[Shop-talk] coupling two shafts

[Randall]

Just a thought, John, how about mounting the gear drive down low and using
some old bicycle gears for a chain drive up to the spindle?

The force involved depends on how heavy your engine is and how far
off-center, but it can't be more than 200 ft-lb or so.  A bicycle chain
should handle that easily; but if you want something more beefy, how about a
discarded timing chain & sprockets.  You could probably even duplicate the
setup I suggested before, if you want the gear drive to be co-axial with the
spindle.

Randall