I've been checking my facts about front wheel drive engines and, I admit
I got it wrong about the flywheel being at the front. At first glance it
appears that way though, because what is at the front is the ring gear
and starter motor. The ring gear is mounted on an aluminium carrier which
is fitted behind the pulley wheel on the nose of the crankshaft. This
enables a smaller diameter but fatter flywheel to be used at the back to
make room for the transmission. The starter motor mounts on a special
engine front plate.
The following artwork is an attempt to explain it.
Front (not to scale) Back
___________________________
| |
Starter> # | Block | Flywheel
Ring | _| | v
| |H| | # #
v | |H| | # #| < Clutch
Pulley> | | |H| |==| |==| | # #|
====|H===| | |===| | |====# #|------#
| | |_| |==| |===| | # #| H
^ | |__________________________| # #| H < Transfer gear
| __ # # H
| / \ H
# | ##--------#---#-#----# < Mainshaft
Crownwheel > \_ _/ -#---#-#----# < Layshaft
^
Pinion
If anyone has a copy of Graham Robsons book 'Triumph Herald & Vitesse'
there's a picture of it on page 177.
The fact that the mainshaft appears at the rear of the transmission
casing enabled Triumph to produce a 4 wheel drive rally car back in 1968,
by fitting a prop shaft and rear wheel drive back axle onto a highly
modified 1300.
Kim Nystrom wrote:-
>You are right about it being a 1500 engine, but it just occured to me
that
>it has been in a Bond, which is not a fwd, is it?
Although there are many differences at the front and back of the engine,
I think the basic block is the same. It could be rebuilt as a R.W.D with
different front and back plates, flywheel crankshaft etc. More likely it
sounds like someone's used the FWD block to rebuild a RWD engine that had
a damaged block.
Are there any front wheel drive Triumph drivers on the list who can
elaborate further?
Keith Bennett Keith.Bennett@bbc.co.uk
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