New Honda 50

Dan

Dan

Staff
Picked up a Honda GX50 and Grubee mount and GB yesterday. Man it is sweet! Some actual quality and heft to the components. I am truly thrilled with it. I bought it from a very nice young man who bought it a year or so ago and never used it and I think I am missing a few parts.

page 2 shows the throttle exactly as I have it on my engine. With nothing to attach the cable end to and the spring is to long to bring back the throttle. Does any one have a close up pic of the assembly?

Jema explained this to me a few years back but I have forgotten, what is the lever pictured here do?
 

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Hi Dan, all that stuff is the Honda Governer system, When I get a chance I will take pics of what I did to mine to fix it, BUT in a nutshell, I removed all that carp, reloacted that spring, and made an arm for the carb cable to attach to. It is far easier to buy an HS carb and bolt it directly on. I have nuch to do today and may not get to making those pics. I need to pull the transmission on that bike, and install a new one in the next couple of days also. You might want to PM me about details.

Mike
 
Thanks big time Mike. About pulling my hair out here. I am really looking forward to your pics. Strange thing here, the throttle has next to no spring back. Only from about 1/4 from WOT. Then sits there.

Hehe, think I am gonna post me in the introduction page. Feeling like a brand new'bee. (Hi. My name is dan and I have been with out a 4 stroke for 24 hrs).bf.


Thanks again. It is greatly appreciated.
 
Here's my motto- complicate, man, complicate...

Actually, my throttle linkage is simple in operation, it just took an awful lot of work to come up with.

Background- I removed the entire external governor assembly- that is, everything outside of the engine case from the arm that attaches to the shaft that comes out of the case up. When i started this, there was nothing- nothing attached to the black plastic arm that actuates the throttle butterfly. The pictures will show this. Here we go.

I will do this over three posts, just to be clear. These first pictures show the PTO side of the engine and will deal with the throttle return springs.

They show the same thing from different angles. I had to experiment with about a dozen springs before I got a pair that pull the throttle shut reliably, but was not too hard to actuate.

You will note two small, matching aluminum brackets at either end of the springs. These are window or door screen brackets that hold a screen it and are available at most any hardware store. I drilled small holes.

As you can see, the springs are anchored under a valve cover bolt- hey it's there, why add stuff. It is rigid and positions properly.

The other end, where the springs are attached to the throttle is hard to see, but better in later pics. Essentially, the steel wire linkage that attaches to an arm to pull the throttle open is bents in sort of "Z" shape. It is this wire that goes through the end of the aluminum bracket and then into an existing hole on the throttle arm. I hope that this along with the pictures explains.

Next chapter- the throttle cable attachment.
 

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Now we are on the cover side of the engine. Here you can see where the throttle cable comes from the handle. There is plate that is attached by two of the valve cover botls that extends beyond the spark plug boot. This is still not far enough to interfere with your leg- or rather, my leg. This securely hold the cable sheath. I found ascrew on cable end in my junk box. I think it is a generic lawn mower throttle cable piece. The clip is from my local Ace hardware and as I said, holds the sheathe securely.

The cable attaches to an arm that is located, again, from a valve cover bolt. If you have kept track, you know I am using all four valve cover bolts. While the other three used the stock bolts, I made a stud for this one so I could take the arm off and adjust tension on it easily. This is important because the arm needs to be able to rotate freely. I used a stainless 4mm bolt (I think) of appropriate length and cut the head off. I then threaded it into the hole and placed a nut on it to secure the valve cover (all this and i never took the valve cover off, but don't worry, it is really not hard to do even with all this, I know valve adjustment will be necessary). This leaves enough of the stud exposed so that I could put a flat washer, a sping washer (wave washer, and another flat abd a lock nut on it so that it moved freely, but does not rattle around.

The arm that is attached there is "T" shaped, this will show in a later picture better. Currently, as you can see, it is made from a stright piece bolted to an angle, but I may fabricate one piece. The barrel I used to attache the cable is available from Ace as well (mine at least) and "throttle parts"- go figure.

As you can see, when the cable is pulled, the "T" piece is pulled back and because the steel wire (generic lawm mower solid throttle cable) is attached to the arm of a "T", instead of the arm itself, it pulls to the side and back instead of just back- to get smooth throttle response, it has to pull out (towards the side of the bike, and back (really towards the front of the bike).

Next post- more detail on the "T" piece and linage to the throttle plate.
 

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Part three:

The picture here is taken fron the carb side of the engine and the point is to show steel wire from the "T" piece and the aluminum screen door/trhottle return bracket attach to the black plastic throttle arm.

I think you can see here what I mean by the "Z" shape on the wire. The wire is attached by one of the barrel and screw throttle attachments to the "T" arm, then the wire extends over the aluminum bracket and is bent down at a 90 degree angle. It is then bent at another 90 degree beneathe where it passes through the throttle arm. I do not mean to imply that it is bent in place- it is bent before assembly. The nice thing with using those barrel and screw connectors is that you can adjust the cable and steel wire to get just the right tension.

Now, after all this- there are probably a thousand ways to get this done....but 1 thing I do know...you don't want that governor on there and you want positive throttle return.
 

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HoughMade said:
Here's my motto- complicate, man, complicate...
Click to expand...


Snork. I think we went to different schools together.

Man, thanks so much. Cleared it up and am really glad I asked you Hough. If I ditch the governor, just remove the arm and all will be OK?

That is a great article and pics.

Oh, one more question. Does the engager need to be used? Seems like it would not be with a centrifugal clutch. I am thinking of using wire to tie it in the engaged position.
 
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I never use the engager. In fact, I removed the handle and cable. I made a wire loop for it so I can disengage it if I have to when I am on the road.

Forgot to mention- I reversed the spring so the spring holds it engaged.
 
Hough, I just sat and stared in to space thunking about this for an hr and your right. I want the cyn clutch and not the engage/disengage option. If the gov. is left on while climbing a hill to a crest with a stop sign, the gov would be trying to give it gas while I am trying to stop. It would not work as a cruise control but over ride me in to pin striping a bus with my face. (I ain't all that good looking but do not want to make matters even worse, snork)

Bummer part is I really suck at fabing. Irish John's solution would have been easy. But I really do want to keep the Honda carb.

The butterfly plastic actuator is in sync movement wise to the throttle cable length. so just need to make it work. I am concerned about wearing down the lil plastic actuator.

(side note; I am working on a 4 smoker kit with elec start and gen and this is a great lesson on how to make things user/end consumer friendly)
 
Wait, if the Gov is back/return spring loaded, would work and be simple.....

Ok, what am I missing?
 
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Removed the governor. Built a really cool and elaborate throttle with great/perfect back tension. It had a pulley wheel guide. It was perfect and looked cool. I finished every thing today and carried the point beach/honda/grubee up from the celler. So dang proud of my self. Then I grabbed the pull cord and had that old fimaliure thought and feeling. "What if it won't start" Imeaditaly followed by; "what if it does" Snork.

It roared to life on the first pull. Then just went full bore. Smoke came from the gear box and the rear tire spun madly. I quickly shut it down. I turned the idle screw down and fired her back up. Same thing.....

Go look up the carb in the manual. Nuton. Look all over the carb and feel with my hands looking for some mechinisum to slow it down. Nuton.

Carol is looking on with great pity and concern and offers to hold the bike while I try to start it again. As I bend to give her a yank (the bike, not Carol) it dawned on me. I fire her up and twist the throttle. She calms right down. My Beautiful and awesome throttle assembly is bassackwards.
 
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Takes a big man to admit when he's made a mistake...and a small man to laugh at him...call me small.

Just kidding! It;s happened to every person who has ever fabbed their own solution to a problem.
 
HoughMade said:
Takes a big man to admit when he's made a mistake...and a small man to laugh at him...call me small.

Just kidding! It;s happened to every person who has ever fabbed their own solution to a problem.
Click to expand...

Snork! Thanks a lot there Mr. Small.

the new, improved and works in the right direction throttle assembly is going great! For now it is fine but have a (I hope) killer idea. A mounted to the bike kit with the return spring inline. The one I built is at an odd angle and is "just for now" But will try to perfect this. so far works great but not real clean. Will take pics.
 
dance1 Took the baby out today for her shake down cruise. About a block down the road, the engine just stopped pulling. Every thing sounded in good order so I just peddled back home. After opening the GB, I saw that the screw that holds the cyn clutch together had fallen out and it was just spinning. (loctite, loctite and when in doubt, use loctite) So I put on some loctite and reassembled.

Holly good stuff, she is sweet!!!! Purred like a kitten. No vibes and I don't understand the bad rap about the noise from a Grubee gear box. You could hear it but nothing like what I have read about them. I thought it gave the engine a less small engine sound. I have ridden Whizzers and HS's but this for sound and comfort, hands down, loven the Honda. I am sure it's a lil more then "my baby" syndrome.

The throttle assembly worked better then expected and after I work out some things, I am gonna make them for sale.

I will post pics tomorow. I would have today but couldn't turn into my own drive way.

The bike is a point beach with mismatched wheels and no fenders. It just don't do her justice.

Think I got "higher" today then the first time I fired up my first chinagurl MB. It was that good.
.rd.
 
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HoughMade said:
Anyone with a Honda and the Grubee feels the same way. It is a lovely combination.
Click to expand...

Oh man Hough, 2nd and 3rd ride today. just a pleasure. Last ride, I forgot to turn the gas on and made it about 6 or 7 blocks b4 she went "run silent"
Wanted to ask you what you get for mileage. I am keeping careful track of mine but is too soon to even guess. (but the tank looks half full and I half filled it before first ride)

Throttle cable stretched so I had to shorten the inline spring return. Mod needs work but is still performing well and I am quite happy with it.

.shft.
 
I'm wondering the same, what kind of mileage do you get with the Honda50? I know the 80cc HF motor gets 135MPG, so I'm wondering how the 50cc compares.

With the right gearing, will the Honda50 get you to 35mph?

I really want one of those 50's.
 
The answer to the 35 mph question is "yes"- with a 48 tooth sprocket.

Mileage? Don't know. I have not yet measured...I mean, I'm sure it's over 100 mpg and would very surprised if it did not exceed the 2 strokes.
 
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