While I've got the Diff unit out of the old cradle, and I'm while working on its mountings I thought I weigh it and see how much the thing weighs. So I dragged the bathroom scales down to the garage (Mrs M had already had a gentle chat about using the kitchen ones :-) ) and shoved the Diff and and reverse starter motor onto them. Total Weight a smidgen under 13Kg. Relative to both the old mounting frame and the blue diff that is a saving of 14Kg. Fourteen Kilos! Finding a single lump of fourteen KGs of weight saving in what should theoretically already be a stripped down race car is incredible and certainly more than off sets losing the convenience of an engine driven reverse.
The old electric driven reverse used to kill then engine due to the load on the starter motor when I engaged it. I wondered if this was because it was an old unit from a scrap yard. I've scrapped my former race support van due to the dreaded Tin worm , but one of the parts I saved was the brand new starter motor I had fitted to the engine. When I fitted this the old Cologne V6 span over nicely and the new motor drew a lot less power. So I'll try and use the new one for the reverse on the racer,better still it is another whole Kg lighter. It may mean that I'm going to have to make up some new bracketry but I was going to have to d that anyway.
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