if i were to take 2 axles, front and rear, and a complete engine/tranny.transfer case setup, and run the engine backwards and the axles upside down,(so the transfer case would like up again,

would it go forward in 1'st gear or not?

just theortical for now

but i may start a side project with some buddys

wade

 

so are you talking about wanting the engine in the rear of the vehicle? and just turn the axles upside down?

it would go 'forward' but remember you are running on the coast side of the gears instead of the drive side

 

thats what i figured would happen, i was just curiouse and me and a friend were having a argument,

thanks for the help
later
wade

 

wrong

if you ran the engine in the back and the axles upside down it would work as normal AND you would be running on the same side of the gears as before.

 

Wouldn't the oil end up leaking out of your breather holes if they were upside down? I think you might have lubrication issues if the axle were run that way.

 

You would of course have to plug the breather hole and make a new one and make sure the pinion is still being lubed. Many people have done this. This is how they are doing some of the fancy new rear engine buggys. I personally think this might just be a fad, but time will tell...

 

yeah its just a idea thats boiling in the back of my mind right now, even though i did get a free rear engine chassis for fixing a car, so after the sammie, i may be doing this with the stock sammie stuff

latew
ade

 

No, you will be on the coast side, at least for the rear axle. It doesn't matter what you do with the engine, if you turn an axle upside down and then run it in the direction needed to go forwards, you are running it backwards compared to normal. You would be running on the coast side.

 

for the lubrication of the pinion couldnt you just use the old breather, tap a new hole on top above the pinion and run a tube to that so it would cycle gear oil around to the top of it? if you know what im talking about,

i may be doing this with my stock sammie stuff after i build it, i have to fix it all of course but i think it would be cool to have a 4x4 buggy to screw around in and not care about, my next rig will be fully tubed after the sammie though,
later
wade

 

I think there is some cunfusion here and it is hard to tell who is on board. All I was trying to point out was that flipping an axle does not make it run on the coast side. If dealing with two low pinion axles, when the front output of the t-case now runs the rear axle, that axle will run on the coast side just like the front axle used to when it was run by the front output.

The "proper" way to do a rear engine is to run a high pinion out back and a low pinion front, both flipped. This is another reason you see all the rear engine buggies running 9" rears. You can make strong high pinion rear easily...

 

Regardless of running in coast or drive...why the heck would you want to do this? I can't picture what advantages you would be after. Running a rear engine I can see that...all-pro does it quite successfully with their buggy. Running your steering in the rear? Now that I can't quite understand. Seems like the rear would swing out as you try to turn. That would suck on tight trails.

I might just not understand your idea that well. Maybe you should run a mid-engine with front and rear steering. Now that would be nice. More explanation please...

 

front steer,

just turn the axles upside down, dont swap them,


ill get more in depth later,
im at work and have a order to cook
late
wade

 

No one said anything about putting the steering out back. You would keep it in the front and flip it. Then rotate the knuckles accordingly...

 

EXACTLY!

 

:pat:

Ahh ok now I get it. Thanks for the explanation. Dang dyslexia...

 

You'll definately have oiling issues running stock third members upside down!!!! It might be ok at crawling speed but anything over a couple miles an hour, it will not be able to sling the lube properly.!! Leading to possible bearing siezures and gear failure.

I personally don't see any benefit to flipping your axles! My $.02