Gearbox Question Grinding Me

[mickvp]

Thanks for info, especially your detailed post MickVP - much appreciated. I thought I had gearbox down, and your post has confirmed that for me. It's fairly straight forward once you break it down and know what to look for.


My question was (and I'm hoping you have an answer MickVP)... my animation should be viewable now with any luck (original post). You can see the red and yellow gears come together, and they connect with the dogs on the inside. That's all well and good when one dog is not inline with another dog - they will slot in and start to drive. But when they are in line surely they bounce off each other and no gear is engaged?

yes, I can see your animation now. and the answer lies in this picture:



This outside sleeve you can see is what engages with the dog teeth. if you look closely you will see it doesnt have standard teeth on the face, it has loads of little circular caverns. The dog teeth engage inside these caverns, but only at the highest point of the cavern, if you try to engage it when its not at the highest point, nothing happens, it just wont engage properly (but as the gears are constantly in mesh and therefore spinning, it will only be a momentary delay before the dogs rotate round enough to be in line with the appropriate section of the coupling sleeve and it will snick in neatly).

I hope that makes sense. Basically, your simplistic animation, while right in theory, is not how the finished design looks, it has been manufactured differently to reduce the chance of the issue you describe