- Busted the ring gear off of the flywheel. It's not needed since there is no starter, and removing it will save a little weight (surprising little, but better than nothing). People say the teeth of the ring gear creates turbulence as it spins, slowing the flywheel down, so, even if it doesn't save a lot of weight, removing it may help a little.
- Pulled the motor out. I stuck my head out of the garage and spotted an unsuspecting neighbor who was easily talked into risking flattening some of his body parts by helping me lift the motor out by hand (no winch, no cheery picker, just a nylon strap and two he-men).
- Did some adjusting and fitting of the engine mount. Cut the hole for the bolt head on the top of the ring clamp, added the rubber backing to the ring clamp and tried to assemble it with out much luck. The bolts are too short to bring the two halves of the clamp together and one of the bolt holes does not align. I still need to do a little cutting and welding for my "torque bolt" idea and now I have to "adjust" the bolt hole in the lower clamp and pick up some new longer bolts.
Sunday, May 4, 2008
Weekend update
Did a couple of little things over the weekend:
What is a "torque bolt"?
ReplyDeleteA Torque Bolt is something I made up. The idea is to keep the motor from turning on its mounts. Electric motors have a lot of torque (twisting motion) and since the motor mount was nothing mode than a ring clamped to the outside of the motor housing, I was afraid that the motor would twist within the clamp. The plan was to bolt the clamp to the motor housing using one of the threaded holes designed for lifting the motor. A "Torque Bolt."
ReplyDeleteWhen I secured the ring clamp to the motor I saw that both the upper and lower bolt heads had extended throught the clamp (I drilled holes for them) and should keep the motor from spinning. So, no "Torque bolt" needed afterall.