The shaft between the RX-8 engine and the reduction drive unit has a gear secured to the shaft with a steel pin.  (The gear drives the planetary gear set). The steel pin sheared off allowing the gear to rotate on the  shaft.   I understand this has happened to others in the past.   I’ve heard that several fixes were proposed or tried – welding the pin to the gear, doing more deforming of  the pin at the gear surface or installing a tighter or larger pin.   I have another new shaft/gear assembly I plan to install  after I incorporate  improvements. 

When the pin sheared the gear only rotated about 3/32 inch on the shaft. The two pieces of the pin outside the shaft were thrown out of the gear and apparently were chewed into very small particles by the  planetary gear assembly. 

Any info. You may have will be highly appreciated!

I have about 920 hours on my RX-8 engine in my RV-7A

Dennis Haverlah

512-921-0636

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