Has anyone put a belt secondary on an old shovel with ratchet shifter or is it possible to change the 4 speed to a rotary top?

 

The hard part about putting a final belt drive on a shovel is not the transmission but rather the frame. The original 4 speed frames that had final belt drives had a different frame to clear the belt. If may be possible to use one of the later narrower belt but finding it in the right length may prove difficult. If you could find one that worked, you would be looking at using a late model 4 speed cow patty transmission. If you are going to go to all that trouble, I would look at a 5 speed conversion tranmission and not the 4 speed. I used a sputhe 5 in a 4 case conversion and it works great. Stay away from the Revtech tranny.

IMO, it is not worth the expence for the belt rear but the 5 speed is one of the best upgrades I did.

 

What happened to the Rev-Wreck tranny ??

 

I did it on my 1974 ratchet top. I took a 31 tooth softail pulley and machined the centre out of it, then machined the teeth off an old sprocket and bolted the two together with allen bolts, leaving a big enough radius inside the bolt pattern to fit the box spanner. I needed to do a bit of clearancing of the tranny casing ( not much). I use this set up in a home made softail frame, offset for a 200 tyre on a home made wheel. The main reson I did it is because most people said it couldn't be done. It works fine!

I've tried to post some pics, but can't figure it ou yet. (BIKER, NOT BOFFIN!!!!!!!!)

[IMG]local://upfiles/10196/66661BD4004B4E9298AAA672D58F549E.jpg[/IMG]

 

Hmm, did it. Here's s'more

 

WHOOPS, Lost it again!!!!!

[IMG]local://upfiles/10196/0CBA7314F04A41FEA8F9C8E8E545233D.jpg[/IMG]

 

RIGHT THEN!

[IMG]local://upfiles/10196/2733C5ED086346FFBB205E21953EF713.jpg[/IMG]