Not much physical progress yet but have been working through how everything might be setup before committing.
So here is the engine mocked up
I have been figuring out things like gear shift, clutch actuation, cooling system, intake and exhaust but the main thing has been how to get drive to the wheels.
After some thought and discussion with others I have come up with the design below, please excuse my CAD skills, the last time I used it was late 1999 so I have left out splines, teeth, correct tolerances and a few other things I'm sure
So obviously the output shaft on the engine is spinning the opposite direction to what the diff needs for forward movement.
The plan is for the engine to drive the countershaft on the diff box via chain (sprocket is the orange part at top right, I will be fitting a cush drive/giubo to this sprocket but haven't finalised it yet)
The splined shaft will have a small gear (helical preferably) that will mesh with another bolted in place of the crownwheel and at the far end a ring gear for electric reverse.
Tapered roller bearings sit in the ally blocks that will bolt to the sideplates
If anyone has any advice around any of this and the construction of the housing I'd be happy to hear it.
At the moment I am thinking of a box constructed of 10mm steel, mostly for strength, calcs say it'll be around 20kg on its own
Keeping the wall thickness down also helps with placing the ring gear inside the stub axle flange
I will be engaging a local engineering company to do most of the work, I'm just trying to make sure that what ask for is possible