I've got this old Honda - maybe about 15 years old - that I use in winter. I got it free from a co-worker, It was bent up pretty bad, but I figured that I could pull out the torch, heat up the bent parts & get it pounded back together well enough to use for a few winters. That part went OK. Some heat, a hammer, some paint & its more or less OK.

Now I'm putzing around with the old Honda & I figure that for winter use, a lower first gear would be nice. It just doesn't have enough torque for how I want to use it - in deep snow. Its only got 3 speeds, and that make finding a useable ratio pretty much a crapshoot. I figured that changing final drive ratios would be expensive - remember I got it for free - so I thought maybe I'd be out of luck. What the heck I thought - I'll look at the driveline & see if I can figure anything out. Took a few things apart & low and behold what do I have but a CV transmission. Continuously variable. I got all the gears I want and I can make them any ratio I want. The only thing that decides the ratio for a gear is the position of the shift lever & the shift gates. So I mess around a while adjusting the shift linkage and checking out the result, but I can't quite get the torque I want out of first gear without messing up the high speed 3rd gear ratio. Adjusting the linkage ain't going to help.

Think boy, think. Ahh.. The shift gate! Just have to mod the shift gate. Get the old torch out, line it up real carefully, heat up the gate, wait, then hit the oxy trigger & blast out another notch in the gate. Now I got FOUR notches the the shift lever - and because it is a CV tranny - I now have 4 speeds!

I figure I got the only 5hp 1988 Honda FOUR SPEED SNOW BLOWER in town.