Transaxle limits.

[PapaThornton]

For a project I am building a rear engine front wheel drive aluminium space frame car/kart. The motor I have is a 2019 Husqvarna 450cc rated at 63 horses. I am looking for a stick semi automatic w reverse. A lawnmower transaxle fits the bill but will it handle the power. I don't have any experience with these. How much power /torque can these hold up to?

 

[Kartorbust]

Most of the garden variety (pardon the pun) transaxles from lawn and garden equipment will not hold up to that kind of power. Youd be better off finding a Polaris Trailboss gearbox and mating it to your project.

 

[dman]

If u try it the manual transaxle, you need to know that, being ment for low speeds, they use grease instead of oil, at high speed it will over heat. Try cleaning out the grease and adding trans or diff oil but you may need to seal the case. Some people have tried on YouTube.

 

[anickode]

Most of the garden variety (pardon the pun) transaxles from lawn and garden equipment will not hold up to that kind of power. Youd be better off finding a Polaris Trailboss gearbox and mating it to your project.

This. They simply aren't meant for that kind of power or RPM, no matter what you do to them. In fact, most of the lawnmower transaxles in the last 20 years aren't even built to handle the full power of the STOCK ENGINE. The engine is mainly there to run the power-sucking attachment, be it a mower or snowblower or whatever, and the driveline is simply there to push it along.

On top of the strength limitations, they have NO provisions for shifting on the fly other than brute force. They are really meant to select a gear at a stop, and then stay with it. Banging through the gears will usually dynamite them pretty quickly.

 

[65ShelbyClone]

Rekluse probably makes an auto clutch for that engine. Then all you would need is a reverser.

 

[Kartorbust]

A Rekluse auto clutch is over $1000. https://rekluse.com/product/radiuscx-clutch-dds/

 

[65ShelbyClone]

That's a lot less than the engine costs.