6 replies to this topic

[giffo]

Question for those in the know.

What is a Cooper Knight gearbox?
I've done a bit of a search & really have not found any useful information or images
My reason for asking is originally my little O/Wheeler originally ran a Cooper Knight 6-speed F3 gearbox & I would like to know what one looked like & how well they went.
It now has a Hollinger/VW which works well, so I'm not looking for a replacement, but that said you never know!

http://home.iprimus....67-GWG-Ford.htm

Cheers

Giffo

[TEJ]

Jack Knight Engineering supplied gearboxes to Cooper in the early years. The company still exists and can be found at www.jackknight.co.uk I'm sure they can help you.

[Allan Lupton]

IIRC Jack Knight started by using Citroen gearboxes of the type found at the front of what was called the light 15 in England. They lived in front of the wheel centreline with the input shaft passing over the diff. and for the Coopers JK turned them upside down to lower the input shaft line and get the rotation right.

[Ray Bell]

I recall reading somewhere that the Citroen castings were made especially for Knight (by Citroen?)... with some beefing up in critical areas...

But later gearboxes were surely more Knight than Citroen, including special base housings?

[john medley]

Talking to Michael Shearer(who has such a 'box in his Formula Junior Cooper) at Phillip Island about C-K boxes, it sounded to me as though you might want to own one but you wouldnt want to use and drive one

[giffo]

I have emailed www.jackknight.co.uk as suggested above. Hopfully I'll get some feed back of which I'll post the useful bits when I receive it.

[T54]

There were several types of Cooper-Kight gearboxes. The first type indeed used Citroen parts from the "Traction-Avant", type "11" (4-cylinder engine) or "15" (6-cylinder engine) in France, and "Light 15" in the UK. The casing and modifs for F1 and F2 use were done by a company by the name of ERSA. These were used during the 1958 and 1959 title chase. They were quite fragile due to the weakness of the outer cases that were twisting on their centerline, and eventually John and Jack had some new magnesium castings designed by Owen Maddock, a 5-speed cluster arrangement by Jack Knight and this was used in the "Low-Line" 1960 T53 as well as on the Monacos, and was called "C5S". This went through 1961 into the 1.5-liter formula.
In 1962, a new 6-speed box was devised and was called "C6S". Many parts are interchangeable between the two.
They do shift a bit funny but are highly reliable and as long as you take your time shifting they ae just fine.

The modern Jack Knight people have not a clue about the old gearboxes (most have no idea what they even look like...), but Crosthwaite an Gardiner can make you any parts you want for one, as they did for me.
If anyone here with a Coop is interested in gear sets in great condition for a C5S or C6S, I have a box full of them, please PM me.