I was looking at the link on how stuff works to rotary engines, and saw the section on the driveshaft looking like the camshaft from an Otto cycle engine.

But where does it go? I always thought it was in the middle of the rotors, but that seems to be where the gear that causes the eilliptical movement is located.

Also -- do our rotors rotate in paralell -- i.e., are they always at the same place as each other in the compbustion cycle?

I thought of tearing my engine down to check, but then I got better. :p

 

you mean the ECCENTRIC SHAFT

DRIVESHAFT is the thing that sends power from the transmission to the rear differential and to the rear wheels :o

 

^what he said...and no they rotors aren't in the exacte same place ...they are always in teh same rotation in relation to eachother (i.e. spin at same rate)..but their at different parts of the combustion cycle. hope tha tmade sense and cleared things up for you.

the e-shaft is in the middle...but it has lobes that teh rotors rotate around...which might be what you are seeing and getting you confused.. :D

 

The e-shaft is what passes for a crankshaft in a rotary - it has round lobes on it that the rotors fit over and push on and cause the shaft to rotate like a crankshaft. That "gear" you're talking about (the teeth inside the rotor) match up with teeth on a stationary ring gear in the engine endplates (and mid plates) - that "locates" the rotor and causes it to walk around the gear like a spirograph, controlling the ellipsoid path of the rotor inside the housing.

The rotors are 180 degrees out of phase with each other - meaning that they are always in opposition - one is up, the other is down - if they weren't, the engine would shake like an SOB - imagine having both crank arms on your bicycle pedal crank facing the same way - rather than opposite ...

Go check out www.howstuffworks.com for more details - they have a great "how a rotary engine works" section