I blame Hydromike for this...

[racerone3]

3/16, I was looking for 1/4 but the local supplier didn't stock it. as it turned out, the 3/16 was hard enough to work with.

[racerone3sgirl]

Thank you, HydroMike for the addiction you have fed in the "brother from another mother" twin of yours that I'm living with. Now I know who to blame for the craziness. I hope you can feel my very practiced, teacher to student "stink eye" all they way up there!
I truly believe you guys really were separated at birth!
Seriously, I'm glad the crazy kid (Brian) is happy as long as he doesn't mess with my Max (unless it's to make it better in the mud!)!!!

[Mike]

I hope you can feel my very practiced, teacher to student "stink eye" all they way up there!

Ooooooo. Take that.

[micmac]

Thank you, HydroMike for the addiction you have fed in the "brother from another mother" twin of yours that I'm living with. Now I know who to blame for the craziness. I hope you can feel my very practiced, teacher to student "stink eye" all they way up there!
I truly believe you guys really were separated at birth!
Seriously, I'm glad the crazy kid (Brian) is happy as long as he doesn't mess with my Max (unless it's to make it better in the mud!)!!!

Brian what I got out of this is your wife wants tracks for her Max II. After that you can do what you want.

[hydromike]

I hope you can feel my very practiced, teacher to student "stink eye" all they way up there!

Yyyyyyikes. Well, HE'S the one that started calling me all kinds of mean names when I bought mine! I just figured that it would make him happy if he had his own! Take comfort in the fact that he'll be piloting a big, slow beast of a machine, and the risk of hurting himself is moderately lower than other machines in the Racer fleet.

Mmmmmmoderately.

(honestlyIdon'tknowhowIgetblamedforthiscrapwhenJPi stheonethatkeepsfindingallthisstuff)


~m

[racerone3]

Spent a while yesterday morning getting all the axles and sprockets cleaned, painted and ready to install. Then a fun filled afternoon of wiring. I still have a lot of detail work on wiring IE: loom and tying stuff up. also waiting on a few more lights that will need to be tied in. Talked to my machinist late in the day and handed him updated drawings for the chain adjusters. He told me it would be next friday before I see parts, but knowing Shawn he will probably hand them to me at the super bowl party on Sunday

Buffalo Bearing came through this morning in record time with my order, so the Bigfoot should be a roller soon.

[racerone3]

Lots of progress in the last few days. Axles, chains and engine (with rebuit adjustable mount) have all made it into the machine. finished all the wiring today that can be done before the upper body gets put on. The new drive belt should be here tomorrow and I'll need to rock the engine on it's side to install it. the HUGE exhaust duct on the 980's would make that impossible with the upper body on the machine. Once that gets here, I can put the body together and finish the wiring... should just be a matter of cutting a few wires to length and putting ends on them. It's pretty optimistic, but the machine might roll under it's own power by the end of the day. still on the "to do list" will be building the support bar for the rear seat, building seats, and stitching up covers, tires (need to make some decisions there) throttle and choke , installing the chain adjusters.... Down the road, I hope to upgrade to a Bandolero engine

[JoeMeg]

(honestlyIdon'tknowhowIgetblamedforthiscrapwhenJPi stheonethatkeepsfindingallthisstuff)


~m

Perhaps a little "professional courtesy" going on here? lol.

Joe.

[hydromike]

I'll piggy-back onto your thread since we're basically doing the same sort of thing here. I loved the winch controller install idea, but wanted to try something different. When I put a different style controller into Big 5 (Horrible Freight 3k pound "remote" winch), I tapped into the control box with a SPDT momentary contact switch from NAPA to operate the relays. Easy enough. I decided that I wanted to try the same deal with the smaller 2k# Champion winch. I took the controller apart, and <GASP!!>.

Not a single relay in there, just two big spring loaded switches with contacts the size of dinner plates. I was a little dismayed, because I'd have to buy and wire in two relays, mount them, yadda yadda if I wanted to go with the small switch setup.



It's probably only end up costing me about $10.00 to do it, but I really liked the idea of keeping the control box the way it was and just adding a couple wires.
Back to the drawing board.

~m

[racerone3]

I'll piggy-back onto your thread since we're basically doing the same sort of thing here. I loved the winch controller install idea, but wanted to try something different. When I put a different style controller into Big 5 (Horrible Freight 3k pound "remote" winch), I tapped into the control box with a SPDT momentary contact switch from NAPA to operate the relays. Easy enough. I decided that I wanted to try the same deal with the smaller 2k# Champion winch. I took the controller apart, and <GASP!!>.

Not a single relay in there, just two big spring loaded switches with contacts the size of dinner plates. I was a little dismayed, because I'd have to buy and wire in two relays, mount them, yadda yadda if I wanted to go with the small switch setup.



It's probably only end up costing me about $10.00 to do it, but I really liked the idea of keeping the control box the way it was and just adding a couple wires.
Back to the drawing board.

~m

That's what you get for trying to "out cool" me

On my end, the "980 Pimpfoot" came very close to a test drive today. Body is back together, and wiring is done with the exception of the bilge pump (mount it and solder 2 wires), and the backup lights (sick of having to back into the abyss on night rides) and they will fit perfect under the rear cargo rack. Need to do a little digging for a momentary on switch that can be activated by the shift lever, but I think a lawn tractor seat saftey switch will do the trick. Engine ran this arternoon (quite nicely, considering it still has the spark plugs that it left the factory with). The only thing that kept me from taking a drive was the throttle cable. the one I got was too short so I'll have to go get another tomorrow. I didn't bother bolting the 22" tires on as I'm trying to secure a set of loaners till I get the tires I intend to run.
I put the cage that was on my 950 on the Pimpfoot, and that makes the machine HUGE. It is almost as tall as me at 6'6". Winch and fog lights are installed and working. I need it out of my shop by Monday so there will be a big push over the next few days to get a lot of the detail work done!

[racerone3]

Yesterday was an all out thrash, but the bigfoot hit the ground and took it's first steps (video to follow if I can ever remember to bring the camera in from the shop). The first test drive was a little rough on the butt as it had no seats and I was sitting on the 1" seat support bars, but the machine ran great.
Worked till 1am tying up a lot of little details. and building the seats.
Today I stitched up 3 of the 4 seat covers, but ran out of staples so they didn't all get mounted yet. I went with something just a little different for the seat covers... not sure how I like it yet...
all that's left is finishing up the seats, headlight covers, a good bath, and I think I can call this project finished. (oh, and getting my own tires) I wonder if Lewis would mind if I painted his rims silver

[racerone3]

20 Days, my new personal best. The Bigfoot is DONE! I've run it about 45 minutes so far all on easy terrain so I don't have a great feel for the machine yet. Steering seems sluggish compared to the 950 (same T-20 so that's ruled out). It's big slow, and feels like it could pull the house off the foundation if I tried.
I will still add some cosmetic details, and need to adjust chains now that I've gotten the initial stretch out of them, but I am ready for a real ride!

[racerone3]

The Bigfoot got repowered over the weekend. I've probably got about 30 hours in the conversion from a flat twin briggs to a vanguard. a bit of that time was spent stealing the engine from Beth's Max to use as a mock-up while waiting for this one to get built. The engine mount and duct work had to be modified. I built the wiring harness for the machine planning to swap in a vanguard, so it took very little to rework (just need to shorten 2 wires). The Header is a 2 stage running to a Supertrapp "Disk Only" Muffler. It is really more of a spark arrestor so it doesn't do a whole lot to quiet the engine. I'm not ready to divulge what is under the Green shroud, but once I get through Busco and test it for both performance and reliability I will share the info on the engine. If it holds together, I think I've got a great source for us all.

I only have about 10 minutes of run time on the machine and haven't finished break in on the engine, so I'm not ready to hammer on it yet, but based on my initial impression, I think I'm going to be very happy with this mod!

[LarryW]

I'm not ready to divulge what is under the Green shroud, but once I get through Busco and test it for both performance and reliability I will share the info on the engine. If it holds together, I think I've got a great source for us all.

A teaser? oh man..........lol
Must be you got a good deal on some used ones or something? Is the great source on engine or parts dealer or builder? Come on, give us a hint, lol.

[racerone3]

The engine is a distant cousin of a Bandolero. I have gotten to know one of the guys who builds the Bandolero engines at 600 racing. he also does a lot of performance Vanguard stuff for lawnmower racers on the side. His prices are great and his work seems very high quality. When I went to pick this engine up, he had another one there ready for assembly. Took the time to show me all the stuff he had done on the engines.

I want to get some run time on mine and make sure it's not going to be a time bomb before I give anyone a recommendation. I either got a hell of a deal on this thing, or spent way too much on a grenade... Time will tell.