Would you like to help a bunch of teenagers go fast?

The only way I can see using the motor you have without serious mods to it is by doing a rear rack mount with a friction drive to the sidewall of your tire or rim. I don't know if it would work or not, but I wouldn't recommend it against the rim especially unless you have a roller pushing on the opposite side with spring tension or you could deform the rim very quickly.

I got on Youtube today and realized that its relatively simple to convert a vertical drive Briggs to Horizontal drive. I recommend looking it up, and watching ChargerMiles007 video about the oiling modifications and carb adjustments. After that, I'm considering doing one myself. After all the discouraging comments on this thread, I can see why Nathan113 hasn't posted again. I'll bet he's almost done with his mods by now. This actually could change alot of builds seen on this site.

I wouldnt say discouraging , I would say sound advice from experienced builders, its hard to tell a persons mental state on a forum , I for 1 at a young age would have attempted something like that an either failed an never tried again , or been discouraged by the many mechanical problems an given up , or succeded an built a machine I was not ready to handle or one that was not very safe , remember we were all young once .

thegnu said:

I wouldnt say discouraging , I would say sound advice from experienced builders, its hard to tell a persons mental state on a forum , I for 1 at a young age would have attempted something like that an either failed an never tried again , or been discouraged by the many mechanical problems an given up , or succeded an built a machine I was not ready to handle or one that was not very safe , remember we were all young once .

Click to expand...

Well said. For myself my intent was not to discourage the building of a motorbike, but to keep the first attempt simple with almost sure success to learn from and go on from there. And no, I didn't want to see anyone getting hurt.
When you are inexperienced and ask people who do have experience for advice, it is good to at least listen with an open mind, weigh what is being said and make an informed plan of action. I have no idea if the person who posted first is even reading this thread anymore. I didn't hear any put downs, just people taking the time to give an honest opinion. I hope they build a bike and have a whole lot of fun.
SB

Amen... Sb

Please be patient with me for a moment. I picked up on a few things that Nathan113 mentioned in his posts. 1) he's in a boy scout group, and they must be making group decisions 2) He stated: We're not really just trying to go fast, it was just a title. 3) Everyone is Dead Set on using what I have. (thats their vertical shaft Briggs ) 4) I would like to learn alot and try new things 5) Its not about taking the Easy Way Out, but to have the experience 6) If we wanted to do it the easy way, I would'nt have joined the forum in the first place. Thats what I got from Nathan113's comments. I have to agree that most of the comments that were given to him were sound advise from our point of view, but they didn't help him very much in fulfilling the boy scouts goals of using what they have and even if it turns out not very good, they still get the experience of trying something different. You Tube has videos of conversions of vertical shaft engines to horizontal that are pretty good and it seems easy to do. Nathan113 still has to figure out how to mount it on a bike, how to do the clutch, what to do for brakes, exhaust, carb, and probably more. I'm sure any ideas we have to help him and his fellow scouts would be appreciated. That's if he still checks back to this forum. I'd like to think with all this knowledge and experience on this forum that we could give them a few good suggestions to help make a safer ride for them.

From MT let’s hear the Under Dog!


How to convert a Vertical shaft engine to run horizontally - YouTube

One of my searches brought up this on Youtube. I am halfway through watching and would think just one thing so far I am a little apprehensive about the bending of sheet metal on gas tank to allow it to fit. There was mention of not to cause a leak in the gas tank, but the tool used to make the bend was not what I was expecting. The vertical shaft oil slinger got slung across the shop though and I thought that was funny. It was no longer needed though so I can go for that!

I know that there are many more video's, but so far I would just space the gas tank out along with the integral carb so as not to have to bend the gas tank itself.

If anyone has a link that they have seen that does as I would do or somehow does not come across this bending of the gas tank to accomplish the conversion let me know. I am continuing on seeing how the oil lubrication is changed and also the oil breather which I know is a place for leakage of oil if not on an axis of how it was originally built without a mod. **(correction)** It seems as I am looking at it so far that the oil breather from a version switch from horizontal to vertical would be a problem to fix, but not from the way going from vertical to horizontal. The breather would be up high above the oil bath so one less thing to mod I think. **(correction on the correction)** Actually I just noticed the large hole in the crank case that would be above the oil bath on the vertical shaft orientation, but at the bottom when switched to horizontal. Seems that maybe a tube could make like a snorkel inside the crank case and the use the same hole to exit the crankcase. Then it would possible go up high enough above the oil bath outside the crankcase. It usually goes into the area on the carb to do a twofold job, vent (breathe) and also not to pollute by burning the vapors along with fuel air mixture. Sorry for the flip flop.

Measure Twice

I seem to recall a forum member installing this vertical engine on his DIY rear friction drive. He mounted it vertically and used a Craftsman-type long socket to rub against the rear tire's sidewall. The bike got up to 30-something mph speed. However, I'm unsure if it ate rear tires quickly.

From: Measure Twice

Say Nathan113:

Here this guy has done a very professional conversion vertical to horizontal shaft engine conversion and goes on the cheap for parts.

It is only that I see he has a nice lathe and I suppose the scouts have a lot of tools just not parts costing a lot! This guy says he spent 3 British Pounds, so that was less than just one gasket costing twice that he has a friend cutting from material I guess to avoid running up costs.

Confused1985 has even used a lathe to cut down the shaft to fit the clutch he wants to use on it since it was originally larger than 3/4 inch.

His videos

**(I also saw a friend of his in a video he posts doing the dryer)**

I suggest no one try this at home, electric or gas. Go to a Laundromat, but have EMT standing by



confused1985's Channel - YouTube

1 & 2 of his conversion have to do with valves and seats which if the engine is already running I would suppose you can negate that. This guy was just being very thorough and restoring in my opinion.

3.5HP Briggs - Vertical to Horizontal Pt. 3

3.5HP Briggs - Vertical to Horizontal Pt. 3 - YouTube

3.5HP Briggs - Vertical to Horizontal Pt. 4

3.5HP Briggs - Vertical to Horizontal Pt. 4 - YouTube

3.5HP Briggs - Vertical to Horizontal Pt. 5

3.5HP Briggs - Vertical to Horizontal Pt. 5 - YouTube

3.5HP Briggs - Vertical to Horizontal Pt. 6

3.5HP Briggs - Vertical to Horizontal Pt. 6 - YouTube

3.5HP Briggs - Vertical to Horizontal Pt. 7

3.5HP Briggs - Vertical to Horizontal Pt. 7 - YouTube


Measure Twice

PS

this I saw, oh well I'm sure it was done right, what parts did he loose, could make them I suspect

Where is the video of the run.
NOLIMIT69NOLIMIT2000 1 month ago


@NOLIMIT69NOLIMIT2000
Hey, I lost some of the parts when I was moving house. I'm looking for new parts and I will get it running one day!
confused1985 1 month ago

With the enough space...cheap sulotion for the 90* drivetrain would perhaps use a small outboard propell shafts,bearings, and 90 degrees sprockets, cut the shaft (propeller/driveshaft) out of the housing, and mount the bearings in some housing as a 90* degreee jackshaft? I think the size as a 2-3,5 hp propeller shaft should be quite right in lenght too.....

Your imagination does the stop.......or progress!

I like the video where the guy turns the motor on it's side, that seems pretty do-able. I never really thought about opening up the case and changing the mechanism that distributes the oil. What he did isn't very tough, a lot easier than engineering something to convert the shaft. Not sure if the longevity of the motor will be effected by the oil flow in this new configuration, but that probably wont matter much for this boy scout project. I would probably remove the gas tank from the motor instead of pounding a dent in the existing one, but it seemed like that Briggs & Stratton lawn mower motor was running pretty good sitting on it's side in that video....

That’s a definite! Also notice no muffler; the guy now may be deaf

But really it does seem to work.

The other one I have all the links shown, except for the fact the guy moved his residence and the finishing up on the last details of the project got postponed due to misplacing some of the parts. I really like the quality of the workmanship though.

There are other engines he is working on there so I guess this Briggs conversion is now on a back burner. I was not sure a Triumph would have a recoil start on the engine, but I'll look into it.

One more thing about the engine that he was doing the conversion it had a worm gear that connected to the cam shaft and then went through the crank case cover next to the crankshaft at 90 degrees opposed. It was for the self propelled lawnmower. Heavily geared down it may have not been really good for a supercharger but it was mentioned there. I think it turned on its side if the guy gets it back and running, the extra output shaft could be used for a propeller to be amphibious. If you get a snorkel or a valve mechanism to air tanks you could go deep sea rovering in person. Strap on your own air tanks and regs and go down the ramp to davy jones

I actually had seen a two stroke underwater scooter that was used and for sale from a scuba shop. I was going to buy it. I decided not. It used a snorkel for the surface and as an option could use air from the tank and reg intermediate pressure valved into the intake. Was made on Long Island, New York in a town call Glen Cove. I may see if there are any of those things still out there, but electric is more simple.

Measure Twice

PS I used to read a lot of the Tom Swift books.