Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Morgan Three Wheeler & Super 3 Change Belt to Chain Drive?

A very general question:
What is the technical reason to use a belt instead of a chain to drive the M3W's rear wheel?
Drive chain systems seem to be so much more forgiving than the sensible belt drives.
On motorbikes chains are standard. Only few producers - like HD - use a belt and those are not technology leaders at all. (BMW, Guzzi or Honda cardan drives would make even more sense but a £30k to £40k toy has to have low cost components, as we all know)

You are opening a door on to a chamber filled with irreconcilable opinions.

In the motorcycle world there are three main camps, belt believers, chain believers and a silent, apathetic majority, plus a small group of radicals who believe both sides are wrong and shaft drive is the way to go.

Much opinion is supported by adherence to outdated and illogical beliefs held dear by proponents and opponents on both sides. Much “evidence” is used by both sides, most of it unsupported by fact or rational analysis.

I’m not going to get into this debate, other than to comment that my car has a shaft drive!

Strange posting Peter? As someone who has owned many Chain, 5 Belt and 3 Shaft drives I must be weird as I don't fit your model. I saw the advantages and disadvantages in each one, loved them for what they were kicked them for what they were not and basically to try and categorise them is like listing ones children in order of preference.....in fact that latter point is quite easy for me, ever tried having a 6 feet 5inch professional second row rugby player full of testosterone in your house?.....mind you his sister had her moments

The belt is actually a very strong component. A more robust rear sprocket is needed and that is in the pipeline, I gather.

A more important improvement would be a single swinging arm.

Colin, my experience is based on being part of a Triumph Bonneville forum for a number of years.

As a moderator the subject of belt drive vs chin drive and the arguments caused more posts to be deleted and more people to be blocked, than ANY other topic. It has to be said mostly from the USA, but not exclusively.

Since then I have refused to express an opinion on the subject. All I will say is they all need to be properly engineered to give of their best!

Greater improvement would be a single-sided swingarm and monoshock

perfect and simple

I had a Vincent Shadow with a Steib single seater sports sidecar for 30 years and this was obviously chain drive, (Reynolds 5/8" x 3/8" Roller chain).
Despite the engine only putting out approx. 55 bhp, if you were lucky, with spirited driving the chain would end up looking like a piece of knotted string after about 4000 miles.
This was despite regularly cleaning it and soaking it in "Linklife" (moly loaded grease specifically for chains) on the gas cooker when the wife was out.
The teeth on the rear sprocket also become badly hooked after quite a short time.
I think for a chain final drive to be more reliable than the existing belt set up it would have to be a duplex chain fully enclosed in a chain case to keep the lubricant in and the dirt out.
I think we are all now stuck with the belt set up that we have and the way to improve it would be either:-
a) A steel rear pulley which we are told the factory are currently looking into. It cannot come quick enough IMHO.
or
b) the polyurethane toothed pulleys from the states as featured on another thread.

Chain........98% efficient but needs oil unless you use o or x ring, then this needs some oil occasionally for the rollers and to keep the o or x ring seals from drying out and then only appx 94% efficient

Belt....expensive not as efficient in its transmission of power but clean and quiet.

shaft...no where near as efficient as the others especially if there are straight cut spur or bevel gears, needs hypoid oil ..expensive... but quiet and very low maintenance. does get hot hence the lack of efficiency.

if you use chain you will probably need a 3/4" chain for x or o ring chain no 630...steel sprockets all quite heavy as a package, this will in turn generate noise unless tensioned correctly preferably with am automatic tensioner, but it will give you some extra power at the rear wheel, use the same ratio as the htd pulleys as on the vehicle now.

I would leave it as it is, and I for my sins am the uk engineering director of the 3rd largest chain manufacturer in the world

So's my M3W - from the gearbox to the bevel box