a.craw4d

Did a run around the block with a speedo app. Time to tighten up the governor a bit. Can’t be holding up traffic. edit. I tried to take a terrible one handed video of a ride in this. But it’s, well, terrible. As I need 2 hands to drive. Might upload it anyway.

Tried this. Hate to admit it but it was terrible. Surprising amount of grip until there’s none at all. And being rear heavy I could hold very little drift angle before it spun very quickly. Did eventually add a chain tensioner as the chain was super slack. Drove this a few blocks away to show a mate, got chased by a dog on the way. Dog was bigger and faster and wanted a piece of me. Luckily (for me) it got a little too close to the rear wheel and got clipped, tumbled and gave up the chase. Scariest moment so far on this thing.

So now I really needed a proper throttle setup. Machined up a little cable clamp thingy that also connects to the throttle linkage (still running the governor). Added some extra springs so the throttle reliably returns to idle. And for the final (for now) touch I tightened up the brake cable. A quick test up and down the street at home and everything’s working well. It’s a luxury being able to sit in a seat and drive with 2 hands. Is a bit slower on the governor than previous tests but ok for now and I know it’s happy to rev a little more. To do’s include: -Fit a chain tensioner. Some dick didn’t machine slotted holes in the engine plate. -Get a speedo app to clock this thing. -And tighten up the governor spring. Concerns are: -The axil isn’t going to last long. -And neither are the brakes. But those are future me problems. Will chuck some average videos up soon.

Wow that was a while ago. I went to hook up the brakes and found the little adjuster thingy had gone south on the last joyride. I didn’t have any adjusters in my stash that fitted so chopped up an old mountain bike brake/gear shifter combo. Now I had brakes it was time for more hooning. At this point I’m still sporting a decent exhaust burn on my right hand from the last test runs. So I wedge my hand in hard against the choke/ throttle/ spark plug area and go for gold again, still kneeling in a similar pose to driving a dingy with an outboard. So fun. So fast. So dodgy still. Work mate watching from the roadside reckoned 60 clicks easy. I was catching up on cars real quick and the brakes were only slightly better than the foot dragging on the road option. By the time I pulled back into the workshop I’d cut my hand up fairly bad, blood down the side of the motor. And one knee was sore as fcuk and starting to swell up. All in all a great time was had and received many roadside thumbs up. Glad @xsinclairx wasn’t patrolling the area that day

This has been sitting at work awaiting some love. The boy had water polo practice early this morning so I had some spare time at work. Chucked the chain on and started it up. A little squirt of gas and it shot across the workshop. Sweet as I’ll jump in and try it up and down the side street. Holey shit it hooks up fast and does an easy 50 clicks. At this point I see the errors in my actions. I’m kneeling and steering with one hand. The other hand is on carb throttle duties. I have no brakes hooked up and it free wheels with the clutch. No engine braking what so ever. So I’m now doing 50 plus kph, kneeling on one knee while the other leg gets thrown out onto the road for desperate braking. It works, just. So I rinse and repeat a few more times because it’s great fun and why not. Anyway, I didn’t die. Did just go and buy some long cables though to get some brakes and proper throttle set up. Pics as hooned.

Love your work Dan.

This gives you an idea of the size and proportion of this thing. It’s quite rear heavy, will be interesting to see how well it turns.

Beefed up the engine mount and fitted sprocket.

JUST like the ones on the front? Exactly like those ones? I think you’ll find they are your old ones! They were delivered buy Karl iirc. The rears come from smokinjoe, (is he still around?) I don’t think the rear axil will last long with the 5hp to be honest but I can make a better one when that happens.

Oh yay I can now share videos. Here’s an old one with the last motor.

On child care duties so left them unattended and got some workshop time. Measured sprocket alignment and set up motor mounting plate. Welded and motor bolted in place. Will brace the mounting plate to back up under the handle bar. I have a video of the motor running. It’s stupidly loud. I may or may not do anything about that. Just need to drill and mount the sprocket and sort a longer throttle cable.

Ok I’m out of that rabbit hole. I joined a bookface group of Americans dedicated to the B+S engines. Raptor is the 1 you speak of. I’ll skip all their nonsense and just keep it super simple. Flushed the engine and chucked in some fresh oil. Made a separate choke leaver and tightened up the governor spring a bit. Will run the short straight pipe as it fits in the back of my work van that way. Also cut off all the unneeded bits on the trolley including foot pedals. Will run hand controls purely for more cabin space. Engine just sitting in place. Clears axil and handle bar, it was ment to be. Have a new sprocket to machine and fit soon.

Toyota altezza 3sge engine. Are they a full interference engine? Suspected cam belt broke when trying to start it. Will hopefully get time to check it tonight, just wanting to know if I should start crying now.

On the topic of free stuff I also got a clutch and found a sprocket that will gear it to about 50kph. So now we’re up to date it’s currently sitting at work awaiting a bit of spare time to chuck it all together. (having toys at work is great fun, highly recommended)

Turns out the previous owner had hard wired the kill wire to earth so it was never going to run. Disconnect wire, squirt of CRC, couple of pulls and it burst into life. 5hp should make the shopping trolley boogie. plus bonus noise making bits.

This was my thought exactly as I’ve done it in the past. This engine was always a pain to get going after sitting for awhile. However this time was the last straw and I snapped of the flywheel bolt. Bugger. Meanwhile some other unrelated events were falling into line. Picked up a load of free stuff. Note the rotary hoe. I had no need but thought I’d have a look then flick it on.

So fast forward 6 years and this is tucked away out of sight out of mind. Meanwhile have had the mini quad bike in at work with plastic sleeves fitted to the rear wheels and we’ve all (including the boss) been having workshop drift sessions at lunch times. I mention the shopping trolley and it’s met with enthusiasm for dual workshop drift battles. I dig this out and bring into work for a quick freshen up. Clean out the carb, new fuel, let’s go. Won’t start and eventually this happens. broken spring on the pull start. more to come

Thread dredge. Hooned this a handful of times. Was fun but didn’t have much power. Only have this terrible video of me in the back yard. https://vimeo.com/manage/videos/868606918 Having trouble getting the video to embed, hope it works.

This baton has been passed onto a fellow oldschooler. All the best and hopefully see some updates in the near future.

Winnebago?

So I keep looking at this and wondering where to start, how things will work, where will the top of the wheels end up, how will the rear guards fit etc etc. Decided fuck it, just start building and make shit fit when I get there. Will fairly much copy the steering set up from my shopping trolley go kart. It’s simple and works. Picked up these rod ends and a sweet little universal joint I’ll use on the steering shaft. Have been looking for a right angle gearbox. Seen a couple of mower racing guys selling used units for $150 and saying they’re hard to get, thought that must be the going rate. By chance I was driving past a Norwood’s branch and popped in to ask if they knew where to get them. I roughly explain what I’m after without actually knowing what I’m after. Turns out a new off the shelf 18hp right angle box is only $185+gst. And they have tons of them. Will go grab one when I need it. Hopefully over Easter I’ll strip the spare mower and make a start on the front end.

Question. With the governor removed and giving the full jandle. What will be the limiting factor that stops it revving to the moon? Is it the valves that won't keep up? If I shim or double spring them then what's next? I hear the conrod's a weak point but might be able to make a steel one easily enough. Just trying to suss out what I can or should do but keeping the risk of explosion on the low side.