What is this shifter/crank setup?

[Freqman1]

That "shifter" is essentially the same type of design as the old lawnmower "throttle controls" as seen on typical gasoline powered Briggs & Stratton and Techumseh, etc., small engined push lawnmowers that nearly every homeowner had between about 1948 and perhaps as late as the early seventies. I seem to recall that by the late sixties, that the throttle cables began to ditch that coiled armour sheath for a sheath that is much like what we see today on bicycle brake cables. Other than that, "throttle controls" were on small engine powered push lawnmowers into the 1980's, when some states' air pollution laws required the engine manufacturer to fit smaller jets and orifices on the unit's carburetor and to not allow(block off) throttle adjustment and obviously not supply the throttle control, as by keeping just One factory setting for throttle, it could insure that the fuel mixture remained LEAN enough to pollute much less without having to add pollution control devices. This solved that, but robbed the engines of significant power output, and made these aircooled small engines run significantly hotter and thus made the lifespan of such small gas engine only about 20% of what it had been before. This is why a lawnmower today with a 6hp Briggs & Stratton engine probably does not cut grass any better than a much smaller 3hp Briggs & Stratton engine did in 1978. The reason that you have 6hp B&S engines on small push lawnmowers for the past 30+ years is because you needed to make up for the significant engine power loss with the ONE factory setting. Don't get me wrong, clean-air and less pollution is a great thing. I was simply trying to describe why those typical lawnmower throttle controls went away. The mandated, cable accentuated, grabber bar , when released for engine kill/blade stop, was a smart federal requirement that probably saved a large number of inattentive, distracted, drunk, or daydreaming folks from accidently losing parts of their feet or perhaps tips of fingers. All of the basic small engined push mowers of the seventies and earlier that pre-date the required squeeze "grabber bar" engine kill-blade stop, do have the old lawnmower throttle controls.

Uhhh not even close.

 

[SirMike1983]

Interesting - it's a giant planetary gear system. There is an excellent picture in the thread earlier linked.

The idea of offloading work done normally by the rear hub over to the bottom bracket is a recurring thing. There was also the later Dana 3-speed bottom bracket, and then even later the Shimano freewheeling bottom bracket.

 

[WillWork4Parts]

Uhhh not even close.

Yeah, I was gonna say, I immediately went looking for vintage lawnmower throttle controls....and was let down. Google seems to show less and less vintage stuff every time I use the search term. Homobile is a very specific word and immediately gets dumbed down to "This guy wants Mobile phones, bring em to the front lines boys!!" I'm always looking for different shifter and gear parts though. Again, neat stuff! Thanks for posting the pics!

 

[Freqman1]

No problem. I’m uploading some of my Memory Lane pics and then will do the Ann Arbor to my albums. Never ceases to amaze me the stuff that shows up to these places. V/r Shawn