The Chopper Compendium

All righty then...It's been over a year since I last looked at this. The purpose of this thread is to share with you guys (and gal) this idea, and to refresh my memory. 1st the gratuitous plugs...John at Primo was kind enough to sell me a clutch assy and throw in an old basket that he had laying around with a ring gear and junk chain gear. He was very helpfull and offered some advice on getting this done. This is my starting point. Al at CrushMasters spoke to me personally to explain their shop rates (several years ago). I need CM to cut the spline for the motor gear. These guys were great in encouraging this to go forward

This is an old version, but the only one I could find...Did I mention it's been a long time. A chain drive only has 2 pinch points. You could simple put a piece of metal milled to a close fit over it...no more meat grinder. I went back to my old 10-speed days and tried to redo the guards and tensioner from then. This is a pic I had on my drive for a while. I based the look on it and was making changes. I think it is an Indian Larry Legacy primary. I didn't even notice that this primary is set up with a starter, so what I'm doing here is nothing new...just different.

This may be a short thread.

Rudy;
How are you fareing(sp) with or without your local storms? These came close to you. Everything OK at your shop?

I can't tell how much the gaurd covers. If it is the part with the red outline, it looks like there will be an opening between the pulleys and between the top and bottom of the chain.
If I'm right, have you considered that an opening might let debris enter and jam the chain/pulley?

ok its a buell..
Rudy hope all is well over there..weathers gone nuts here too....

Thanx for the concern, Hans. The radio was going off with alerts for DFW. They don't call it tornado alley for nothing. I'm 70mi north of Dallas. The skies were turning and looking ominous, but all I got was a little rain. As for the rest of life...I better every day.

Bob, in the pic the chain is black, the guard is red. The outline in blue is the motor plat and you can see it's not completed on the bottom. The profile of the plate was what I needed to mount the motor/trans/guard. The chain is an O-ring 630, 3/4"pitch, 5/8"plate hieght, and 0.900" at it's widest. The guard itself will be thin plate over the sprockets and only contact the chain against the rollars, but be as wide and tall as the chain for ballance. I was thinking of springing the top and bottom to act as a compensator, but I just don't think it would work.

Thanx for the concern, Max. Hope your doing well. I don't want to dis you, but I dont see pics with your posts. I'm on dial-up and some things either timeout or are blocked entirely. I do few other sites simply due to bandwidth.

The major issue with the design is that I plan on having the lower chain guide sprung with a hidden leaf. Some have said that it would be better to have it fixed rather than spring loaded.

I got on the Tech Cycle website (borrowed a friend's wi-fi). They got their start building starters. No wonder this was easy for them. They'll prolly have one like this shortly.

Personally, I like the idea of the lower chain tensioner. HD stock motors have one, and I replaced the original with a M6 tensioner with a better shoe and adjustment plates to go beneath the tensioner.
I'm still running the original primary chain with approx 80-90 thousand miles, and lotsa HP and Torque.
That is an oil bath system tho.

A metal leaf will cause considerable wear, I suppose you plan to use a cover of teflon or some HDPE material?

Sorry it took so long to reply, Bob. I do plan on using teflon or other material as a chain guide. It will only contack the rollers in an attempt to reduce vibration. What is HDPE?

In the following pics, nothing is lined up except for hieght. I used a stock primary to line-up the tranny with the engine. Some of you may have caught that the bends I put in the seat post were too low. I had to remove the cover to line-up the tranny. I can drop the tranny 1/2" or push it back. I only need 1/4", but if I'm not stock, I might as well. The only problem with this is that if I run into problems I had planned on throwing an open belt on it. Now I gotta make it too.
I know the tranny shaft gets a bearing in all that space, but dam, I wish I could just shorten that shaft. My original thought was to swap the sprocket and ring gear. This brings up issues of tork on the shaft. The notor sprocket will also be way too far outboard.
If I could shift the tranny inboard, it would resolve "some" issues with motor sprocket. Approx 1" would bring the right side even with the cone.
The string line in the pics is resting on top of the motor shaft and axle. This was to provide some referance to how the chains will line up. I'm definately needing to sleep on this one. The easiest thing is to just leave the sprocket and ring where they are. But, where's the fun in that.

HDPE = High Density PolyEthylene
similar to Teflon, with some different properties.

http://www.interstateplastics.com/Black ... -HDPBE.php
http://www.eplastics.com/Plastic/Styrene_Hi_Impact

I suppose you've considered using a spacer between the primary plate and the tranny, allowing you to move the tranny to the right.

Thanx for the info Bob. I'm gonna research all the acronyms when the time comes. I'll certainly look into HDPE. My thought of spring loading the lower tensioner would allow for less stress on the guide, hence, less wear.

Offsetting the tranny is part of the plan. The offset final drive sprocket is a question for me. I do need to get a wheel sprocket to double check the offset for the tranny final drive sprocket.

Glad yr posting this ...

Glad your interested, Max. I figure there's 7 people following this now. A small group, but a group none the less. After sleeping on it, I can see myself cutting this basket to pieces. I just cant see any way to put it back together any better. I may need to sleep on it again to find out.

The 1st post showed that they moved the ring WAY inboard, and the sprocket slightly outboard. You can also see that the engine sprocket is far offset. This is the issue that gives me the most concern. I want everything in tight and close.

You can see from the pic that they made a bell housing to mount everything with the offsets. That is easy. There are many offsets to add-up, and I don't like the way the numbers look.

http://advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=657449
http://advrider.com/forums/showthread.p ... 49&page=11

This takes you to a sportster build converted to dual sport use.
The second link shows a chain slider he used to protect the swingarm.

There is another piece he uses later in the thread to cover the front part of the swingarm.

Thanx for the links Bob. That looks like an interesting build. I'll check it out tonight when I go to town for supplies...and wi-fi.

Well, I've figured out how to resolve most of the problems I was having. I just love draggin' things out. The short answer is to create new ones.

I've done some rough measuring and believe I can slide the entire basket and clutch pack a full inch inboard onto the tranny shaft. It's alot of work, but, my only concern is if I can remachine to an acceptable tollerance. Also, if the basket goes south, I'ld have to reproduce all the work.

I haven't figured out, yet, where to cut the basket. The inner clutch hub is a simple matter. The idea is to relocate the basket bearing and boss within the basket. There may be a way to bolt this together to make it a more simple mod.

If I can work out the details, I can have the sprocket outside the flange and the ring gear inside. This would leave the jack shaft as the final problem. The starter would need to be offset by 1 5/8". Do-able!!!

That was some thread, Bob. And, some serious abuse on that chain IMO. I don't think I'll have nearly that much strain on my chain guides. Incidently, the exhaust on pg30 is the one I want for this build.