New Project

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livesteamfan

Member
Oct 24, 2009
126
1
18
Palmetto, FL
Not really. Due to mine and her work schedules, me and my wife are not home at the same time during daylight hours so I can't take pictures with her phone. I will say that I made the swap from a belt to a chain on the secondary drive and it does seem to work, but I have not yet ridden it. I work a full week this week without a day off, so it may be awhile before I can ride it and get any pictures in.
 

livesteamfan

Member
Oct 24, 2009
126
1
18
Palmetto, FL
I ended up getting it moving and it was working quite well until the little gearbox broke. I opened it up and all the gear are plastic; at least what's left of them. So I went ahead and ordered a clutch and some bearings and I'll be going that way. I just need to wait for one sprocket and get a rod turned down so it fits in the bearings I bought. It makes perfect sense that a rod sold as a 5/8 diameter wouldn't fit in a 5/8 bearing I guess. 30 seconds on a lathe should fix that.
 

livesteamfan

Member
Oct 24, 2009
126
1
18
Palmetto, FL
Well, from the last set of pictures it hasn't changed other than going from a belt to a chain drive from the wheel to the lawnmower gearbox and I moved the tensioner to the belt that runs the transmission. Like I said, it worked quite well until the plastic gears in it gave out. Being without a camera and having to have both me and my wife home during daylight hours so I can use her phone to take pictures is really hard to do. My cell phone is just a phone and nothing more. I barely like having the stupid thing, I'm still using a rotary phone at home. But, I'll try to get some pictures as I change over to using a clutch and jackshaft.
 

livesteamfan

Member
Oct 24, 2009
126
1
18
Palmetto, FL
Okay, whole new setup since the plastic gears in that little transmission stripped out. I've gone with a Max Torque or whatever clutch along with a jackshaft. It's a 10 to a 32 and then a 10 to a 44. Full throttle feels about 15-20mph and it is extremely torquey. The 32 tooth sprocket is completely JB Welded to the shaft because I had to drill and tap it to put a set screw in it and I didn't have a tap long enough to do that, but it is holding extremely well. I'm going to do the same to the 10 tooth because the set screws keep coming loose. And I know the whole thing looks like it's twisted to one side, but that's just the pictures. But, it is working both under power of the engine and the pedals, now I might give it a paint job and maybe even new tires.
 

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livesteamfan

Member
Oct 24, 2009
126
1
18
Palmetto, FL
Okay, I have everything braced up to where it doesn't flex and I cut up some square tube to support the bearings. I half-rigged a throttle from an old choke cable and it's very nice and fun to ride, but I need to get a cable run up to the handle bars. Now, my main problem right now is with the clutch. The clutch will randomly engage for no reason at all. I have the engine idling as low as I can without stalling, and for no reason the clutch will grab and it will try to run me over and take off. Even with the engine off and pedaling it, the clutch will grab for a second or two at random trying to turn the engine over and making it very difficult to pedal. Does anyone know of why this would happen and if there's anyway to remedy this? I'm going to a swap meet on Thursday and would love to take it with me, but also not run anyone over because I'd like to be able to stop and leave it running.
 

livesteamfan

Member
Oct 24, 2009
126
1
18
Palmetto, FL
Try stronger springs in the clutch
That crossed my mind, but with a friend pedaling next to me and me pedaling this with the engine off, he said that every time it got hard to pedal and made some weird sounds and stuff, the engine would turn over. So, something in the clutch is grabbing for no good reason and I'm able to drive the engine whenever it feels like it. When it is running, I have the engine idling to the point it wants to stall out and it will just grab move and stall. One time when it did this, I was trying to take off and it grabbed and it also tried to engage at the same time; I was hearing that distinctive sound of the shoes lightly touching the bell, but it was fully locked for a few seconds. I'm going to take it apart tomorrow to see what I can see. I probably got what I paid for being it was a $20 clutch on eBay.
 

livesteamfan

Member
Oct 24, 2009
126
1
18
Palmetto, FL
Okay, I took the clutch apart and lubricated the bushing and I left off the c-clip that holds the bell on and I didn't tighten down the crank bolt as much and now it works perfectly. I found a twist shifter that I'm using as a throttle and that works quite well. I took the thing through a field and it does very well going slow off road. It's geared a little high for my taste, but it's capable of slow speed. I don't know which of what I did fixed my clutch problem, but it's fixed. I'm going out to the Florida Flywheelers swap meet on Thursday and I'm gonna try to get some pictures of the finished bike before then.