Gear Drive
- Thread starter rooster57
- Start date
I have a noisy Pete Jackson gear drive in my car along with the blower. It is very loud!!!. I have been told you can hear coming from about a mile away. No Joke. But I like it.
Bill Pedersen
Member
I have used the Pete Jackson, Summers Brothers and Donovan gear drives. In my opinion, the billet Donovan is the nicest one made and it is fairly quiet for a gear drive. They have been making the billet gear drive for 5-6 years now, prior to that they used a cast cover. They are pretty expensive new, but you get what you pay for. They are made in Torrance, CA. It’s not that unusual to see the billet Donovan gear drive sell on ebay in the $200-$230 range.
Mike
Well-Known Member
Bill, the cover alone is a work of art. I'll wager that is what drives up the price of the combination. But it is sharp!
If you're driving a fuel pump and/or power steering pump off the cam, a gear drive is a must. If you're not, a gear drive is little more than an expensive noisemaker. You'll discover most racers that don't need them steer clear of them and use belt drives instead. Belt drives come with an inherent problem of their own that many engine builders do not recognize and cost considerably more than a gear drive. If you like the noise, then a gear drive is the way to go. If the noise doesn't mean much, you can get a high-quality timing chain set for a lot less money.
I was always the guy that never had a lot of money and always wanted to build more power. When it came down to something like a valve cover selection, those were always steel covers, painted with a rattle can because they worked just as well as double throwdown fabricated covers with billet rails and didn't cost a dime. The money I had saved on valve covers could them be invested in a better intake or camshaft or distributor, or... Of course there's nothing like making someone eat a big slice of humble pie, because they assumed the motors in my cars were bone-stock. Nothing there to see except a set of headers. With stock valve covers, stock air cleaners and painted aluminum intake manifolds, I always had a stealthy approach. :sly: Thou shalt not show thy cards until thine opponent hast paid (preferably, dearly) to see them. :gum:
If you're driving a fuel pump and/or power steering pump off the cam, a gear drive is a must. If you're not, a gear drive is little more than an expensive noisemaker. You'll discover most racers that don't need them steer clear of them and use belt drives instead. Belt drives come with an inherent problem of their own that many engine builders do not recognize and cost considerably more than a gear drive. If you like the noise, then a gear drive is the way to go. If the noise doesn't mean much, you can get a high-quality timing chain set for a lot less money.
I was always the guy that never had a lot of money and always wanted to build more power. When it came down to something like a valve cover selection, those were always steel covers, painted with a rattle can because they worked just as well as double throwdown fabricated covers with billet rails and didn't cost a dime. The money I had saved on valve covers could them be invested in a better intake or camshaft or distributor, or... Of course there's nothing like making someone eat a big slice of humble pie, because they assumed the motors in my cars were bone-stock. Nothing there to see except a set of headers. With stock valve covers, stock air cleaners and painted aluminum intake manifolds, I always had a stealthy approach. :sly: Thou shalt not show thy cards until thine opponent hast paid (preferably, dearly) to see them. :gum:
That is the look I like clean and simple.
Mike
Well-Known Member
I reckon having all the bells and whistles is a nice place to be, but I just never could justify having a slower car that merely looked or sounded better than it really was. That was back in the days when it was 'run whatcha brung and hope you brung enough!'
I was that way with the race car too. We kept the car clean, but we spent our time working on it and not polishing it. One year at Le Grandnational at St. Pie, Quebec, we had some valves touching and it finally started shredding teeth off the timing belt as we were warming it for the first round. Finally, it locked up. We were pitted directly across from the fuel pits and when it broke, it made a rather spectacular sound. Mind you, they had already called us to the lanes and here we sat with a broken piece. Twenty minutes later, I was pushing the fuel guys out of the way, so we could head for the staging lanes. They were dumbfounded we were able to set up the I-beam, snag one motor out, put another one in and warm it up in that length of time. I think that was the day they started calling us the Katzenjammer Kids. We got beat in the final that day.
We sold one of our old spare motors to a fellow with a SS/AX car. We were at Indy for the U.S. Nationals and they had just called Super Stock to the lanes for round one. We were finishing up our stuff, so we could watch the round to see how he would fare. Here he came on a scooter, to say he had broken a pushrod and rocker. We didn't have any spares for that motor, but we sure did have a spare bullet. He took off to get his car and we started getting things ready to swing our spare into his car. (Any of you ever been to Indy? We were pitted on the east side of the track and Super Stock was on the west side.) Finally, as they started running Super Stock, here he came, towing the car. We slid it into place, snatched the motor and swung ours in. As we were getting ready to warm the motor, we sent a slag to his pit to get the front end for his car. We met him in the staging lanes, fastened the front end on the car and he went out and won the round.
Another year at St. Pie, we were desperately trying to take surface area away from the clutch. We couldn't get enough clutch out of the car. We didn't have stands to run it as a single disc, so Brian took the discs over to the Wayne County Dodge pit to cut them. We figured cutting one disc would soften things up a bit and so he was going to really carve in the second disc, to take away a bunch of surface area. I'm at the trailer getting everything else ready to go. Here comes one of the tech guys to tell me they were ready for us in the lanes. I still had the car in the trailer and told him we were just getting ready to unload and tow to the lanes.:wolf: About 20 minutes later, the tech guy was back, wanting to know what was holding us up. I told him we were just about ready and that we would be there. Another 15-20 minutes later, he back for a third time and gets all pissy with me, wanting to know when we were going to be ready. I pointed to the ground, outside the trailer where the trans and bellhousing were laying in the grass and explained we would be there when we got that back in the car. He told me to get busy and I explained I couldn't, because I didn't have any clutch discs. He told me they were going to scratch us and I told him to hang loose, that we would be there in time. Brian finally got back, we slammed the clutch back together and tossed the trans in the car and off we went. When we got to the lanes, a slag was driving the truck, pulling us forward as cars ran. Brian was getting into his firesuit, whilst I was setting up base height on the clutch and changing counterweight. Brian was finally ready to get in, so he jumped in the car and I strapped him in. As we're moving forward, I was setting air gap. As the pair of cars in front of us were pulling into the water, i was bolting the cover back onto the can. I set tire pressures, opened the air bottle for the shifter and turned on power to the car, we started the car, pulled into the water for the burnout and as he was backing the car up from the burnout, it started raining. :gum:
We were thrashers, not polishers. Our stuff never won any Best Appearing awards, although the last two cars we ran whilst I was still there both won Best Engineered awards. In '94 we went to the divisional race at Martin, MI. We qualified number one and won the race. The next weekend, we went to Division 1 race at Numidia, PA, where we once again qualified number one and won the race. Two or three weeks later, we were back in Division 3 for a race in Cleves, OH. We were number one again and went to the semis before getting beat. A couple weeks later, we were at another Division 3 race in Bowling Green, KY. The mousepad I'm using with this box has a picture of me holding up four fingers (to signify four number one spots in a row) as we received the Low Qualifier check and we went to the semis at that race. The next weekend, we were at the U.S. Nationals at Indy. The car didn't like the clutch tuneup I put in in for the first qualifying pass. On the second pass, we dropped a valve. That one is another story all by its self, because we didn't have our spare motor at the time, but on the final qualifying pass, we qualified number one for the fifth race in a row. We got down to four cars at that one, too.
We did have a car that was painted white as a base, with hot orange and hot pink (yes, I said 'pink') panels. All of the contingency decals and sponsor logos were painted on in a very soft, pastel blue. That was about as attention-getting as our stuff ever managed to get, I reckon. I'll dig around and see if I can find a picture of that car. I think I've got one of that car qualifying number one at the World Finals in Pomona. We got beat in the semis by a fellow we had loaned a spare motor and then he got beat in the final. The only time we were ever beat twice in the same day. I was our race to lose and we didn't want to win it by having him lay down for us in the semis, so we made a race of it. And some really stupid idiot blew the clutch tuneup in our car. The car rattled the tires going into third gear and it shook the car out of the groove. I'm just happy that same stupid idiot didn't end up having to walk home from that one. :sly:
Apologies for the thread hijack. You are now being returned to your regularly-scheduled discussion. :ban:
I was that way with the race car too. We kept the car clean, but we spent our time working on it and not polishing it. One year at Le Grandnational at St. Pie, Quebec, we had some valves touching and it finally started shredding teeth off the timing belt as we were warming it for the first round. Finally, it locked up. We were pitted directly across from the fuel pits and when it broke, it made a rather spectacular sound. Mind you, they had already called us to the lanes and here we sat with a broken piece. Twenty minutes later, I was pushing the fuel guys out of the way, so we could head for the staging lanes. They were dumbfounded we were able to set up the I-beam, snag one motor out, put another one in and warm it up in that length of time. I think that was the day they started calling us the Katzenjammer Kids. We got beat in the final that day.
We sold one of our old spare motors to a fellow with a SS/AX car. We were at Indy for the U.S. Nationals and they had just called Super Stock to the lanes for round one. We were finishing up our stuff, so we could watch the round to see how he would fare. Here he came on a scooter, to say he had broken a pushrod and rocker. We didn't have any spares for that motor, but we sure did have a spare bullet. He took off to get his car and we started getting things ready to swing our spare into his car. (Any of you ever been to Indy? We were pitted on the east side of the track and Super Stock was on the west side.) Finally, as they started running Super Stock, here he came, towing the car. We slid it into place, snatched the motor and swung ours in. As we were getting ready to warm the motor, we sent a slag to his pit to get the front end for his car. We met him in the staging lanes, fastened the front end on the car and he went out and won the round.
Another year at St. Pie, we were desperately trying to take surface area away from the clutch. We couldn't get enough clutch out of the car. We didn't have stands to run it as a single disc, so Brian took the discs over to the Wayne County Dodge pit to cut them. We figured cutting one disc would soften things up a bit and so he was going to really carve in the second disc, to take away a bunch of surface area. I'm at the trailer getting everything else ready to go. Here comes one of the tech guys to tell me they were ready for us in the lanes. I still had the car in the trailer and told him we were just getting ready to unload and tow to the lanes.:wolf: About 20 minutes later, the tech guy was back, wanting to know what was holding us up. I told him we were just about ready and that we would be there. Another 15-20 minutes later, he back for a third time and gets all pissy with me, wanting to know when we were going to be ready. I pointed to the ground, outside the trailer where the trans and bellhousing were laying in the grass and explained we would be there when we got that back in the car. He told me to get busy and I explained I couldn't, because I didn't have any clutch discs. He told me they were going to scratch us and I told him to hang loose, that we would be there in time. Brian finally got back, we slammed the clutch back together and tossed the trans in the car and off we went. When we got to the lanes, a slag was driving the truck, pulling us forward as cars ran. Brian was getting into his firesuit, whilst I was setting up base height on the clutch and changing counterweight. Brian was finally ready to get in, so he jumped in the car and I strapped him in. As we're moving forward, I was setting air gap. As the pair of cars in front of us were pulling into the water, i was bolting the cover back onto the can. I set tire pressures, opened the air bottle for the shifter and turned on power to the car, we started the car, pulled into the water for the burnout and as he was backing the car up from the burnout, it started raining. :gum:
We were thrashers, not polishers. Our stuff never won any Best Appearing awards, although the last two cars we ran whilst I was still there both won Best Engineered awards. In '94 we went to the divisional race at Martin, MI. We qualified number one and won the race. The next weekend, we went to Division 1 race at Numidia, PA, where we once again qualified number one and won the race. Two or three weeks later, we were back in Division 3 for a race in Cleves, OH. We were number one again and went to the semis before getting beat. A couple weeks later, we were at another Division 3 race in Bowling Green, KY. The mousepad I'm using with this box has a picture of me holding up four fingers (to signify four number one spots in a row) as we received the Low Qualifier check and we went to the semis at that race. The next weekend, we were at the U.S. Nationals at Indy. The car didn't like the clutch tuneup I put in in for the first qualifying pass. On the second pass, we dropped a valve. That one is another story all by its self, because we didn't have our spare motor at the time, but on the final qualifying pass, we qualified number one for the fifth race in a row. We got down to four cars at that one, too.
We did have a car that was painted white as a base, with hot orange and hot pink (yes, I said 'pink') panels. All of the contingency decals and sponsor logos were painted on in a very soft, pastel blue. That was about as attention-getting as our stuff ever managed to get, I reckon. I'll dig around and see if I can find a picture of that car. I think I've got one of that car qualifying number one at the World Finals in Pomona. We got beat in the semis by a fellow we had loaned a spare motor and then he got beat in the final. The only time we were ever beat twice in the same day. I was our race to lose and we didn't want to win it by having him lay down for us in the semis, so we made a race of it. And some really stupid idiot blew the clutch tuneup in our car. The car rattled the tires going into third gear and it shook the car out of the groove. I'm just happy that same stupid idiot didn't end up having to walk home from that one. :sly:
Apologies for the thread hijack. You are now being returned to your regularly-scheduled discussion. :ban:
Screaming Metal
Active Member
Yep, good ole geardrives! Ha! My favorite is the one shown up in this posting....the Donovan. However....theres alot of other mfg'ers now days.....I've always loved them. I've bought enough Pete Jacksons to gaurantee the co's good health for a long time! Ha!
Proform makes a really good quality one thats not too expensive.
One thing though, make sure you have them installed correctly. I always run the thick cast timing covers where I can always change out timing slightly. Always degree in your cam and run a cam button with a rollerbearing when you can.
The drop in idlers as in the petes make a good bit of noise....it takes you a while to get used to the idler bouncing around in there too on some models. I love the one that has the single gear idler that is fastened down. You get the good 'whine', without the 'clatter' of the drop ins walking agianst the timing cover.
I love the whine though, specially when coupled with a blower........I'm with Ron, I've had folks say they can hear the 392 coming down the road about a mile before I get there. Hopefully....I can get my exhaust reworked soon....I'll have to get all the brackets powdercoated before final assembly.
Proform makes a really good quality one thats not too expensive.
One thing though, make sure you have them installed correctly. I always run the thick cast timing covers where I can always change out timing slightly. Always degree in your cam and run a cam button with a rollerbearing when you can.
The drop in idlers as in the petes make a good bit of noise....it takes you a while to get used to the idler bouncing around in there too on some models. I love the one that has the single gear idler that is fastened down. You get the good 'whine', without the 'clatter' of the drop ins walking agianst the timing cover.
I love the whine though, specially when coupled with a blower........I'm with Ron, I've had folks say they can hear the 392 coming down the road about a mile before I get there. Hopefully....I can get my exhaust reworked soon....I'll have to get all the brackets powdercoated before final assembly.
Screaming Metal
Active Member
On, as far as makes...the sky is the limit... theres Pete Jackson, Donovan, Milodon, Edelbrock, ProForm, Cloyes, Mickey Thompson, Keith Black, and a lot of others....
I even think Mr. Gasket makes one or they were talking about it. The Mickey Thompson was back in the 60's, along with a few mfg'ers that made finned timing covers for the 392 Hemi's. We used to drive the fuel pumps off te cams on those motors...
One thing nice about the gear drives....they pretty well stay put, timing wise. They won't stretch or break, and they last!
I even think Mr. Gasket makes one or they were talking about it. The Mickey Thompson was back in the 60's, along with a few mfg'ers that made finned timing covers for the 392 Hemi's. We used to drive the fuel pumps off te cams on those motors...
One thing nice about the gear drives....they pretty well stay put, timing wise. They won't stretch or break, and they last!
Screaming Metal
Active Member
Oh yes....and Summit! You can even get em when you order your kits thru PAW....
Screaming Metal
Active Member
I just read that agian and had to laugh....I won't mention any names, but this SS team blew a motor when in the deep south during a nationals event. They stripped the motor out that night, next morning, got up early, went to a local junkyard, bought like 10 motors for like $1800 bucks, started pulling heads, oilpans and rod/main caps. About their 7th motor, they all looked around and started laughing and shaking their heads. They then went by the carwash to soap up the block and wash it....Zoomed back to the track on opening if the gate, They had borrowed my truck...I told them they'd have to feed me...they were cool with that....I was sitting in the back eating...Pulled up where the car was, started putting all their heads, headers and cam in and on the old woreout motor...had it in the car and running in 45 minutes.
Morale of the story, looks can be decieving....its all in the numbers, but alot has to do with just plain ole LUCK! Later that night....they were the new SS Victors....The man has been the owner of a Cam Co. since the 70's....
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