Ed's 'StreetRunner' Quad Build

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Sep 12, 2012
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Apple Valley, California, USA
Well as you can see from the pics below I decided to make my own sprocket.
The decision made easier because I had a 10"x10"x3/16" plate.
That was all I needed. It wasn't really difficult, nor easy either.
My back is screaming from all the bending over cutting drilling, grinding, filing...repeat.

Using the commercial version as a template

Cutting it out

Drilling 1/8" center hole
Using old flat files to keep it from rotating.


Scribing the teeth profiles

Filing away the imperfections

The first sprocket is finished.

Matched up with a template. The filing of the teeth took some time. It now rolls freely.
Tomorrow I'll drill out the center hole and weld on the shaft collar.
I think I will also reinstall all the drive components, and test this sprocket.
If A-OK then it's on to the second one.
 
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Lesson learned

This sprocket to this point only took 2 hrs 10 min. The first sprocket took me about 5 hours to make.
Took a different approach, and drilled out the spacing between teeth.
Tomorrow I will have less work to do finishing them.



The vision being substandard nowadays, I switched to the other side for better light. Also highlighted with marker pen. Still hard to pinpoint the precise center between the teeth. Had to adjust a bit for some holes.
In the end, they don't appear to be too far out.
The other sprocket worked out OK, so this being a little more accurate, all should be fine. I think... :unsure:



I lost one 3/16" drill bit. I was pressing a bit too much on that hole and it caught and snapped.
Fortunately, I had another drill bit.



Didn't leave enough room for drilling. Will grind the remaining holes.



Run Test

I installed the first sprocket for a trial run. After some fiddling around with mounting bolts, I ran it up to full speed numerous times. All seems safe and sound. Which by the way the noise level has decreased.
 
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Nice work. Will the sprockets be ok without any hardening? Having never done this I have no idea of regular sprocket hardnesses.
 
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Nice work. Will the sprockets be ok without any hardening? Having never done this I have no idea of regular sprocket hardnesses.
Good question. I wondered the same thing. With a little research on the subject, I decided that it was well worth the try.
As this project isn't meant to be a 'daily driver', it should be OK.

If the sweat I put into the filing is any indication of the hardness of the metal I'm using it will last a considerable time.
I did consider using weld material. I believe it is much harder than the parent material.
I thought about welding around the circumference where the teeth would be.
Then cutting the teeth into the weld material. But that seemed to be unnecessary at this time.
 
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OK folks, here is the day we all have been waiting for...VROOOM!

First, run with a modified engine.

Now for reality
 
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Washington state
won't be long now before it gets a coat of paint!
that is one KOOL ride.
 
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It's been 2 years, 6 months, 27 days since the beginning of this project.
A super important milestone for me.

Today I have to do a mechanical inspection. I need to look for broken welds and any drive train damage of any sort.
I must do that before I can take it up to full speed. All 25 mph or whatever it turns out to be.

The second sprocket turned out quite well. Still having trouble keeping proper tension on both motor chains.
I've mentally designed a permanent tension adjuster that will maintain the tension.

I noticed I have a wobble on the right front wheel. Hoping it is just a loose axle nut. It acts like a bump steer, but there is no feeling in the steering wheel to the effect. It does steer like a dream.

The engine sound will be coming out of the hollow engine block when finished. That is sure to raise a few eyebrows.
The throttle is quite sensitive. I may put some type of resistance under the pedal. I also checked for motor heat and what little I ran it, the motors were barely warm. A real good sign.

I did a trial run with the Mrs. on board and with two people it moved without any trouble. Another good sign.
Also found that there was no tight squeeze for either of us. Another good sign.
 
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glad to hear all went well.
I myself am trying to finish up wiring my wife's hot rod golf cart.
Am using wire terminals that you heat up and the wires are soldered together and waterproof.
Having to add some wire and shorten some wires for throttle, forward reverse etc.
Not using a terminal block and using spade connectors, all water proof. I lost? the 6 pin connector so just using spade connectors.
 
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After tightening the steering up, and making the chain tensioners,
I thought I would take it out for another shake-down run.

After seeing the steering working much better ( virtually no wobble now) I increased my speed up to about half throttle. This is supposed to be geared for no more than 25 mph. But I'm thinking the beast wants to ...RUN!
The purpose of a shake-down run is to find problems.

Well, I found a small problem.

I made about five fast runs the same as you saw in the video. But did get warning noises and had slippage in reverse on the last run.

I found the passenger side drive chain had come off. Why?- you ask?
The intermediate shaft slipped sideways. My bad I guess.
There are soooo many nuts, bolts, screws, thingy's that need to be turned, and tightened.
I must have not got these well enough. So more practice taking things apart fixing, and replacing.
I feel like I have built 3 of these things.

I think I discovered how powerful each motor is. because it was driving with just one motor and I couldn't feel any difference. For how long I don't know. I felt each motor and the driver side was quite warm (not hot) and the passenger side was just lukewarm.



I'm pleased with the chain tensioner. It works just as I envisioned it would.


So this shake-down run was a success and nothing major has broken...yet!
The homemade sprockets are working quite well.
This chain problem is an easy fix.

I'm anxious to get it out on a flat back road and open her up,
feel the rush of power and the wind through my...ah, never mind.
 

graucho

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Ive been building a house by myself for 17 years, I know how you feel building for extended amounts of time. You have accomplished an amazing work of art. Its been a pleasure to follow your journey. Awesomeness.
 
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Ive been building a house by myself for 17 years, I know how you feel building for extended amounts of time. You have accomplished an amazing work of art. Its been a pleasure to follow your journey. Awesomeness.
Thanks Graucho

It's been a learning experience, to say the least.
But the sense of accomplishment has/is the greatest it's ever been on any of my past projects.

Took a break from it today to recharge ( my ) battery. I'm going to let the drive train sit as-is for a while. I want to get back to my true desire and that is the design and build of the body and all associated parts and bits. I have such ideas for enhancing the real look of the engine. Fuel lines being one and maybe some throttle linkage as well. None being real of course. But don't tell anyone, OK?

Also want to get the body seams completed. Lots of tack welds, grind, file, repeat. I want to keep the body filler to a minimum.
 
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quick question about FORWARD / REVERSE switch
what wire goes where? out of the 4 wires.
The wiring layout is very vague
 
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quick question about FORWARD / REVERSE switch
what wire goes where? out of the 4 wires.
The wiring layout is very vague
A picture is worth a 1000 words. Here's 3000.

Four wires ??? What wiring layout are you using?

Leads from the switch. This is how I have mine.
Because I'm using two motors, I'm using both sets of terminals on the switch.
Also know that my wire color code changes because I'm using an extension wire (at the moment).
I'm not sure where I'm going to mount the reverse switch.


Leads to the controller/s



If you get the Fwd/Rev backwards find neutral and just swap the position of the other two wires on the switch.



Hope this helps
 
Last edited:
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Sep 12, 2012
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Bling for the StreetRunner.

Took some time away from working on the drive train.
Got some bodywork completed and this bit of bling.



I used the eagle from my old flag pole. Mounted it to a bronze/copper cup I have, (from who knows where)
I used JB Weld to hold the eagle in place as well as the attaching stud.



Tomorrow it's back to working on strengthening the drive train components. My trial run with additional power revealed a slipping wheel hub on the axle.
My temp fix isn't strong enough to handle the torque these motors have.
 
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Hub-a-hub-a-hub-a

Just came in from working on the slipping hub problem.
Turns out it's no big thing, whew! :D

The tack welds broke loose. So I put a final weld on the broken one and repeated it on the other hub.
Did an (on jacks) test run, forward/reverse, and all ran A-OK.

Update on the charger issue. Received my replacement charger yesterday. Still didn't get any information about using it though.
So I'm still flying in the dark about whether I caused the other charger to die or not.

Also noticed that the other charger had a max charge capability of 58 +/- volts.
This replacement charger is rated at only 54+/- volts.

Not sure if there's any significance there or not.
 
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well I connected the battery and all I get is some clicking sound.
Will investigate tomorrow.
Had to get the golf cart/hot rod in the garage this morning.
 
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well I connected the battery and all I get is some clicking sound.
Will investigate tomorrow.
Had to get the golf cart/hot rod in the garage this morning.
I want to be able to help, but it's hard to help without seeing/knowing what your setup is. Pics help.

For example...what is clicking?
What wires are going where?
What switch are you using?
What motor set up, etc. etc.
 
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am going to check battery. I am pretty sure I charged it all the way up BUT the charger has 2 leds on it. they both show red then one goes green hile the second led shows red.
Got to wondering if BOTH leds need to be green. The leds are marked in Chinese and directions are no help.
this is a 20am 48v Lipo4 battery
 
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am going to check battery. I am pretty sure I charged it all the way up BUT the charger has 2 leds on it. they both show red then one goes green hile the second led shows red.
Got to wondering if BOTH leds need to be green. The leds are marked in Chinese and directions are no help.
this is a 20am 48v Lipo4 battery
I the chargers are the same as over here then 1 RED LED is just to say "Power to charger is ON" the other swaps from Red to Green when charging is complete.
 
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