A header drive mechanism for a combine harvester

A combine harvester (10) comprising

• a feeder (8) at the front of the harvester, the feeder comprising a housing (11), an input section (12) and an output section (13),
• a cradle frame (20) that is movably attached at the front of the feeder (8), wherein the cradle frame is configured to receive a header (1) comprising a header drive axle oriented transversely to the forward direction of the harvester (10) when the header (1) is coupled to the feeder (8),
• a driveline, at least a portion of which is running alongside the feeder housing (11), a transverse gearbox (26) for transferring a rotation of the driveline to a rotation of the header drive axle, the gearbox comprising a gear mechanism mounted in a gearbox housing (28), a input axle (29) coupled to the driveline and an output axle (30) configured to be coupled to the header drive axle,
• when at least a portion of the housing (28) of the transverse gearbox (26) is rotatably mounted on the cradle frame (20), the housing or housing portion being rotatable about an axis that is oriented transversely relative to the driveline,
• a mechanical link (45) is coupled between the feeder housing (11) and the rotatable gearbox housing (28) or housing portion, wherein the mechanical link (45) is configured to control the orientation of the input axle (29) of the gearbox, regardless of the position of the cradle frame (20) relative to the feeder (8).