Patent ID: 7665441

Claim:
An improved method of assembling a power plant, with the steps of providing an internal combustion engine including a cylinder block, a cylinder head, a crankshaft, and a camshaft, providing an engine accessory with a drive-wheel mounted upon a shaft of said accessory, providing a flexible link synchronous camshaft drive, and providing a flexible link engine accessory drive, the improvement comprising: assembling a drive module including the steps of: providing a drive module frame; mounting said accessory upon said drive module frame; releasably mounting a camshaft sprocket of said synchronous camshaft drive to said drive module frame; releasably mounting a crankshaft drive-wheel upon said drive module frame; and placing a flexible link power transmission member in mating relationship about said crankshaft drive-wheel; and attaching said drive module to said engine, including the steps of: attaching said module frame to said cylinder block; attaching said camshaft sprocket to said camshaft; dismounting said camshaft sprocket from said releasable mount of said drive module frame; attaching said crankshaft drive-wheel to said crankshaft; and dismounting said crankshaft drive-wheel from said releasable mount of said drive module frame.