I found 90 cvt for 1 inch output shaft on ebay. Thats my plan when i get there.
I haven't looked at the Kohler to close to figure out how to make it work. I know it's big enough that it'd want electric start and being a generator engine, i'm pretty sure the generator acts as the starter, So if I take it off I need to figure out a starter. This will also add a lot of cost and complexity. Also It would be really cool if it was longitudinally mounted at the front, which is a whole other can of worms. So yeah, it's back to the 212 or a similar used engine.
So it looks like you're typical cycle kart is actually roughly 85% the size of a 1940s midget. I also learned that I would not fit in a 1940s Kurtis midget.
I now realize that the drawing I posted earlier was of a full size Indy roadster, not a midget.
I feel like this picture I found in my research should have been a hint.
So I was setting out to build a only slightly smaller version, of a smaller version, of the sort of car that Duster is looking at. Good thing I haven't even made it to the drawing board yet.
Now to find some dimensions on THIS car.
As some of you might have noticed, if you give me too much time to think about something before I do it, I will change my mind roughly 48,000 times. Today I was out with my dad and uncle cleaning up the little shop of horrors. He decided he has no interest in saving the Kohler generator, so I'm going to try to get it to start, if I can, I'm going to split the generator off and try to engineer some sort of reliable starter situation. Then I'm going to measure the output shaft and if it is the right size I'm going to roll the dice on using the same CVT you guys are using with the smaller engines. I figure the worst that can happen is it fries everything and I'm back at square one, then again it might work since I'm going to leave the engine stock other than the starter and exhaust. I'm also wondering how goofy it's going to look if I go back to the Kurtis midget since I already have a bunch of info on it and can just alter it a bit to work with this program. The midget is fairly easy to find info on since it was pretty much a production car. Hundreds of them were built with only minor differences between each one. A lot of the big Indy roadsters seem to have a fair few difference between each one and finding info seems to be trickier.
Thinking about this more, I think I'm literally going to get the 2 things that need to fit inside this thing, me and the engine, and measure how much room we take up. Then use those numbers to come up with the absolute narrowest it can be. There's no way I'm going to be able to do it perfectly to scale but I'm shooting for getting the proportions right in a size that is close to a standard cyclekart. 38" track width and 65" wheelbase what I have in mind.
So I went to Airstrip Attack Indy today. Me and the friend I met up there left at about noon. I was reminded how close I was to Indy at that point. So I went to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum. Where, among other things, I got to stand next to and take a few pictures of the midget in question and the bigger sprint cars that it's a scaled down version of.
I won't spam all the pictures I took of the suspension, steering linkages, and cockpits of these cars here, but I will say I took quite a few.
The front axle looks easy enough to replicate, at least in appearance and basic function. I would do the side steer while I was at it but I'm thinking about hinging the nose to make it easier to get in and out. The side steer linkages would negate that whole idea.
That's a really cool muesuem. Next time you're in town, hit me up. I'm out in the 'Burbs of Indy. Heading down your way tomorrow for the moon shadow thingy.
This was a really poorly planned trip. A friend was going to try to get his car together in time for the airstrip attack but he blew it up testing it Wednesday. (I believe I succeeded in peer pressuring him into bring this car to LS Fest next month though) So we both went and watched anyway. I only decided I was going last week and didn't plan on staying in town long.
In reply to Chadeux:
Looking at the side-shot of #5, where the exhaust exits the cowl, and driver's seat location...was the driver straddling the engine with his feet?
In reply to Pete Gossett:
I didn't get a real close look of the inside, but it looks like your legs would be in between the transmission and steering box. with your feet next to the engine. I believe that car is the absolute smallest possible size for an FR car with a longitudinally mounted 4 cylinder.
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