Posted by Sherman in Idaho [108.162.245.23] on Wednesday, July 13, 2016 at 14:25:20 :
In Reply to: Torque of go kart motor vs pony? posted by Chris Case [108.162.215.235] on Wednesday, July 13, 2016 at 14:04:50 :
Will it be torqy enough to crank the diesel in cold weather? Not sure. Will I even be able to pull the starter cord when it has two belt pulleys and 3 gears all connected? This is seat-of-the-pants "engineering". I'm not proud of it, but from what I've read on-line funkier things have worked for others, and there are lots of guys sticking electric starters on them. I didn't want to go that route because the conversion kits are expensive, and then you need at least 2 stout batteries (which freeze over the winter or get stolen) and your cranking time is limited by battery juice. I wanted something that could crank the diesel for 15 minutes if need be, like the old pony. And like I said, I intend to rebuilt my pony at some point. Cat parts are expensive, and its going to need serious work on the valves plus custom undersized main bearings. As for zerks, that's what I plan to do to oil the "transfer" gear. I won't be able to see it once it's installed, so I'll just have to remember to give it a couple big squirts of oil each time I start it.
If I can get the chicom motor (420 cc) to start under inertia-only load (all that inertia should act as a flywheel so maybe it's a good thing), I should be able to engage the diesel pinion clutch slowly if need be. Its oil-bath clutch can slip quite a bit without overheating. The diesel has compression release. It will have to crank longer than with the pony because the chicom motor won't heat the coolant or diesel intake air, but I rarely do cat work when it's below freezing and if I really have to I can give it a snort of ether or stick a blow-torch down the intake. That's the plan anyway. Can't tell if it'll work until I get it all together. Got all the parts on hand and this point so it's just a matter of fabrication and assembly.
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