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No offense taken! I just share how I would do things. I have no stake in the outcome. Speaking of stake, I’d put four set screws in the shaft spine area and blue Loctite. The screws are cheap but know to fall out if they get loose and red is stronger but typically needs a small hand torch to soften without stripping small fasteners. Blue is better most of the time.

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Miata UBJ: ES-2074R('70s maz pickup)
Ford IFS viewtopic.php?f=5&t=13225&p=134742
Simple Spring select viewtopic.php?f=5&t=11815
LxWxHt
360LA 442E: 134.5x46x15
Lotus7:115x39x7.25
Tiger Avon:114x40x13.3-12.6
Champion/Book:114x42x11
Gibbs/Haynes:122x42x14
VoDou:113x44x14
McSorley 442:122x46x14
Collins 241:127x46x12

FWIW I've done both setups.
On the R1 build it was steel bars and a batwing to change motion direction. It worked amazingly well after I got the adjustments dialed in. Best thing about it was it was much more "crisp" feeling than the cable setup I did on the A Mod project.

The A Mod has a shortened motorcycle lever and a set of adjustable brackets on either end of the morse cable. I also put a couple of different holes in the shifter lever so I could play with ratios. What I like is I can easily route the cable to the right side of the cockpit for right hand shifting. What I didn't like was the cable sheath would move a bit at midpoint of the cable and create slop in shifting.

I've added 3 clamp points along the sheath and it's a lot better, but still not as crisp as the steel bar linkage.

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Too much week, not enough weekend.

OOPS I did it again
http://www.locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=17496

Blood Sweat and Beers
http://www.locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=15216

Another jump in topic, I decided to try to "unravel" the wiring harness to figure out what is needed and what is not.

Does this seem normal?

I did actually manage to get a pop out of it with some starter spray.

I want to mount the battery in front somewhere for weight distribution. Would you mount the fuses and relays back by the engine or up front? It seems like it would be less wiring if they were mounted in back.

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"It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble, it’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so."
"Sometimes I sits and thinks, sometimes I just sits." - Satchel Paige

I have mine in back and have deleted nearly everything from the loom.
I kept the starting and charging circuit. I ran a separate fan and fuel pump circuit and used the fuses in the block, but new heavier gauge wires.

Everything else was cut away. A good wiring diagram is your friend as you'll need to defeat the clutch, tipover, and kickstand switches.

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Too much week, not enough weekend.

OOPS I did it again
http://www.locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=17496

Blood Sweat and Beers
http://www.locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=15216

I've got the 2004 downloadable manual, but I have a 2006 loom. Only a few minor differences, a couple connectors are different. From what I'm reading online, the intake air solenoid, pair and exhaust valve can be removed with no problem, maybe a light. And the max RPM is lower on the 2004 motor so I'll have to be aware of that.

I've got all the gauge wires bundled up and separated. I think I have the bank angle, clutch and side stand figured out.

I was dreading looking into this, heck I've had the motor for 2 years now. It took most of the weekend to get to where I think I understand whats going on and whats needed. I think I just need a fuel supply now to get it running.

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"It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble, it’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so."
"Sometimes I sits and thinks, sometimes I just sits." - Satchel Paige

More randomness. Some painted wishbones in the upper right.

But the show stopper is my chassis twisting jig. And yes, the lawnmower with the oak burl were needed to prevent that corner lifting. If I put my full weight on that angled bar it would just about lift that corner. I thought the shot looks oddly like the back end is levitating.

Anyway, the frame is not quite done, but my rough calcs are coming to about 1200ft-lbs/degree. Not sure what it weighs, I can still pick it up while standing in the cockpit. I say it can't be more than 150 lbs.

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"It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble, it’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so."
"Sometimes I sits and thinks, sometimes I just sits." - Satchel Paige

I had thought about it before and I decided to build a chain/rub/containment/drag thing. I'm using some UHMW plastic I had laying around, it cuts fine with a table saw, but man it's hard to sand! I put rounds on the leading edges.

That also led me to the ugly details of how exactly am I going to get reverse in this? I had bought another CBR1000RR starter motor and had determined that the spline on it was actually a mod 1 gear. So I got to looking for a mod 1 spur in a 50 to 60 tooth but they were all pretty expensive and then I had the brilliant idea of just getting the starter shaft from, say, a CBR1000RR! 15 bucks shipped, 60 tooth, score!

My thought was to put a small 8 or 10 tooth sprocket on that shaft and that would give some good low gearing, about 10 MPH max freeload speed as near as I can guess. I tried to spin the starter up to figure out how fast it is, couldn't find my tach, so I tried to slow motion capture it and it seems to be about 7000 RPM at 12v.

I was trying to think of a good, not overly complicated way to engage the sprocket/motor assembly with the chain. Either a straight slide (downish) or rotation would be fine, but I kind of want it to "lock out" like a toggle, so whatever mechanism I use to move it isn't going to see the force (try to disengage) trying to spread the sprocket and chain. (english 101 fail)

I'l probably have to trim off the back part of those chain slides to clear the reverse mechanism.

I've got CF and fiberglass coming for the seat, man I get the feeling that's going to be a cluster. Thinking about live streaming it...NOT!

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"It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble, it’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so."
"Sometimes I sits and thinks, sometimes I just sits." - Satchel Paige

Been busy with that silly life thing in the last months. But the last few days I've been bondoing, priming and sanding my foam seat buck. I can't seem to unlock my phone with a finger print now...anyway...

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"It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble, it’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so."
"Sometimes I sits and thinks, sometimes I just sits." - Satchel Paige

That looks really sharp! Are you planning to paint and buff it for a super slick surface or wax it and use PVA release agent on it as is?

Out of curiosity, how big is that seat? I might try to talk you into making another seat or selling me the buck when you're done.

_________________
Too much week, not enough weekend.

OOPS I did it again
http://www.locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=17496

Blood Sweat and Beers
http://www.locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=15216

That seat buck is very cool. It looks totally professional.

Cheers,

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Damn! That front slip angle is way too large and the Ackerman is just a muddle.

Build Log: viewtopic.php?f=35&t=5886

It's about 19" wide at the buttocks/hip and about 23" at the shoulder supports. Maybe I should call this car Formula Fattie.

I was thinking about gel coating it for some more strength. I'm not too concerned about the perfection of the surface.

I'm mildly concerned about the surface sticking to the CF during demolding, so I'm gonna load up on the wax. I don't have any PVA left so I may get some of that too.

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"It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble, it’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so."
"Sometimes I sits and thinks, sometimes I just sits." - Satchel Paige

Turns out I had some PVA so I went for it. But it's one of them good news bad news type deals.

Good news, I got a decent seat. If this were high school shop, I'd give it a B-. It also fit's me great, maybe 1/2" too big all around. I intended to add foam or pour a custom foam insert.

Bad news, there's no mold anymore. I just couldn't get it off without busting it up. The wax and PVA worked enough that nothing stuck to the CF seat, I just couldn't get it off the mold. If I ever do that again I think a silicone mold would be in order.

I just rough trimmed it out for now.

There are some blemishes around a few of the belt openings where the fiber pulled away from the mold, not bad though. I might try to spiff up the surface.

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"It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble, it’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so."
"Sometimes I sits and thinks, sometimes I just sits." - Satchel Paige

That is spectacularly good pattern work on that seat. Like, CNC level symmetry and overall gorgeousness. If it were mine, I'd prep it real well and lay up a splash mold from it. It will save you...my gosh, how long did it take you to make the pattern to begin with, but that's ow much time it will save you if you ever screw up your seat, or if somebody else wants one.

Did I mention that your pattern work was spectacular? You should put together a how-to on how you made that, I'm sure folks here (including me) would love it.

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Locost builder and adventurer, and founder (but no longer owner) of Kinetic Vehicles

Thanks for the compliments. I think the foam blocks took 10 hours to cut, but then the sanding, bondoing, priming took even longer.

And then there was the original foam buck I cobbed up by hand, scanned and fixed up in CAD, so yeah, more hours than I want to think about. Probably the most non-locost seat ever made if you include the hours!

I can post a thread on the details of what I did...and what I might do differently.

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"It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble, it’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so."
"Sometimes I sits and thinks, sometimes I just sits." - Satchel Paige

Just a little tip I learned from a canoe company.
When you make the buck, add a couple or a few hoses inside that come all the way to the surface of the mold and have air or water line attachments on the free end.
When it's time to unmold you can attach a water hose. The water melts the PVA and releases the part.
If it really doesn't want to pop off, attach an air hose with just a few psi and use air pressure to get it loose.

_________________
Too much week, not enough weekend.

OOPS I did it again
http://www.locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=17496

Blood Sweat and Beers
http://www.locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=15216