Tanaka 32cc !st impression

Greybeard

Greybeard

New Member
Took my Tanaka powered friction drive on it's first outing. Started 2nd pull and settled right down to a goood idle below clutch engagement. Took it out of the driveway onto the pavement. Pulls better a midrange than I thought it would and it doesn't have any peakyness. Stopped and looked at the tire alot to see if might be slipping. Using about 1/8th-3/16" deflection with the tire at 55lbs. rode about 10 miles at what I'd guess was 15-18mph. I bought the 1" roller because of hills. Pulls the hills I've tried it on fine, so there may be a larger roller in the future. Pretty sweet for out of the box.
 
My one experiment with a small 2 stroke wound up with a 1.5" roller. It was on a 32cc engine also. I started with a 1" Which worked fine, and went up in .25 increments to the 1.5. What if found was it lowered the rpm to a much more pleasant cruise, and maybe lowered the operating range into the engines torque curve instead of above it. The hill climbing was not as good, but only slightly so, still very useable, and the speed increased slightly. This was with a very old WE engine. I am sure the Tanaka makes more power. Just some observations.
 
I have a Tanaka 32cc with a GEBE system and it has lots of power.

It goes 30+ mph on the flat at full throttle.

It climbs moderate hills at 25 mph and fairly steep hills at 20 mph. Of course, to get those speeds climbing hills, I pedal like crazy. For me, pedaling as hard as I can to maintain speed is a lot of fun. It's like a challange.
 
The Tanaka feels stronger than the GX31 I had, but to be fair the Honda was pretty lean and could have used some carb work.
I built this so my GF could ride with me when I get the Solex clone going. I took it apart to detail. Got a Solex gasket set and am replacing them, milling the head abit, doing the compression release, and I got another actual Solex carb so I can futz with the stocker. Don't really want the Tanaka too well sorted as then I'd have my GF giving grief
cause I'm so slow.
 
Yeah if the Tanaka has got to match the Solex, should be fine as is. The Solex will suprise you with the torque it makes. It will surely slow down on the hills but on most it just takes a set and hammers right on up. I am loathe to want to assist an engine, after all thats what is on there for. I have let mine slow to a walk on hills but it kept on going. Strange little engine.
 
I've run about a quart of fuel through the engine so far. Been a little cold and damp and that reduces the disire a bit. My route has been out my driveway and down a hill to the bottom, turning around and up the hill and over to a road that runs along the river. Not a flat spot anywhere, and the round trip is about 5 miles. It's getting stronger all the time. It's now climbing one hill I had to help it up, but on one hill it still needs help. With only 30 miles though, I'm sure that it'll loosen up quite abit yet.
It's probably running fat. Haven't bothered to look yet. After initial use of choke to get it started, I can off the choke and it'll just sit there and purr even at 40 degrees outside.
 
I noticed on tanaka.usa site that they had old solex pdf. manuals for free. Some thread here I saw where a guy was charging for them......or it was the bug.
 
bandito,
As I also have a "Solex" I searched for manuals, but evidently in the wrong place. If you can find them again, would you mind posting a link?
Thanks
 
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