Jim.
In short.
Thank you.Iīm ever so happy to be of assistance,and just hope that what i write is of help to you guys.


Reiner.
Itīs as easy as seeking a supplier of industrial gears and chains up.
These WILL have 3/8" split 36 cog gears on tap.I guarantee.(A very common type)
However,they can also be had in a variety of "grades",and to stick with the merc idea- donīt pick a grade thatīs to tough.

Having the pts at the lathe it soon becomes evident what needs to be done.
You simply put the OEM stub into the lathe and cut the gear part of it off after having been extremely anal about clocking the axle between the spindle and the pinol.
Then cut a recess in the OEM stub for the new gear to rest on,and cut the new gear accordingly to fit over said recess.
Idea is to put the cut so the OEM cam bolt holes will pull the halves together,and if need be take the TIG to it.

So whatīs the reward?
That the industry gears are about 10 bux a pop.
Thats what.
Axles and bearing surfaces seldom wear by any appreciable amount.

Btw.
This works like a charm for the chain as well.
When you study the chain a little-as we did-it soon becomes evident that the OEM choice of chain is the weakest/softest POS they could dig up.
Reason for this was obviously that a soft chain will run more silent than a hardened one in operation.
What weīve also found out is that the OEM ones will stretch beyond belief when the engine starts to get rev happy(Mine for instance put out approx 3 times the power of the stocker by now),and after som minor detective work it turned out that merc did NOT use the OEM ones in racing.
The "DTM" specials tho..as usual..are an arm and a leg,and what people to know chains better than the ones that spend all day applying chains for the industry.
Just so happens that iīm an engineer,and one of my friends happen to work for a larger mech shop that specializes in...you guessed it.
After talking it over for a number of hours with one of their application engineers we settled for the most brute hardened chain the japanese company Tsubaki delivers in 3/8" split.(Tsubaki is a quality supplier of chains)
Beuty is that this balls to the walls chain is approx 30 bux....vs the claimed "DTM" specials..thatīll set you back along the lines of 600..