98cc Villiers on a 1945 Sears Roebuck
- Thread starter Harold_B
- Start date
Thanks Velo. If ever you'd like to benchmark the performance of your mower you are welcome to come on over to use mine. Although I've been a little obsessed with dropping a few pounds and pushing that thing up and down the hills in my yard is the closest thing to exercise I get so maybe not. The other thing we share is a Primus saddle. I always liked the looks of yours on your Chief build (pretty sure it was the Chief but I know it was a Felt). Mine is in pieces right now while I clean it up.Nice work. AND we have the same taste in lawn mowers! HAHAAhaha
Been finding more time than usual lately and used it to make a jig and cut a few more tubes. I tried my hand at wire welding a couple joints to keeps things in place and if I go with the idea that "you don't know until you try" then I now know I stink with a wire welder! I suppose that's what the angle grinder is for. Anyway, progress....
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A little more progress. Cut the plates for the engine mounts and welded the spacers onto the frame. Like the rest of the welding I've been doing it will be needing plenty of touch up. Bottom line is I'm having a good time trying to get the hang of it and considering this is this first time I've welded my own I should expect to redo a fair amount. Bigger the blob the better the job?
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The bike is looking great Harold. What are those aluminum plates you are using to align everything? Do they have a name and where can I get some?
Thanks Lurker. Those are extrusions from 8020 that I have bought from their eBay store. They have a bunch of different profiles along with brackets and hardware to go with it all at a discount. Super strong and easy to work with. Not necessarily cheap but reconfigurable.
Edit - I was traveling when Inresponded previously but I'm back home now. Here's a link to the eBay store:
http://stores.ebay.com/8020-Inc-Garage-Sale?_trksid=p2047675.l2563
Edit - I was traveling when Inresponded previously but I'm back home now. Here's a link to the eBay store:
http://stores.ebay.com/8020-Inc-Garage-Sale?_trksid=p2047675.l2563
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When I made the engine mounting plates from the old (existing) mower plates I ended up with a couple of pieces that I think should work out as fork rockers. I started cutting them to shape and getting the tie rods welded last night.
A closer view....
A closer view....
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Thanks SB. Somewhere there's an ATCO mower guy trying to restore an old reel mower and he'll weep when sees what I did to those mounting plates! Oh well. I'm guessing my next challenge will be getting the tie rods the same length without having to make them adjustable. Summer is blowing by. I hope I can get paint sprayed before it gets cold.
I'm not exactly sure what I was thinking or if I was simply not thinking at all but the rockers as I had them looked dandy and did a nice job of flipping over when the the front wheel went on and it went on the ground. I welded some plates on to get the shape I wanted then used those as a template since there's no way I'm putting my trust in my welding at the very front of the forks. New rocker plates actually work.
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Thanks SB. Nothing hurt other than my ego! Supposedly I'm a smart person but I keep going out of my way to prove otherwise. If anyone building their own springer fork is interested in what I did wrong just take a look at the picture in the thread showing the rockers made from the ATCO bracket. The axel is in front of the connecting rod for the leaf spring which is above the pivot on the fork. I'm guessing if I moved the spring connector rod lower on the pivot it would be fine but the plates were already cut so that the axels slots were facing down and the rods were already modified to get the length correct. It was easier to move the rod out front as it is shown in the previous picture.
I'm still getting the details worked out on the forks as well as fitting up the fenders and seat so that I can get the floor boards positioned right. Slow but sure. Emphasis on the slow part.
I'm still getting the details worked out on the forks as well as fitting up the fenders and seat so that I can get the floor boards positioned right. Slow but sure. Emphasis on the slow part.
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Hey Harold,
Your build is looking really good. I'm impressed by the leaf spring fork, especially the curve of your individual leaves.
I have a leaf spring fork with a bit straighter of leaves, they came off of a golf cart chassis. Can I ask where your leaf springs are from? As I said, I like the extra curve of your set up.
Thanks and good luck with the build. I hope you get it painted before the cold weather.
Gilbert
Your build is looking really good. I'm impressed by the leaf spring fork, especially the curve of your individual leaves.
I have a leaf spring fork with a bit straighter of leaves, they came off of a golf cart chassis. Can I ask where your leaf springs are from? As I said, I like the extra curve of your set up.
Thanks and good luck with the build. I hope you get it painted before the cold weather.
Gilbert
Thanks Gilbert. I have a bunch of screen shots of your build as my reference although I have learned that what's in my head most likely won't get built with my hands. It's good to aspire to improve my skills! I really appreciate the frequency of the updates and the photos you post and I've been trying to do the same assuming there are others out there at my skill level (as compared to say the Wolf or Sportsmans bikes which blow my mind). Anyway, the leaf spring was an eBay purchase and here's the link:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/3-Leaf-Doub...-Axles-1020-/221899163154?hash=item33aa388612
I don't recall offhand where I found the bushings I pressed into the loop but they fit perfect. I'll try to track that purchase down. The pivot rod through the bushings is a hacked-off carriage bolt that been used in my deck.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/3-Leaf-Doub...-Axles-1020-/221899163154?hash=item33aa388612
I don't recall offhand where I found the bushings I pressed into the loop but they fit perfect. I'll try to track that purchase down. The pivot rod through the bushings is a hacked-off carriage bolt that been used in my deck.
KOOL!
Ya any farm store tractor supply will have them springs. Gilbert, springs can be recurved if you have access to a press. If you do it every inch or so a little at a time. Set up so it can only go so deep between blocking. Prolley could be cold bent around a tree if you could find a way to hold it, LOL. It's been done..............Curt
Ya any farm store tractor supply will have them springs. Gilbert, springs can be recurved if you have access to a press. If you do it every inch or so a little at a time. Set up so it can only go so deep between blocking. Prolley could be cold bent around a tree if you could find a way to hold it, LOL. It's been done..............Curt
Harold
I suppose it may be a little early to tell, but was wondering how flexible that spring is? I used snowmobile springs, and they are quite soft, make for good ride. But are easy to bottom out in chuck hole type bump, sorta...........Curt
I suppose it may be a little early to tell, but was wondering how flexible that spring is? I used snowmobile springs, and they are quite soft, make for good ride. But are easy to bottom out in chuck hole type bump, sorta...........Curt
Hi Curt. I'm not sure how much of a bump it will take to bottom out the travel since it hasn't moved much off the stand as yet. I have to say that I'm pretty happy with the amount of flex I'm getting now though because I expected it to be stiff as a board. The spring is rated at 2000lbs but I've messed around with the leaf combinations and they aren't very securely attached to the longest spring at that. If need be I'll add more layers and rubber stoppers. The bushings on the pivots probably help.
Hi!
I had old Monark style rockers at first and then made new ones, almost identical to yours. And now seems to be good. Like you don't have them on a bike right now to tell, but will.
Like you thought the trailer spring would be to much, but maybe not. I be a watching your post to see how it come out, thanks..............Curt
I had old Monark style rockers at first and then made new ones, almost identical to yours. And now seems to be good. Like you don't have them on a bike right now to tell, but will.
Like you thought the trailer spring would be to much, but maybe not. I be a watching your post to see how it come out, thanks..............Curt
If the current spring proves too stiff, you could always remove a little material from the edges. Using a half round mill file to cut a very gentle curve in either side, will relieve the spring a bit, making it softer. This hourglass shape when looking down may prove invisible to the untrained eye, appearing totally straight. Any material removed from the spring will soften it, I recommend working the edges, because your spring looks nice and wide, and you could probably split it, make two, and both would be far stronger than needed.
You are right on there mogollonmonster. I had thought about shaving the spring if for no other reason than I like the way it looks. Russell had posted a thread on building a leaf spring suspension fork (that I should have read more times than I did apparently) that shows how he shaved his and I like how it turned out:
http://motorbicycling.com/showthread.php?t=35937
http://motorbicycling.com/showthread.php?t=35937