converting beach cruiser to trike help needed...

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Pelican Pete

Member
Jan 4, 2012
35
1
8
Ocean Beach, California
Yes, one freewheel on the end of each axel. I know that 2 RH would work. Roger has it that way in his drawing and I have no doubt that it will work. In my particular case, I need to have the flanges face to face, with the drive gear and spacer plates sandwiched between, and the set screws on the outside, otherwise the assembly will not fit. It will also have the advantage that the bolts will be shorter.

I'm thinking I need a RH and a LH as shown on my sketch.

I agree that the solid axel may work fairly well. I am looking forward to trying both ways to see the difference. I will start with another drive flange with prongs to lock both wheels, then I will try the double freewheels. This bike is going to be for family and friends, so I want to be sure that it handles easily.
 

Pelican Pete

Member
Jan 4, 2012
35
1
8
Ocean Beach, California
I called Staton-Inc to talk about various options for the double freewheel differential. I mentioned that I need the setscrews on the outside of the assembly, and he said that I could use a Right Hand Reverse adapter. Wow! I never would have known about it if he had not told me. It is listed on his website as a 5/8" REV Right Hand adapter. REV means reverse with the set screws on the opposite side. I'll be darn!

My axel is 15mm, and he is too busy to make a 15mm REV adapter, so I ordered the 5/8" REV. I have some fancy tools to modify it. I can make a sleeve out of pipe using the hacksaw, then pound it into the adapter using a hammer, and braze it in place. From there I will take it to a machinist to drill and broach a keyway.

So it turns out that 2 RH flanges is the best way to go, because if I need to use heavy duty freewheels with more pawls, the the RH ones are easy to find, where it may be hard to find a LH heavy duty freewheel.

Happy Easter.
 

Pelican Pete

Member
Jan 4, 2012
35
1
8
Ocean Beach, California
On another phone call to Staton about the differential, he mentioned that one spacer ring would be much stronger than two. When I got a sprocket and freewheel in my hand, the reason was immediately obvious: the bolts will not take much load, where most of the load should be taken by the shoulder of the freewheel flange. As a result, I revised my design to use one spacer ring, and put the sprocket on the outside shoulder of the freewheel flange.

Since this differential is part of my trike build, I will show the revised sketch there. Thanks for your interest and patience. :-||
(frustration and drawing revisions are a normal part of the design development process).