On Sep 22, 10:30 pm, "Michael Koblic" wrote:
How do you drive a vertical shaft with a horizontal motor mount?

...I cannot see a V-belt doing it. ...
Michael Koblic,

You cannot see a V-belt doing it because they prefer to do it in dark
places like under riding mowers.

On my Sears garden tractor the 18HP engine is mounted like in a small
airplane, two opposed cylinders (even-numbered radial?) with the
crankshaft extending out the front and rear. A pulley on the rear
shaft drives the wheels, one on the front turns the mower blade, or
currently the hydraulic pump.

Both front and rear vee belts drop down to vee idler pulleys that
redirect the belts to the rear. The belts twist a quarter turn between
the drive and idler pulleys.

The mower belt then turns the vertical shaft of the primary quill in
the mower housing, i.e. spins the blade. The drive belt makes another
quarter twist to the pulley on the rear wheel transmission, which is
on a shaft parallel to the rear axle. These are B size belts nominally
handling up to 18HP although in practice the rear tires will slip with
the engine at idle, and that is with tire chains, 120 Lbs of extra
steel in the back plus me on the seat and a trailer with all the
weight in the front to load the tongue.

There are lots of useful components on scrapped riding mowers
including right-angled reduction drives and differentials. They show
you how little you can get away with when designing shafts and
bearings that are easy to fabricate and don't have to last as long as
industrial ones. Often the control shafts simply run in stamped holes
in the sheet metal frame. Examining them and cheap floor jacks showed
me that unhardened roller bearings made from pipe and welding rod are
practical.

Jim Wilkins