yankeedoodoo Posted August 4, 2002 Share Posted August 4, 2002 Some one in the club must have tried this! OOooopps.....Wait, I detect a small error: Freudian slip OR dyslexic moment? Well, anyway, I am attempting to express my curiousity about transaxles in sevens. Has anyone ever tried fitting one such as that from a 944, or the odd old hewland gathering dust in the corner of the garage? Am interested in results, thoughts about the effect on overall weight, weight distribution, shiftability, drivability and any other attendant problems. Should this query be considered in the realm of idiotic lunatic demented mental meanderings of a possibly hungover colonial caterham neophyte (me)? Please fell free not to respond if my query is not worthy of your time/thoughts. Thank you. Most of you would have loved the Lotus club tour of Symbolic Motors in LaJolla, Ca. yesterday. It featured numerous classic Ferraris (including the '62 LM winner) and Senna's JPS Lotus Renault from about '87. On the other hand, many of you were probably having even more fun @ a track day---even if it was raining. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul D Jones Posted August 5, 2002 Share Posted August 5, 2002 The Westfield FW400 had one. Paul. See My Car Here Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yankeedoodoo Posted August 7, 2002 Author Share Posted August 7, 2002 It would appear from the near unanimity of your responses that a rebellious yank has had an "impure thought", possibly offending purists among you lot. I do continue to find it an interesting notion---though I'm not about to try it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
murph7355 Posted August 7, 2002 Share Posted August 7, 2002 Do a search on the forum for "transaxle". It has been debated before. It'll depend on how heavy you are, but my uneducated guess would be that it wouldn't make a large difference. Most of the masses in a 7 are between axles with engine/gearbox slightly ahead of fleshy masses. I reckon mine would be pretty evenly split without the fuss (or the packaging hassle) of a transaxle. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
murph7355 Posted August 7, 2002 Share Posted August 7, 2002 PS It can surely only be detrimental on shift quality too - the std. layout has the lever going directly into the box. A transaxle would require a linkage, adding complication. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter Carmichael Posted August 7, 2002 Share Posted August 7, 2002 Transaxle is not suited to a de-dion setup (clearance to rear) and the rear end of the tunnel would need to be widened - the car would only have the external appearance of a seven. I have looked at this, believe it or not, because the weight savings could be enormous. There are also problems with the length/inertia of the propshaft. The propshaft is now geared to the input side of the gearbox, so it has to cope with spinning up/down very fast between gearchanges. Normally the only rotational inertia involved here is the inertia of the input shaft and the lay gears. A transexual would obviously be a dog design, so there is little doubt that the gear would go in, but the longer and heavier the input side of the transexual the heftier the thunk as it goes in. The shock loads would be higher (although a clutchless upchange on a sequential would see the inertia of the engine as well, so may not be so relevant), which might cause reliability problems or pass on shocks to the chassis. You would minimise this by moving the engine as far back as possible and by running as short a propshaft as possible. This would also reduce the dumbell weight distribution of the car which would have handling benefits. By the time you have done this you would have a front/mid-engined design and not much of it will still be Seven shaped. I think the only way to go on the shift quality front would be sequential (properly designed remote??) rather than a cable or other operated h-gate shift. *thumbup*253 bhp, up and running *thumbup*New boingy bits Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
edmandsd Posted August 7, 2002 Share Posted August 7, 2002 that said Peter it has been done and successfully.....apparently a few years back a guy up north put a transaxle in a modified (by Arch) live axle chassis and virtually cleared up on the hills. The weight savings would be significant considering the following: My complete axle and g'box weight about 75kgs. I know of a tranaxle that weighs only 32kgs incl diff.......appreciating the longer prop, strengthening/shafts etc also req'ed. I've compromised and managed to get somewhere in between with a complete axle and g/box that's now down to around 55kgs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yankeedoodoo Posted August 7, 2002 Author Share Posted August 7, 2002 Hmmm, This is getting more interesting as you gents respond---and thank you for taking the time to reply! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cdg Posted August 7, 2002 Share Posted August 7, 2002 I also know of a transaxle that weighs 32kgs...wouldn't want to put 280hp through it though! (although you may get away with it!) Chris. Edited by - cdg on 8 Aug 2002 00:57:20 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
edmandsd Posted August 8, 2002 Share Posted August 8, 2002 Can't be the same one i'm thinking of Chris. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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