CRTurboGuy

Martin, No, I'm not sure what caused the failure. My guess would be heat/lubrication, as the ends of 3 of the little gears are sheared/welded into the side plates, but it had plenty of lube when I drained it. I wonder if my 2 day, cross country trip hastened its demise, but hard to tell. To avoid the cost of replacing it, I attempted to venture down the path of having a new 2 piece driveshaft made, but it's almost 1/3 the cost of a new reverse box. I also considered just welding the internals of the box together and using it as a large carrier bearing to reuse my existing driveshafts, but I didn't have confidence that the welds wouldn't break, so I investigated having a new 1 piece splined shaft made to go through the reverse box, but that too was about 1/3 the cost of a new reverse box. After talking it over a bit with a friend, he pointed out that it'd be hard/possibly unsafe to get the car in/out of the garage w/ my sloped driveway without reverse, so I'm going to hold off and probably end up buying another Quaife. My existing one is an early unit, I've heard that they have made some improvements so hopefully I wouldn't grenade a 2nd one. As to the pictures, I tried posting links to my Photobucket account, but I still got a message saying I couldn't post that many links, my guess is it's an anti-spam measure. I've moved them all into their own album, the link is below. http://s728.photobucket.com/albums/ww290/crturboguy/Locost/ReverseBox/ --JOsh

Last fall while backing down the driveway, my Quaife reverse box locked up. I sent it off to TX this spring for a teardown/quote to repair, which came back at ~$1500 to repair or ~$1800 for a new one. I've taken some pictures of the insides and thought I'd share in case anyone else was curious to see what it looked like in there. http://www.locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=12648 (I tried to post the pictures directly here, but got a warning saying that I was trying to post 28 images but only allowed to post 4 images) --JOsh

Yeah, I met a friend of mine at the Wendy's up there for lunch and was headed back to work. It's been ages since I've seen your car around, last was a couple years ago I think, on 380 getting off down by the hospital if I remember right. --JOsh

Thanks! --JOsh

LOL, yes, I do have a touch of the evil in me. And you're correct, this is pre-ride. He came back w/ a bigger grin on his face and his hair standing mostly straight up (I'll claim from the wind, though it could have been from the driving LOL) --JOsh

Pics: Just prior to me buying it: http://josh.sitenation.com/images/locost/locost.jpg Giving a friend a ride: http://josh.sitenation.com/images/locost/me_n_jaydon.jpg Specs: 2003 R1 engine Quaife reverse box Toyota Supra rear end, cut down struts for front spindles +442 frame I think that about covers the basics. I recall seeing you/it at a few Iowa Region autocrosses back in the day. As to the driving it like a bike comment, I ride a dual sport/enduro on the street, so I'm familiar w/ acting like everyone's trying to kill you. It transfers quite well to the Locost. --JOsh

I recently purchased a R1 powered Locost, just thought I'd stop by and say hello. --JOsh

Thanks for the warm welcome! I found this picture of my car in the Member Rides area in the thread 'So a Westfield and Caterham walk into a bar' from a car show/meet that one of the members went to, though it wasn't mine when the picture was taken. https://picasaweb.google.com/drsms22/BestOfKatieSCarsAndCoffee#5593615274605185058 I'm still working on writing up an account of my trip, but once I do, I'll be sure to post it or a link to it. --JOsh

https://picasaweb.google.com/drsms22/BestOfKatieSCarsAndCoffee#5593615274605185058 Whoa, that's the car I just bought and drove back to IA. --JOsh

A quick hello, I hope I'm allowed here, as I have a 'Locost' and not a kit. I've been interested in building a 7ish car for about 7 years or so now. I used to be an admin over at the LocostUSA site, but life got in the way & I disappeared for a while. There are a couple of folks in my local SCCA region that have 7ish cars, so I'm somewhat familiar with them and prior to buying my Locost, got a chance to drive one around an autox course. I recently purchased a R1 powered Locost in VA and drove it back to Iowa. It was quite a journey, don't know if I'd do it again. It is a good starting point to further develop it, I've already got a few ideas for improvements. Just thought I'd stop by and introduce myself. --JOsh