be repositioned further back on the chassis, after moving the drive gear to the high ratio position. In other words a two-piece assembly, with the shaft detachable from the drive gear. Why else would you have a pin and slot arrangement, which is clearly the case here?

dawn-1 - Copy - Copy.jpg

TONY7477 - Copy - Copy.jpg

On this jeep version they've clearly dispensed with Dawn part B so it's likely they dispensed with part Dawn part A too, and used a much thicker square block, say 1" thick, drilled for the shaft and held in place by the Dawn nut, and pinned on the sides for the slotted box section piece.

That would work nicely I reckon, although it does involve two separate operations to change ratios. On the other hand it may be a lot easier than with a floppy joint. Either way you have to handle the gear end to poke the shaft in the hole so there's probably not much difference.

Of course the ideal set up would be a uni-joint of some kind, with a post that swings back on a pivot so you don't have to remove it to change ratios. However I don't believe that's what were seeing in these jeep photos.