Not you average Golf Cart

[rmack898]

Now that I have both front wheels mounted, it's on to the back wheels.

The new back wheels have 7" back spacing and the old wheels have 4" of back spacing so I need to make a 3" extension with 2 different bolt patterns. I'm thinking of making 2 separate flanges with the appropriate bolt patterns and connecting them with a piece of 2" sch.80 pipe to make a kind of spool looking spacer/adapter. I'm planning on using the original lug nuts and studs on the brake drum to attach the spool and I'll have to pick up some wheel studs at the auto parts store to press in to the other side of the spool for the new wheel.

After just holding the new wheel in place, I can see that I will have to do some major cutting and modifying of the wheel well to make them fit. I also noticed that when the rear was raised 4" with just a modified shock mount, that there were no modifications done to the pan hard bar so I will have to take a look at that and come up with a plan. I'll start cutting the flanges for the spool adapters tomorrow at lunch but it might be a few days before I get anymore shop time.

 

[itsme_Bernie]

AWESOME CART!!

Brings me back to fun with carts when caddying in high school! Not that fast though

Bernie

 

[rmack898]

I'm still making progress but it's slow going as I only get a little shop time after work.

I got all the flanges sawed off and got them faced. I drilled two flanges with the bolt pattern for the brake drum and counter sank the bolt holes. I cut and turned the pipe to make the spool centers. I still have to drill the outside flanges with the ATV bolt pattern and weld them together, but I should get them done over the weekend. As slow as I'm going, I'm making progress.

 

[markknx]

Looking good. Hey why rushjust do what you do and do it right. Mark

 

[rmack898]

Mark I'm not really trying to rush but I seldom have the time to work on my own stuff, I'd like to get as much of this build done before I have a paying job that comes in and pushes my project to the back burner.

I gat all of the pieces for the spool adapters machined and now I just have to weld them together so I can mount the rear wheels.

 

[rmack898]

I got the spools welded up and they are going to work as planned. As I suspected there is some major interferences on the back side of the rear wheels. I had to take the body off and do some serious cutting to be able to bolt the wheel on. Now that the wheel is mounted, I will have to figure a way to cut some more of the frame away and still maintain the cross member in the rear that the body mounts to.

I'm thinking that I will weld in some temporary supports to the cross member to maintain its location and then cut it off the 2 main tubes that it mounts to and fabricate new frame tubes that wont interfere with the rear wheels. I'll probably sit and stare at it for a while and I'll come up with a plan.

 

[rmack898]

Well now that I have a rolling chassis, I have some figuring to do. The engine and rear axle mount on a common trailing arm. When the 4" shock extensions were added, that dropped the suspension 4" but the front of the trailing arm was never considered nor was the pan hard bar. This shifted the rear axle to the left a considerable bit. It's not easy to see but once I cut the frame away equal amounts on both sides, the tire clearance difference on each side is clearly obvious. I will need to drop the front mount of the trailing arm the same distance as the shock mount drop, as well as the mount for the pan hard bar.

Since I have to fabricate some mounts for the rear suspension trailing arm, I may re-make the shock mounts and increase the drop to 4-1/2" . The rear wheels have an OD of 23" and the front wheels have an OD of 24" so to get a level ride height I'm thinking of increasing the rear lift by 1/2".
A side benefit of dropping the front trailing arm mount is that it will give me some additional vertical clearance for the engine.

I dragged the engine out from where it was living under a bench for the last 2 years and it looks like it will not be too hard to make it fit in the cart's engine compartment. I will how ever need to mount the drive clutch on the front of the crankshaft due to the engine's clockwise rotation. I'm also looking around to see if I can find some kind of compact rubber engine mount to isolate the engine as I think it is going to shake a little bit more than the single cylinder Yamaha that it is replacing.

Looking ahead, the only thing that is giving me any concern is the rear axle being the weakest link. The original engine was 8 HP @3600 RPM driving rear wheels that were 16" in diameter and the new engine is 18 HP @ 2800 RPM driving rear wheels that are 23" in diameter. If the rear axle didn't have much of a safety factor designed into it than I think there is a good chance that is where my first failure will occur. I'm not going to worry about it now, I'll just build it and run it till I break something.

 

[f350ca]

Coming along nicely.
You might be surprised how smooth and well balanced these little Yanmar engines are. I have the two cylinder version on my band saw mill. Its 14 hp at 3600rpm. Mounted solid to the saw frame there's really no noticeable vibration.

Greg

 

[rmack898]

Thanks for that info Greg, not having to find a relatively small rubber mount will make fabricating the engine mounts much easier.

 

[rmack898]

After last night's flood, I got a little bit done this afternoon.
I got the trailing arm removed and got the forward mount cut off and modified for the 4" drop. I'll cut the new hanger for the mount tomorrow and get it welded in place. I made some brackets to give me a little bit more clearance on the rear tires but I still have to cut the frame and weld them in.