Mr.modified's GTR Four Zero

Brake drum


Rear axle assembled and painted.


1-1/8" shaft collar ground out to fit snug on the 700 input shaft and tacked to the mounting plate before welding.


Checking to see that all the holes line up on the front skid plate. Ten 5/16 nuts are welding to the frame to hold it on.


Frame with wheels removed. In the background, you can see the tires now mounted on the rear axle. To stay on schedule, the rest of the welding pretty much needs to be finished this week so I can start on painting this weekend. Welding that needs to be done: Gas tank bracket, brake cable brackets, throttle cable holder, rear exhaust pipe, clutch spring attachment point, headlight bracket, front suspension bump stops, and any fuel line/electrical wire holders.

Wait, are you putting the axle back on and welding up the exhaust? I mean if it was me if just wait till it's done then paint it. Just me. Should probably sand the paint off that drum do it doesn't imbed into the brake band. Rear axle looks good, should have did that on my mini

Yeah I'll have to stick the axle back on at least one more time before removing to paint the frame. I had a decent day for painting so I hit it while I had the chance. Would be better to wait but not a super big deal. Still a couple things back there to weld up. As for the brake drum, I'll probably rough some of the paint back off. I was going to tape it up, but figured it would be in the wrong spot anyway. I've got to see where I can get fiberglass mat and resin so I can make the hood and rear section once I have the mounts welded up. Guess I'll mock it up out of cardboard first.

Headlights just came in the mail. Looked around some for something that would draw a little less juice than regular lights. LED lights are usually pretty expensive, but I found these on amazon for about $10 each with free shipping. They had good reviews and they are much heavier than I expected. The back has a sort of heat sink type deal going on with cooling fins. Pretty neat. Guess we'll see how they do. The lense is about 4" diameter. I didn't try them yet, but everyone says how bright they are in the reviews, blah blah. Comes with your basic cheap bracket and a couple of bolts.

Here's a link to the lights if anyone feels like checking them out for their own uses...
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007ZGBLNW?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00

Those are really awesome lights!!!     Wish I could get some for my 86 snapper LT16, cuz I blew out my halogens I had on it.

chevy8988 wrote:

Those are really awesome lights!!!     Wish I could get some for my 86 snapper LT16, cuz I blew out my halogens I had on it.

I hooked one up to try it out. Seems pretty bright.

Almost done with the exhaust. View from the top. Most of the pipe will be wrapped to keep the peerless 700 from being cooked. Throttle cables set back in again, welded in two rings to use for zip ties.


Looking from the left side. Goal is for the exhaust to be completed tomorrow night.


Rear. The end of the pipe will be capped and the two mufflers welded in where it levels out. Probably a couple of mounts from the frame somewhere to hold it up....with cool looking blue rubber washers. I'm going to have to make a list of things to do. I keep forgetting of things I need to weld to the frame and I'm going to forget something. Almost forgot I need mounts for the mud flaps.

wow very nice.

Thank you.

Exhaust welding 100% complete. Painting and wrapping next. I didn't show a good picture of the end of the pipe, but I welded a freeze plug to the end of the pipe to block it off. (Steel cap from car engine block).


Single rear pipe mount. I was going to just set it on a dowel/pin and hold it there with a spring, but at that time I planned on having two mounts. With the bolt sort of holding it in place, I can get away with only one (I hope). If it wants to tip back and forth too much, I can easily add a bolt on mount of something later. It can't go far anyway, it would just make the mufflers look stupid if they tip much either way. The bolt snugs it there pretty good and I don't think it will be an issue.


The rear body pannel will be behind the rear wheels slightly, so it should be about half way out over the mufflers. I'm pretty sure the body is not going to be done before the deadline. My plan is to have the chassis done and painted. I think I'll make the mock up body (which I need to do anyway before making the real one). Of course do some test running before hand. I only have time for a couple hours a day weekdays to work on it which is a bit tough by the time you decide how your going to do something and then drag all the stuff out. Weekends I've worked pretty steady on it. The bottom line is, with all the inner fenders, mud flaps, and scoops I was going to do, there's just not enough time left. Mechanically, we're real close to being done, so that's the main thing. I'm going to keep working on what's left until it's done even after the deadline, so the finished product isn't too far off. Maybe an extra month or so should be all it takes. After I made the frame in the beginning, I slacked off the pace a lot during the summer while doing other things.


Need to make a couple of matching springs. Had this one and stuck it on to see how it would look.

Nice job on the exhaust. I think it will stay put. How your working on your project, with the weekday for a couple hours, and the whole weekends, and dragging everything out and have to put everything back, is pretty much what I'm doing too. It's going to be close for me but I think the paint will be drying on mine on the deadline.

Exhaust looks nifty, quieter than the sears at least lol. Going to have fenders so you don't get roosted?

Thanks. Yeah it will have plastic fenders on all four wheels I think. I put everything together and took the bare chassis for the first test run the other day. I'm going to put some video together as soon as I can. Everything seems to work pretty good. Steering is quick, which was expected, but slightly quicker than I thought it would be. Brakes work good and don't require much effort. You can lock the wheels up on dry pavement if you want to. Clutch works good. The belt doesn't need any guides, the skid plate keeps it from falling off when the clutch is pushed in. I need a chain tensioner, without it the chain jumps on the axle gear under heavy load. I have a block of wood clamped in place for testing. I decided to assemble everything to see how it would run before painting the frame. This way I can make changes without needing to repaint anything. Also I can get some test footage before the end of the build off. So the plan as of now is to make the mock up body so I can plan out everything for that and to get a video put together before the deadline. More pics soon.

Added a pulley to the clutch for a two sided design. Works good. Experimental aluminum arm held up for a couple of short test runs. Cable not hooked up in this picture, laying loose. Cable hooks onto the bolt for the larger V pulley.


Damage to the front air filter cover after attempting to turn around on the edge of a hill. Bump stops not yet in place and the wheel came up and scrubbed it.


Everything bolted up for testing. Temporary gas tank bolted/clamped to the suspension mount with fuel pump behind it. Tank is small and only good for about 10 minutes.


Mikuni vaccum fuel pump. Stole it off my old snowmobile and was afraid it might not be good any more after sitting for 3-4 years. Still works. Rebuilt it once before when it was on the snowmobile. I hooked the vaccum up to the stock port on the opposed block, where briggs hooks the vaccum for their pump. Seems to work fine even though I don't have any pcv valve in the system with my custom valve covers. My crank case vent must be restrictive enough to still have good pulse for the pump.


Block of wood clamped in place for a temporary chain tensioner. Chain was fairly snug when I put it on and didn't think it would need anything. I can't see how it wore in/stretched in just a few runs with how short the chain is, but anyway, just needs a tensioner. I'm thinking plastic block. You can see some oil on the wood, Output shaft seems to leak a decent amount, but I had a rubber cap over the vent for the first couple runs because I forgot it. Maybe it built up some pressure. Running straight STP oil treatment in the transmission. Brake cable setup visible. Steel tube guides the cable through a couple of bends to get to the pedal.


Kind of a bad picture, but throttle return spring added to the pedal so the return springs at the carbs don't have to do all the work. With both the carb springs on, it would just about come back, but if one broke it would hang open. This way all the carb springs have to do is pull the cables back.

I haven't been on the forum in awhile but it looks like you've made a lot of progress since ive been gone nice job so far

Thanks. Testing various junk now and should have video of running the thing by next weekend.

A quick video showing the assembled chassis with a test fire. The engine pulley came loose and slid down on the crankshaft, dragging on the skid plate. Fixed that, then one of the strings on my high tech choke mechanism broke and I had to spray some carb cleaner in to get it started. This is the 1st time I had a trouble getting it going. I usually try getting it just over top dead center on whichever cylinder it usually ends up on before pulling it over, but this time it seemed extra tough. Maybe one of the carbs bled in and there was a lot of liquid in the cylinder. Once I got it going it ran ok. Next day or so I will try to get some driving footage. Then I have a few more brackets to weld on for fenders, lights, and body before taking it back apart to paint the frame. The longer I wait, the more surface rust I'll have to clean up. At least this gives you a better idea of the size and where things are located than in the pictures.

Make some linkage for the choke man! String.... lol. Need a test run! Woot

The string choke saves like 20 grams over a wire setup, are you kidding??? Actually, I just didn't know how I would hook up the line to both carbs. String seemed like the easiest way. Gotta get some beefier string though. Did some testing and filming today. Just need to get some exterior shots. Hopefully tomorrow will have less clouds. A little dark today. The thing is pretty fast, but a bit top heavy and also I don't have the high speed jets adjusted exactly yet. Would be better if the steering wasn't so quick. On the go kart I had it wasn't such a big deal, but being higher I guess gives this thing a different feel.

I really like that dual carb set up. That thing looks fast. When I get to that point with my V-twin build I'm definitely going to run a dual carbs.

Thanks. They seem to work pretty good, but it makes it a little tough to figure out where your adjustments need to go. Still getting the high speeds dialed in.

Sounds great! Dig the exhaust on it. Looks like the piston rings sealed up nicely, probably why it's so hard to pull start now.

Thanks. it's hard to figure, but if I had to guess, I'd say I have an hour at least on the engine now. It doesn't seem to smoke too bad now. A bit of a haze maybe when you really step on it. Starting isn't too bad. I figured out a pretty good procedure. Choke on, then pull it over once and it usually fires a bit. Then choke off, pull it over once more, and if you can get back to the throttle quick enough to open it up a little, you can keep it going. Better yet if you block open the throttle just a little somehow. That's if you ran it the day before of course. I guess if it's been sitting just pull it over with the choke on until it fires once. In that video it was especially tough to turn over. I'm pretty sure some fuel must have bled in but who knows. I have a video in the works with some testing action. Even got it to slide around in the grass some and a few high speed passes with plenty of dust and leaves blowing around. At this point, I'm gonna mock up the body and that should put us pretty close to the end of the build off. Looks like I'll be submiting an unpainted machine this time. I just have to add a kill switch and I think I'm legal as per the rules.

Finally got some test running in!!! Now I can get back to working on the body and finishing up everything else. Only thing I don't like is how the transmission only seems to whine loud enough to hear it when you downshift. Redline tells me it will get louder with use...Need that vintage straight cut gears race car sound.

That sounds amazing. Sure is coming together well. Any idea on the top speed?

Looking and sounding great! I love the balance between the 'lawnmower' and the 'race car' look

Can't wait to see how the body will look

Thanks. As far as top speed goes, I didn't gps it or anything yet but It sounds a bit raspy at high rpm. I don't think it's high enough rpm to be valve float, still think the mixture isn't quite right. I imagine your around 35 mph tops as it is right now. I'll was going to pull the plugs out and see what they look like. I don't have much idea which way to go rich or lean. On the test stand, I got the thing so it would idle on it's own and set the low speeds pretty close. Then after the first drive I leaned the high speeds out maybe half a turn and that seemed to help. Maybe it's still too rich. Sometimes the low speed can be messing you up some also. As in you need to take away from one and add to the other, even though it might idle fine and not run good up high. The dual carbs makes it tough to tell what's going on. Should be working on mocking up a body this weekend I hope.

Just watched your test run. Looks to me like it was a success. Great job. Suspension seems to be working pretty good from what I could tell.