Hey Paul,

No, this time we are keying the ring gear to the gearcase to prevent rotation. Also, the ring gear will be held in place with a compressed o-ring, so that it stays with the gearcase when the Drive is disassembled.

However, there is still a spring in the system that preloads all of the components. This spring will hold everything together during operation, but when the rear hub is removed, this spring will release all of the components, and then everything should come apart easily for servicing and replacing parts.

We are also going to use roller bearings for the planet gears instead of ball bearings, and these roller bearings are oversize, so they should last the life of the Drive and never need replacing. Same for the bearings.

Brenner ...