Reverse Gear Installation, Part 3 - catastrophic failure

I don't know exactly what part or parts within this failed, but the unit is kaput now.

It worked 6 times before completely failing. Each time it got harder to engage and especially disengage. I thought perhaps it was binding because of clutch drag. No. The last time I used it I spent a good 10 minutes trying to get it to disengage. It finally did, but it was still dragging the idler gear some. A few more minutes of fiddling and I got it to finally completely disengage.

Mototrike wants tech questions and such sent to a special email address, so I've sent them a polite one about replacement parts for inside this housing. They have a shop about 1-1/2 hours away from me, so I should hopefully be able to take this unit to them for parts. Mostly I hope to be able to buy parts for inside it vs having to buy a whole unit. Otherwise, I'll probably just fabricate on my own.

I don't have hope or expectation for warranty type work as mine was bought new in the box, but used and uninstalled. So I don't have a legal leg to stand on for warranty claims.

I did get to use it though. It's darn fast in reverse. Too fast in my opinion. I'd say the ratio is about 2nd gear, which is way too fast for going backwards. No wonder I was having so much trouble backing up hill on the ramp into my shed

So you do have to slip the clutch and try to keep the speed down. Doable, just not as lazily pleasant as it could be. If it were me, I'd redesign the sprockets to get the ratio down as low as possible.

This makes me very suspicious of all the transmission mounted reverses, including Bakers.

It also makes me much more interested in the likes of the Yelvington reverse. It's the most expensive reverse out there, not yet in production, and mounts to the rear sprocket instead of the transmission.

The floorboard relocation turns out to be no big deal or inconvenience. In fact, it's kinda better than the stock location. The stock air filter cover pushes my leg out and my foot kinda rode off to the outboard side of the floorboard. Now my foot sits more centered.

If it only worked six times they should want to know why it failed. If for no other reason liability issues?

Could the failure be related to the issue you had drilling that hole?

Sorry to hear that this went poorly. Sounds like an expensive and time consuming engineering experiment. With any luck it was just a minor failure and can be salvaged, but it sounds as though, even when it worked, you weren't that thrilled with it.

Fox. I don't recall where you live but you might want to check with Mike Beland over at A1 Cycles in west Palm beach FL.
Mike knows his stuff and likely will know what's wrong all ready.

http://www.a1cyclesinc.com/