Utility MX

This thing is looking pretty neat. Don't know if I missed seeing those custom rims before or what, but they really worked out good. Nice to have the tools to make straight cuts and line that stuff up so you can do things like that.

Thanks I used grinder for cutting the rims. I assume that it will give good enough balance for low speeds. I had help with welding and center groove is made by my neighbor with bigger lathe.

Today I worked more with the hood. I am not quite happy with the look but I will wait until the rear fenders are made. I might need to lower the seat and streering collumn? I was so happy to just bolt some orginal parts but maybe I modify also those. I will place 10W led light under the plate that I used to stretch the hood. Silver Thingy has similar light and it is proven to work. Battery will be placed under the hood.

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It might look better if I lower the hood from steering wheel side? I might lift the front end also to get better look we will see?
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I have also worked more with the engine pulley. I wound the missing Honda parts just the place that I have put it
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Inner hole needs to machine bigger and after that it is ready for adjusting the heigth correctly and weld these two pieces together. Hopefully I have made correct angle to pulley. There is lot of material to make new angles if needed. It seems that test drive is getting closer

Little progres with the hood. I have decided the place because it was easiest to make brackets to this position. Hood is now bolted at place and shabe is almost finish. I started making the led light brackets. After led light is bolted I will weld some tubes to the sharp edges.

http://aijaa.com/NmL1n4


Now this hood will give protection against rain and there is also some shield over the moving parts. I will add some silicone to the seams to get little cleaner look and to get better raincover.

Little progress and bleow is photos with some story.

Hood is now ready.
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Rear fenders are made from steel bicycle rim and deckchair tubes. I might use some bended tubes on the other side and if that is better I will modify this side to look similar. Led light is bolted and I will cut hood if the light is not wide enough.

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Slooowly this is getting ready

Other side fender needs only some final weldings and it is ready. I have started to modify other side with these bended tubes. Sharp edges are not so nice looking and maybe dangerous at some point.

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Next challenge is to get varidrive system bolted. I have looked the drawing printed from some Yardman manual and it seems that I am missing some parts. Well I have get used to make parts during this build

Rear fenders are now ready. I can jump at my full weight on these.

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I started to put varidrive parts to the frame. I would be clad if someone could have photo around rear axle area because I am missing pulley and brackets. The small pulley on my photo is for the rear axle belt and I am missing the engine belt tensioner pulley + all pulley brackets. Are those upper and lower tesnioner pulleys moving together at same angle? Or is there two springs so that upper and lower pulleys can move separately? Sorry about the unclear questions

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How many rods this kind of varidrive pulley tensioners need? Will it work with one rod only? Originally there is some lever where you can choose constant speeds but is that connected only to the pedal and from pedal there is only one rod to belt tensioner system?

If there is only one rod then I will skip the constant speed system and use only pedal for different speeds. I will not make any gas pedals I will only use the original throttle so that I can leave engine running at different speeds.

I have an MTD riding mover with some varidrive system. I will flip it over and look whats under it. Maybe I get the system idea from that mover.

Because I need to make parts for the belt tensioners I am thinking about to make totally different system than the original has been. Of cource it means welding and grinding and then welding again. Well this Project might be on hold because I bought an small motocross bike to the kids and it needs some repairings.

Anyway thanks in advance if  someone will post some answers to my open issues.

Hello from slow fabrication center in the midlle of Finland

Mini Bike is running so next project please  

I found the missing parts to the VariDrive system. I managed to install the pulleys + engine somehow and started to make the pedal. Pedal is made from the original parts. I modified it to fit to the steering collumn and bottom plate. I made hole to the frame so that the rod which pulls the pulley is goin to down to the protection of rear skip plate. Originally pedal and all rods are uder the frame from the front to rear.

With this design the front is clear about any parts under the frame. Here is photo about the pedal.

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I will use only one rod system and see how is it going to work. I will drill many holes to the lever so that I can change the pulling lenght. Or I will use pull / push type of cable attached directly to the pedal. Maybe pedal needs to be lifted to get longer lever? I am open for modifications

Maybe some points are not so clear but I will add photos after there is some progress.

Slow progress but some progress anyway.  I had an brain fart about the directions. According  the original plan rod would have been pushing the to the rear oops. So I made quick change and of cource more complex system  

First linkage is ready for testing.

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I made adjustable rod because I do not have any idea how long travel is needed. Those extended hole brackets are cut from the original pedal system. With those extended brackets I can adjust the travel lenght. Photos are not the best but hopefully you can get idea some how.

Uder the frame linkage is the next Project. I need to add springs also and then and then ......

I am bit worried about the force needed to use that pedal but if I do not have enough power on my leg I will go to gym or rework the pedal system

This pedal + linkage issue has been more time-consuming that I was thinking. Mosl likely atv engine mounting + drive system would have been done a lot at this time. But that is future.

Hello all listeners or is it readers

I took little break about fabrication but now I started again. Today I managed to weld engine installation nuts to the frame + some other weldings. It is much easier to design the pull rod + spring issues when the engine is easy to remove.

http://aijaa.com/up6W41


Now engine is at its own place and hopefully at final place at the same time

Nice, get the vari drive belt system figured out?

Yes I at least think so. Hopefully tomorrow I will have time to continue and then be closer about the test drive.

One spring and one rod almost ready. This is just the phase where you do something but nothing seems to get ready Well I will make it work some day

I have already bought gasoline for the test drive

love this tractor! You're doing really great work amd I camt wait to see it running and driving.

Thanks for positive comments

Now the rod + spring issues are solved and done. Varidrive pulley height needs to be adjusted now the belts are not inline. Well I just need to adjust the sleeve lengths and then bolt it back.

Then I need to fabricate some air cleaner and then oil to engine and then and then ....

I started to bolt on more original parts. This time I imagined that I can just bolt the original shifter back but it did not fit. I have made supports to the seat and offcource this shifter is just at the same line. Well I will cut the shifter rod and make it work. Collision is at the blue arrow area.

I made an adjustable spring tensioner and you can see it about the red arrow area. I was thinking that because I do not have the orininal setup some adjustment would be good.

http://aijaa.com/U7qCjK


I started also to make the engine shut down switch. I have learned that even there is small amount of horsepower the torgue is quite big. Test drive should be more safe with this switch.

Air filter will be some where behind the seat. For the test drive I will only bolt the honda original plastic bottom plate. That plate has some cover so not every stone gets inside of the engine. After test drive I will more wiser about this tractor and about the other modifications taht needs to be done. So air filter is not priority one.

Now I have enough good working throttle.
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Aijaa.com

I can change gears from the lever.
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Aijaa.com

Engine shut down switch is ready. Maybe I can test drive even this week? Some bolts need to be installed. I will make some cover over the carburetor and then I think this should be ready for test drive. For some reason there is bit of traction even pedal is at floor but maybe it will fix automatically during test drives. If not then I will figure out something. Most likely the belts are too short? I just picked up some belts that I have at my garage.

As usual when everything is almost ready rush is on and quality migh be not so nice but is it so that these fastly made issues can be done better at some day later

Test drive done. Engine was running badly and some traction was on all time. I managed to drive forward and reverse left and right so good enough for now. Next I will make some improvements. It seems that nothing needs to be done again. Seat is too close to steering wheel but seat modification is not on top of to list.

http://aijaa.com/pdsGsM

Nice, now its just fine tuning to change what you dont like. its always in everyones builds when were "done"

Thanks I was happy about the light steering and slow speed. Hopefully this tractor is never ready

I hope to see a video soon.

MoMower wrote:

I hope to see a video soon.

Well I am not good at computer stuff but maybe I manage to get video some day some way

Intake ready for painting. I placed the filter under the seat so it has some rain cover. I will also bolt some "hood" over the filter cutted from some plastic bottle or something. I have used some car cooling system tubes and also exhaust pipes and Yardman frame and and... after some time it looks like this.

http://aijaa.com/kr9TQN


I have also cutted some space to the frame so that carburetor is able to remove easily. Next I will open the carburetor and hope to get better running engine for the next test drive.

Test drive number 2 done. Engine was running well and ones the other wheel was even spinning not on the tarmac though.

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Front wheel can be lifted at least 25" before rear wheel rises. Maybe I need to limit the tilting?

Temperary shifter weldings didn´t last so driving ended.

Next I will start making the skid plate for the rear axle. Then some painting and real test drive at some forest.

I took the engine out and because of the weld nuts and small engine it takes only about 5 minutes

Rear skid plate was on the list next. I made the round shape from kids bicycle rim.

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This is going to bolted for easy access to the belts and rear axle. I will add one plate so that there is not any gaps between this plate and frame.

Now the rear skip plate is welded and ready for painting. I just need to drill two holes to the frame and skid plate issues are all done.

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Next project is disassembly and painting and assembly and real test drive. I have really limited amount of time for this project so it might take looong time

Plan was to use white and red but because of timetable issues I desided to use workplace paint shop. There is only one colour available and it is black. It took only half an hour to paint all parts. So one lunch break job.

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I will add Silver to the hood and that´s it.

When I had rear axle at my hands I noticed that one important this has not been done = Brakes. Well I will add some rod to the varidrive rod somehow one pedal should be enough.

Until next time ..........