douglas 1916 and ciao from Italy

[zeno.p]

Hi, I bought the Douglas in the photos.
The engine number is 28478 and the frame number is 27940.
I wrote to Douglas Club in London and a very kindly Mr Malcom wrote me back that it should be manufactured in 1916.
Anyway, when I start to restore it I find that gear box it is in very bad condition:
The gear box is really damaged and the aluminium is really tarnished and there is no number outside (if there was now is cancelled by the corrosion). I have only found a "30" under a ball bearing. The gear box is 2 speed and have no hole for fix any kick-starter and no space on shaft for the clutch.
But surprise are not finished here: when I open the gear box I find that it is empty, I mean without any gear!
Now I try to find a new gear box in Italy, even out of work, but it is impossible, so I decide to rebuild as new.
Could someone help me in this project?
I need drawing, N° of teeth of the gear, measure, photos and so on, everything you can have for this kind of gearbox.
Thanks in advance.
Zeno

[Doug]

Zeno,

Douglas made quite a number of economical two-speed machines up to 1926 with no clutch or kick starter.  The kick start was an external affair working on a ratchet that was part of the nut affixing the input sprocket.  Your gear case does not have the lugs at the front and rear of the aluminum housing to mount this apparatuses outboard of the sprocket, so it never had a kick start.  If so it would unlikely have had the clutch either.  Clutch and kick start were fitted to a more delux version of the same machine.  

The gearbox number should be on the case half joint face, adjacent to the front mounting stud.  It may be obliterated by corrosion.  

I rebuilt a two speed clutchless box about two years ago and took a number of photos.  Two of which appear below.  I made a new main shaft, so have a drawing for that, and somewhere I made a note of the number and dimetral pitch of the teeth.  The tooth was not a special transmission stub form, so should be easy to replicate with modern involute gear cutters.  I had to re-bush the sleeve gear and build up the dog clutches, however I did not make drawings of the rest of the internals as these were in the nature of repairs and not making anew.  However I did model the shafts and gears (without teeth) in ProEngineer CAD software.  So the sizes could be reverse engineered.  Do you have access to any type of CAD solid modeler that I might be able to export a compatible file to?  Perhaps IGES or STEP formats?  

-Doug