gear box post by Scott Elkes (swiped from facebook)

[ted johnson]

Scott Elkes uploaded a file in the group: British Historic Kart Club.
3 hrs ·

I thought you chaps with the USA brand karts like a look at gearboxes (single speed) that were available in the 1960s in the USA.
(Note: I have placed a variety of scanned documents--tech items, personalities, major race events--in the "Files" tab at Facebook "Vintage Kart Club of America (VKCA) if you want to see more.)
Update to Gear Box Stuff (USA)—neat addition.
There seems before there was Dyna Drive, Helix, Margay gearboxes, there was “Torque Drive!”
Anyone out there with a vintage Torque Drive? Or raced using the Torque Drive?
Scott Elkes
18-February-2017
Previous...
I have several Brazilian vintage kart friends wanting to learn more about the gear boxes used in the middle 1960s in the USA. I provided photos, ads, and did my best to describe the internals, how gear ratios were changed, along with the Pros and Cons between the brands. With the help of Jack Meeker we located Karting World's Dyna-drive and Margay (Mar-Kart) Tech Review articles. I received the scanned articles in the eMail today and prepared this PDF file.
Scott Elkes
30-January-2016
(Key word search reference: Dyna-drive, Pro, Helix, Margay (Mar-Kart) gear boxes, Torque Drive)

We ran Helix gearboxes when they first came out. The fact that they were without clutch didn't bother Pop or me, as we only ran direct drive anyhow. The Helix was strong, quiet and smooth. I ran them for three seasons, until I quit karting in '64, without failure. My pal, Charlie, bought a very early Margay box, and still runs it on his Bug Scorpion/Mc101D. It has never given an ounce of trouble, except when he sheared an axle key at Fremont a couple years ago. He runs it with an early Max Torque clutch. Ted