Chasing some advice on where to go hunting for a front shaft for a K40 or K50 gearbox.

I need the shaft for a slightly unusual purpose as I have a 4 tonne compacting roller (tow behind) which is powered by a 1.3 litre Corolla engine. It's been converted with a three belt pulley bolted  straight up to the flywheel. I want to add a clutch to the machine to make it more user friendly. I have a clutch, but no shaft to poke up the centre.

I figured that there must be people on this forum who know where the old gearboxes are buried, hence this plea for help. All I want is the spline and the shaft, the gear is no use to me. I'm based in Tasmania but get about a bit.

Hi Rupert,

                  I'm sure someone on here will have one somewhere.  Most of us have one in our "special tools draw", which we use as a "clutch plate alignment tool"; rather than those universal tapered ones you buy at SCA & auto tools & parts stores.

I'll certainly look around my heap tomorrow, & see if I can help.

P.S.  I'll bet it has been a bit chilly, down Tassie way in the last few days ?

Cheers Banjo

Edited May 10, 20233 yr by Banjo

Thanks Banjo, much appreciated. Reading the forums, it seemed that discussions on installing a stronger gearbox were often based on breaking the original. I figured most people only require one alignment tool and there must be a few broken gearboxes kicking about if only one knew where to look.

I'm sure you can buy specific plastic alignment tools at repco etc

Hi Parrot, thanks for the reply. Sorry, I obviously didn't explain what I am after clearly enough.

I need a steel 19 spline shaft to connect to the clutch plate so that I can output the power from the motor. Alignment is not a problem as I don't have a bell housing

The shaft will be grafted onto a three belt pulley for the purposes of driving the vibrating mechanism of a roller.

Sorry Rupert. I misunderstood there

There are a few complete K40 gearboxes on the Face Book Rollaclub going cheap.

That's an interesting thought. I've been thinking in terms of just a shaft and fabricating from there but a complete gearbox gives the mount for the thrust bearing and properly aligned bearings to support the drive. I'll have to find someone with a Facebook account and investigate.

You don't need a FB account the Rollaclub FB page has a public section that you can view through Google

Thanks Big G. I wasn't able to find the public section but I did get someone to investigate for me. As you said, complete gearboxes available but I realised there's a small problem as the K40 has an integral bell housing. I've snuck various heavy objects home before by dismantling and packing up as luggage. I fly a fair bit so have generous luggage allowances but a gearbox case, with bell housing attached would be stretching the friendship a bit! Add on freight costs and suddenly they aren't cheap anymore.

I've been looking about Tasmania but no luck so far. Wreckers aren't what they used to be!