Muscateer out for a drive

[riotwarrior]

Got more done today got final assembly of clutch, got it on the engine and all that installed.

New solid mounts to plate are much better that leaves the plate and it's isolators to handle the vibration dampening. I had two sets of vibration dampers the mounts to the engine plate and then the engine on rubber isolators to the plate..didn't work well and engine ones disintegrated.

Now here is where I am






All electrical connected and all fuel lines exhaust and so forth connected, leaves the chains and adjustment and then DONE I should be able to drive it.

Damn throttle/governor lever mounting bolt broke. Now not sure but hoping that I can get it out and replaced...got a nice 90 deg drill that should fit in there tight but ok....

Nuff for now

Al

[Nubs]

Glad to see your up and running.

[riotwarrior]

Glad to see your up and running.

NOT quite yet, hopefully later on today, regardless; thanks...now to get me a new secondary...too close to Christmas for that sort of thing though LOL

[riotwarrior]

Well I fired it up...no load it engages and runs in as supposed to. I clearly need a longer belt mind you as it won't get into high gear.

Not to worry I'm more interested right now in just getting it back together.

Seems to work OK time will tell.

Adding on some RED and BLUE strobes for the parade, maybe a couple yellow ones to and a green Code five...gotta have fun for kids right? LOL

Now I had all 6 wheels off ground and it works forward back chains tight and clutch working. Seems to be a higher RPM one that what I had previously.

I'll know more later today or tomorrow once I've got it off jack stands and running on flat ground. We will see how she holds out under load

Thanks Nubs! I'll be ordering a new spider and some springs/weights to make adjustments.

[riotwarrior]

Got it all back together, trans sealed, stupid annular piston adjustment screws leaked and I sealed those.

Drove it late last night, gotta get governor back on it asap ROFL. Stalling could have been dirty fuel filter so changed it.

Clutch didn't engage early enough so I had to remove the springs and rollers from my old one.

As you can see there is a difference in the rollers and springs, my old rollers are metal and have a long pin through them as well as much lighter springs.

Old ones on right


The springs that came with the clutch wow..big and the rollers are plastic..no weight to engauge unless spinning hi rpm.

Changed them out..whole different machine.

Still need a better secondary clutch.

Contrary to what I was expecting, I was able to remove clutch with engine in machine


both trans engine missing clutches


one new roller and two springs and two old rollers and four springs in clutch..I did them one at a time




So took it for a quick test drive, I still think I need a longer belt however I've got to accept it as it is.

No sense making changes to the belt until I get another clutch, then I can work out exact length and leave a little margin for error.

I'm hoping I can get the six wheeler into the parade tonight. I've got a couple of flashy lights I will try to get on it first.

Wow. Nice having a machine running again

LOL

[riotwarrior]

Got some bleeding done today of transmission controls, still no bump stops.

Also working on a plywood mock up for the engine mount plate for the diesel engine. Hope to have it so I can plan that swap in spring time

[riotwarrior]

How bout that,

Checked on bearing cups, I've got no new ones for the axles, so on ebay there where 8 as a set of new cups, BIN price 30 12 bucks to ship, BEST OFFER of 17.50 accepted so under 30 bucks for 8 new cups. This works well, I've got a bad bearing or two in right rear axle, and I've got 3 new bearings, leaving 5 cups for the remaining 5 bearings needing replacement. I'll be getting to those ASAP as well.

Then I'll repack all 12 bearings again pump the damn axle tubes full of grease which is damn near a full tube of grease per axle!!!!

Ya that's a lot of grease in there wow! No going small either gotta fill it full or water gets in and settles and causes all kinds of mayhem.

Did some more measuring today, appears that my current plate for 12hp tecumseh sits high enough so when I make a new plate for Kubota there is oil pan clearance underneath. No need to raise engine yet...however some chain clearance may require a subtle lift of engine that remains to be seen yet and I won't know for certain untill the mock up plate is made for the diesel engine.

Also giving consideration to changing control lever layout from strictly vertical to having horizontal handles like a motor bike however on the end of the levers. This would allow a thumb throttle or snowmobile type throttle instead of foot throttle like I currently have also it would make it easier to do brake levers for brakes as well.

Anyone using a thumb throttle like a quad or snowmobile? Can you tell me PRO's and CON's??

Thanks

Al

[riotwarrior]

Haven't been doing any wheeling with or work on the Muscateer for a bit, I've been cleaning shop LOL

However I did take my PTO from the Kubota into a my friend Ian's place and he has a nice lathe which he turned down the shaft diameter for me. I took in my clutch from Nubs yesterday and we did the final cut for diameter, and we will do key way later.

I need the PTO to work out engine mount details along with how well if at all the clutches will align.

Well without much ado...here are some of the pics I shot with it sitting on the engine...wow what a change from before eh?

As it was when I got it 1 5/16" shaft and a key way


Now a 1" shaft and no keyway yet! He managed to back cut it too a bit and get the clutch closer to the engine, and provide more shaft for engagement



Here it is with the 780 Commet clutch






This should be really close to what I'm needing I've got exhaust and throttle n such to work out as well but for now, this is where I am.

I'll be mocking up the mounting of engine soon, I've gotta get my shop all cleaned and sorted out first. Need room to work freely not cramped any longer I'm sick of the mess.

Once I've got it back in the shop, and the gasser is removed I'll start the basic mock up for engine mount and proceed forward with it and provide more info.

Thanks for looking

Al

[chris davison]

Not familure with this machine is it partial hyd. with chains, or fully mechanical with belt drive and trans.? Does it have disc. brakes?

[riotwarrior]

Not familure with this machine is it partial hyd. with chains, or fully mechanical with belt drive and trans.? Does it have disc. brakes?

Go to first page, 3rd post click link to build, it's all there!

[chris davison]

Yes I see it all. I have a hyd. foot brake that locks up both calipers and brings all 8 tires to a skidding halt perfectly straight. It works great. Maby you can try something similer.

[riotwarrior]

Yes I see it all. I have a hyd. foot brake that locks up both calipers and brings all 8 tires to a skidding halt perfectly straight. It works great. Maby you can try something similer.

Have you by chance photos and such of this setup? I could be quite interested in something that works like you describe.

[chris davison]

There are many pics of this brake setup in Custom 8x8 volkswagon with seadoo pump. I basically have two discs on a vw transaxle, a sand rail turning brake and the stock vw gas brake and clutch peddles turning the steering locks up one caliper or the other but pushing the brake pedal locks up both.

[riotwarrior]

Well I decided to see if getting the engine aligned and set a little forward would help me out a bit more.

C to C for engine and trans clutches now sits at MIN 11 5/8" but I can go back from there ....SOME TIMES I ADD THIS INFO SO I DON"T FORGET IT...and it's easy to find instead of a piece of paper...

On to what I was doing, here you see the engine plate modified for better adjustment to align this up better. I'm not too worried about things right now as I've got the Kubota going in hopefully in next few months, this just is temporary to see how or if clutch works better and to get this into a parade in next couple of days.






So after installing engine on plate and playing with adjustment it does line up much better, I'm still needing a different or longer belt and secondary clutch, I'll be posting pics of engine in place after I get the clutches sanded and cleaned. I brought belt in house, degreased and cleaned it something wicked and that should help it a bit.

Now onto axle bearings in R R axle.

For starters, this axle tube without the axle is nearly as large as a tube of grease, this means I need near six tubes of grease to fill all six axles DOH



Here is the main tube all cleaned out...


What the tube looks like bolted on...LOL


Here is the R R tube off the body tub




Looking down at the front two axles with wheels...



side by side, housing and axle


spring loaded teflon wipe that presses against the outter seal of the bearing to assist keeping debris out of seal


This shows how much of the axle sticks through into tub



Here you can see this OLD bearing, the O ring inside, my replacement bearings of same # do not have those, I've got to find 12 of these O ring sealed ones but for now what I got with new races will have to do..


That's about all I have right now, I'll get more as I re-assemble it all and get engine in and belt back on.

Thanks for looking

[riotwarrior]

Got my turbo the other day wow it's small, I'll be having to do some fab work to get it in with the Kubota but it should be well worth it IMHO.

The decision has been made to try the used 770 clutch I was given, I'll get a new spring for it along with new plastic bushings and a sleeve adapter to enable the 7/8 bore to work on my 3/4 shaft, this will be the least expensive method for me to get a proper torque type secondary clutch, and it's large enough 9.88" to have some low gearing. If it does not offer low enough gearing I'll have to bite the bullet and get an 860 Secondary 11 1/4" diameter.

Looking forward to ordering in some springs and weights too for the kubota's primary clutch, which I'll order when I bring in the spring/bushings for the 770 secondary, may as well get all the parts at one time right?

Well I'll update soon when I get some more pics.

Thanks for reading.