HF engine tips and tricks

[Buzzard]

curtisfox Thanks for the tip. Getting a passthrough frame shouldn't be a problem. As far as cutting and welding I can handle that. Installed one of the old carburators that I cleaned up it fired the motor right up. Adjusted the main jet and idle screw and ran it for a little while till it got hot blipped it a few times and there was no hesitation it came back to idle and ran smooth. I don't have a load on the engine and that's as far as I got today. I'll keep tinkering with it. Let ya know how it goes.
SB take it easy up there. Don't get too many irons in the fire all at once.
buzzard

 

[Buzzard]

SB yes it was a firebelly transmission.

 

[eldo]

Buzzard keep us informed about carbs. I had problem with mine float sticking took it apart made it level now it works fine. I have 2 HS motors there a different bread they work out the box the HF motor needs a little more they really need to break in thats what mine did anyway the more I run it the stronger it gets. HF rules. Larry

 

[Buzzard]

eldo Yes the engine will get stronger once it breaks in all the internal parts bed down. What amazes me is the carburator on the small engines work as good as they do. They are pretty primitive and they are not made for a variable speed engine. The industrial engines most all of them run at 36/100 full bore govern. The governor walks the throttle plate in the carb back and forth gently as the load increases or decreases. You remove the governor and slam the throttle wide open it does not have the circuitry to accommodate this. It also doesn't have a pressurized fuel system like an auto with a fuel pump gravity feed and the float and needle just bounces around when you're riding down the street and you can get an over rich mixture real quick. You only have one main jet and this has to accommodate all the different speed ranges. On variable speed carbs you have a bunch of circuits that do different things when the engine demands such as more power and idle. The circuits are such as accelerator pumps power valves economizer valves and power jets. The old carbs I found are about the same with one thing I really like is the adjustable main jet this can be set either lean or rich. You can reach a happy medium and the engine will run quite well. I'm no expert just a lot of hands on experience working on carbs. I wish they could come up with a diaphragm type carb such as run on engines like the small Hondas and Subarus the one with2 gas lines one into the carb and a return back to the tank these are truly a variable speed carb just like the ones on your weed whacker you can pull the trigger wide open and drop it back to idle with no stalling or hesitation.

 

[Dan]

Dan

Glad To Hear Of The Fix. Have Fun. All I Can Say- Your Head Is Big Enough!!! 5 Snorks!! All In Fun Ron

Go batter yer fish ya crazy old codger!

(LOL, is sort of an inside joke. I did or said some thing dumb and Ron wrote me and said the only way I could be any dimmer was if my head was bigger. Was hysterical in context)

 

[curtisfox]

curtisfox Thanks for the tip. Getting a passthrough frame shouldn't be a problem. As far as cutting and welding I can handle that. Installed one of the old carburators that I cleaned up it fired the motor right up. Adjusted the main jet and idle screw and ran it for a little while till it got hot blipped it a few times and there was no hesitation it came back to idle and ran smooth. I don't have a load on the engine and that's as far as I got today. I'll keep tinkering with it. Let ya know how it goes.
SB take it easy up there. Don't get too many irons in the fire all at once.
buzzard

Mybe if you need more you can get a conduit bender and tweek it some more. Home centers sell them.

 

[Fossil]

This is a great thread!
Tomorrow I'm going to see if I can get the 17mm carb off a WC-1 Whizzer engine to mate up with my HF. Wish me luck. I'll let you how I make out.

Jim

 

[Dan]

Awesome Jim. Really looking forward to your update

 

[Fossil]

Well Dan the WC-1 carb will not work without an adapter that I have no way of making. I do have a carb off a 5.5hp Honda knockoff. I may try that.

Jim

 

[eldo]

Jim I built a honda knockoff 5.5 (harbor freight) for my lawn mower lol. If the carb works I have a gx140 emulsion tube and #90 jet. I can send them too you if it works. Larry

 

[professor]

There was some talk about getting electric power out of the HF.
Here is what I did- double pulley on the engine- one to drive the bike and one for driving a 24v 250w motor (geared -by what I had laying around- so the "generator" goes a little slower than the engine).
The 250w output is fed into a diode (a one way electric "valve" so energy can't flow into the 250 when it is not spinning) (note- the polarity changes depending on which way the "generator" spins, so make sure you get the correct wires to + and- on the battery).
Then, to a small 12 v battery and to the lights (a std.single filament bulb- like a stop light bulb for the headlight, another one for the brake light and 2 little marker lights I am using for rear running lights).
One switch kills the engine and shuts off the electric juice.

Here in NY, the lights must be on all the time.
I get 13 something volts revving the HF and 12 something idling. No voltage regulator. Guess I got lucky.
The 250 doesn't seem to take much energy from the HF.
A 450w might, but would give more output for bigger lights.

 

[silverbear]

There was some talk about getting electric power out of the HF.
Here is what I did- double pulley on the engine- one to drive the bike and one for driving a 24v 250w motor (geared -by what I had laying around- so the "generator" goes a little slower than the engine).
The 250w output is fed into a diode (a one way electric "valve" so energy can't flow into the 250 when it is not spinning) (note- the polarity changes depending on which way the "generator" spins, so make sure you get the correct wires to + and- on the battery).
Then, to a small 12 v battery and to the lights (a std.single filament bulb- like a stop light bulb for the headlight, another one for the brake light and 2 little marker lights I am using for rear running lights).
One switch kills the engine and shuts off the electric juice.

Here in NY, the lights must be on all the time.
I get 13 something volts revving the HF and 12 something idling. No voltage regulator. Guess I got lucky.
The 250 doesn't seem to take much energy from the HF.
A 450w might, but would give more output for bigger lights.

Professor,
Sounds interesting and promising. Any photos?
SB

 

[Fossil]

Jim I built a honda knockoff 5.5 (harbor freight) for my lawn mower lol. If the carb works I have a gx140 emulsion tube and #90 jet. I can send them too you if it works. Larry

Thanks for the offer. I will let you know.

Jim

 

[curtisfox]

There was some talk about getting electric power out of the HF.
Here is what I did- double pulley on the engine- one to drive the bike and one for driving a 24v 250w motor (geared -by what I had laying around- so the "generator" goes a little slower than the engine).
The 250w output is fed into a diode (a one way electric "valve" so energy can't flow into the 250 when it is not spinning) (note- the polarity changes depending on which way the "generator" spins, so make sure you get the correct wires to + and- on the battery).
Then, to a small 12 v battery and to the lights (a std.single filament bulb- like a stop light bulb for the headlight, another one for the brake light and 2 little marker lights I am using for rear running lights).
One switch kills the engine and shuts off the electric juice.

Here in NY, the lights must be on all the time.
I get 13 something volts revving the HF and 12 something idling. No voltage regulator. Guess I got lucky.
The 250 doesn't seem to take much energy from the HF.
A 450w might, but would give more output for bigger lights.

I am thinking of doing the same thing. In MN. head light tail light and stop light are required.
Any motor with brushes can be spun and put out juice Sowing machine, tread mill, old electric drill(cordless),fan. Infact you can even buy the bike generator kits yet. With led lights it would not take much.

 

[curtisfox]

Well Dan the WC-1 carb will not work without an adapter that I have no way of making. I do have a carb off a 5.5hp Honda knockoff. I may try that.

Jim

Has anyone ever used a chain saw or weedeater carb? In the latest Farme show magazine a guy took a steil chain saw carb, took the diafram out and drilled and taped the diafram cover for a fuiel hose fiting run it gravity feed. He put this on a Farmeall Cub tractor. A retired enginer claims it works good,High and low speed jets
farme show .com if any one is intrested....Curt

 

[professor]

SB- I did a small write up about my whole build on the other forum, with a couple of pics, kind of hard to make out the details. I will try to do a write up here.
I wanted the generator spun with the engine running, to control rpm better and provide juice whenever the engine was running.
The only issue is the xtra pulley on the engine makes it a bit wider overall, and the shaft on the "generator" is an odd metric size, so I adapted a little pulley to it.

The generator is down below the engine on a swinging bracket like a normal car alternator. A spring tensions it.

 

[silverbear]

SB- I did a small write up about my whole build on the other forum, with a couple of pics, kind of hard to make out the details. I will try to do a write up here.
I wanted the generator spun with the engine running, to control rpm better and provide juice whenever the engine was running.
The only issue is the xtra pulley on the engine makes it a bit wider overall, and the shaft on the "generator" is an odd metric size, so I adapted a little pulley to it.

The generator is down below the engine on a swinging bracket like a normal car alternator. A spring tensions it.

Good, I'll look forward to seeing details. I'm sure others will, too.
SB

 

[Fossil]

Well I finally got a chance to have a few miles put on the bike yesterday. I am still not riding due to having my knee replaced recently but at the Central Pa Rally I had plenty of volunteers. It now has 34 miles on the bike. Two different riders said that they had it over 40mph! Not bad on a engine that is not even broken in yet. At this point I am not going to play with the carb. It is working great! I just love the HF engine. Everyone said it pulled well. I am a happy camper.

Jim

 

[silverbear]

Well I finally got a chance to have a few miles put on the bike yesterday. I am still not riding due to having my knee replaced recently but at the Central Pa Rally I had plenty of volunteers. It now has 34 miles on the bike. Two different riders said that they had it over 40mph! Not bad on a engine that is not even broken in yet. At this point I am not going to play with the carb. It is working great! I just love the HF engine. Everyone said it pulled well. I am a happy camper.

Jim

That's great, Jim! Nice looking bike, too. How was the rally? Is that knee going to be healed up enough to ride in the rally at Delaware next month? I'm hoping to be there and look forward to meeting you and your brother.
SB

 

[Fossil]

Thanks SB. The rally was great! A very large turnout. Jay and Bonnie were wonderful hosts. I wish I could have stayed for the ride this morning but my knee was hurting way too much. I did ride my Whizzer for about 2 miles yesterday and it turned out to be a big mistake. The vibration on my new knee was very painful. I will be riding in September in Cape Henlopen though. Take care SB and I look forward to seeing you there.

Jim