Horizontal shaft motors and driveline for a buggy

[gegcorp2012]

Hi, I'm new here, and have been reading a few weekd. I have decided to build a buggy from parts that I have been collecting from the local recycler or when I tear something down for parts.

My buggy will be based on a kiddie sized 110 quad that I chopped up at the recycler because I liked the suspension and brakes.

I have three engines to choose from right now, a Predator 212 (that one is really for my gas powered air compressor project) or a 15.5 thumper or a 20 v twin OHC. The two biggest engines are from riding mowers, and they have the <edit: vertical> shaft with <edit: horizontal> pulleys.

I got the Craftsman today, so my new plan is to move the 15.5 from the Scotts to the Craftsman, and use the 20 v twin from the Craftsman for the buggy project.

Both of these tractors have hydrostatic drive gearboxes, but I think I read that mechanical gearboxes are preferred for karts, buggys.(?)

Can someone point me to an example build showing the parts required to go from horizontal engine output belt to vertical chain on the axle ? Also, I want to have a reverse gear too.

Thanks !

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[BigWes]

First off your little friend is gonna kick your a$$ for messing with his nest...I am allergic to wasps. I hate them...nuke'em from orbit, it's the only way to be sure...secondly doing what you want to do whilst doable isn't the best option. normally you won't get out of it what you put into it without a lot of effort and time and money unless you really know what you are doing. Even a car engine is a horizontal shaft engine.

You'll play h3ll getting any good speed out of it. but if you must, I would mount the engine down on some kind of a solid riser plate and have it above the frame with room under it so as to have clearance for maybe a torque converter and have that torque converter running either a manual gearbox or a 90 degree gearbox and from either gearbox you choose have that running the axle. But either way there is going to be a lot of parts in there and that is going to lead to lots of maintenance issues you just ain't gonna wanna deal with. I know the guys that race mowers do it, but they run all sorts of belts and crap. My cousin had one. He was always buying parts and fiddling with that thing. You could look into how those are set up that may help you. If it were me I would just go with a conventional Kart setup.

Good luck

 

[gegcorp2012]

Thanks for the advice. Yah, I saw the red wasp before it saw me, and the ether was nearby and 100% effective at close range, so the threat was neautralized.

I figured before I got it running any length of time that I would pull the engine cover to clean out the dirt dobber nests and check for rat nest or chewed wires, etc since this one was sitting out in a field for long enough to completely dry rot a fuel hose and the two rear tires.

There is an agricultural 90 degree shaft assembly used on spreaders (new for 70 bucks) good up to 40 HP, but not sure about RPM. That could be used at the bottom of the motor to get things turned the right way for typical vertical driveline.

The angle box is a 1:1.

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[BigWes]

Yea, you better be sure of the rpm, most have a Max rating.

Wes

 

[anickode]

What you have there appears to be a vertical shaft engine. Not gonna work without a lot of effort.

Horizontal/vertical refers to the axis of rotation, not the plane of rotation. So a go kart setup is considered horizontal (even though the sprockets sit vertical), and those engines are vertical (but the pulleys all sit horizontal).

As mentioned, a 90° gearbox is about your only good option there, unless you were to find the rear end from a shaft drive quad, and mount it with the input shaft pointed up.

 

[msrfan]

Get a peerless 3 or 5 speed off ebay. It will do what you want it to.

https://motorbicycling.com/threads/four-wheel-project.26605/

 

[gegcorp2012]

Thanks for the tips... I spent the weekend browsing this forum and poking around on YT and various other sites with info on race tractor and buggy builds.

Since it was Fathers day, I got all sentimental and was thinking about how much it ment to me to have help with my kart back in the day when I did my first motor swap from a 5HP to 8HP motor, and I had to ask repeatedly for weeks it seemed to get some welding done for my custom clutch/belt/chain conversion. FINALLY my Dad took the two parts to the metal yard to have a sprocket welded to the clutch housing and they zipped on the sprocket in like 5 minutes while we waited...

All that time waiting, and once I had the right part, it was the best feeling ever to get the new clutch piece on and immediately get to scratching up the driveway with dizzying donuts and power slides - made possible by the 8HP motor and live axle conversion I did at age 12-13.

Actually, the whole thing was made possible by help from Dad to get that clutch part welded.

TEG RIP 1997



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---------- Post added at 12:27 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:56 AM ----------

So I think we are close to having the start of a build thread.

I will be looking for a Peerless gear box for sure if I use one of these mower motors. Simpler will be best for my first "scratch" build.

In the parts pile:
I have collected the front and rear end from a 110 sized Chinese quad, also several lengths of pipe/ tubing from the recycler, and a 5HP power washer that has a Honda vertical pulley (roadside scounge), Also got some tubing from a treadmill that I got from the thrift store.

The simplest route appears to be to use one of the vertical pulley motors with a series 3 CVT/clutch rated up to 7 or 8 HP then chain to the rear sprocket (?)

I hope to make it fun for a full size 250-300 lb rider.

If pushing the extra beef around requires the double digit HP motor, I have the 15.5 HP Kholer horizontal pulley tractor motor from the Scotts mower.

I think the 20HP v twin will stay put in the Craftsman mower as I will get to ride it every week and not have to take turns with anyone : )

Which of these engines would you recommend for a grown up's yard kart ?

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