Nope there not on the same plane, but putting them on the same plane is what i've been thinking of doing.
As far as i understand the hypoids in the diffs gives you a lower floorpan, but it also allows the pinion gear to be alot longer..(if the teeth are say 20mm wide on the crown wheel by offsetting it you may be able to have say a 40mm long pinion instead of 20mm if it was kept on the same plane)
I can see how this would be better in a diff situation because the small pinion is driving the large crown wheel, with the inefficiency's not being to noticeable because of the gear ratio, and the extra tooth contact needed due to the increase in torque.. but driving the other way is what i don't understand.. with the large crown wheel driving the small pinion, it seems like it would be half trying to drive the pinion length ways out of the case, similar to trying to turn the wheel on a worm wheel drive..
Problem is that the transfers blow all the time and spare parts are becoming harder to find, and to get hypoids made up are extreamly expensive.. especially when these new gears are not going to be any stronger and will continue to break.
So i don't want strait cut bevel gears just helical bevels so they should be quiet still, but i really need advice from anyone who knows how to work out if there is to much torque to just use bevels, or the fact that its being geared up at this point not geared down would make it ok?
I'm not to keen to make and change all this only to find out it is to weak, so any help would be appreciated..
Thanks Jason