Hi MGB23,
I agree that most gear books will tell you that a 1.4 or higher. But this is just a rule of thumb. In fact the higher the contact ratio the better if your designing for low noise. Like HCR gears of 2.0 or higher. I've seen many gear designs that are slightly less than 1.2 that have...
MGB23
As the others have said, you will be able to pull the gears further apart from each other. The limitation will be the reduction in your contact ratio and backlash. I would not go below 1.0 for a contact ratio.
You can check out my sight, as I have an online gear geometry calculator. This...
