Made some progress in finishing up on the rear end the past couple days. The seemingly inexhaustible supply of golf club racks donated some nice thick (just under 1/8th) metal with 90-degree edges to use to finish the flooring under the seat.
Yesterday turned into "exhaust" day. Not sure if what I started with was original to the carter or not, but it didn't work as it was, so i started off by making a muffler bearing (heh, never thought I'd use THAT in a sentence
) out of the remains of the golf cart spindles. That gave me something that fit into the muffler's clamp pipe, i closed up the slots beyond where the headpipe inserts so it seals nice and snug. Also chopped and moved the mount (used a yerf cage mounting tab) so it's closer to the engine and gives a little more room by the frame, then painted her up. Let's see if anyone can ID my exhaust color before SSM ...
Spent the morning setting up the wiring runs for a box, connected the vacuum lines, installed the redneck unifilter hose and set my tank in place ($4.50 on ebay plus $12 to ship).
Then it was off to HPVE (machine shop) to discuss a plan for the front suspension. Decided to go with a pair of plates welded to the end of the arm clevis style. A custom made spindle shaft with a shock-mount style bottom will get pinned there and the top will take a spacer along with a heim. Frank's (shop owner) recommendation was to stick with the bronze bearings in the tube, avoid using heims on the lowers and have the shaft capture the upper heim. Best part about the whole deal was that he asked if i'd be willing to have the work done for trade, didn't even have to bring it up with him. He's also going to knock out a spacer (just a plain weld in deal) for the axle sprocket.
Talk about drool factor, beautiful equipment in an old Easton felt factory, and gorgeous suspension parts all around. Among those were the A-arms for the Audi R8 WSC race cars. Talk about machined and fabricated artwork. Totally aero, featherweight and strong! Made my chunks look like ... well chunks
Time for a test fire on the engine to see how it runs with everything hooked up this time. BTW ... battery box pic just shows why I can't stand open seams in any exposed, welded parts. The box came off the yerf swingarm, which was one of the ones from BMI.