Landers came by on Saturday and helped me figure out how to take some stuff apart I was afraid to break if I pulled on it too hard. Most everything is held with 10 mm nuts.
He helped me disconnect and unravel the wiring harness, and take it off.
Today, I took the throttle and choke cables off the handlebars, drained the radiator, and took it off the bike.
I proceeded to cut the two tubes of the front frame just above the engine mount. I used a 6" counter rotating saw with carbide tips for most of the cut, and finished with a reciprocating saw:
I then cut most of the air intake tube built into the top of the frame:
I will need help to finish the cut so the front end doesn't just fall over.
Next will be the cut of the lower right part of the frame, leaving the rear brake bracket attached to the rear end and the engine bracket attached to the front frame:
Removing the top rear engine bolt should let the back end come loose with the gear drive separating from the transmission at the U-Joint:
I finally figured out how to wiggle a wrench in the really tight spots and managed to take off the whole muffler system, the battery holder. I will need to take the rear wheel off to take out the air box.
Anyhow, I am beginning to get a better view of the frame, and thinking of the right places to cut it to separate the V Twin unit
from the rear wheel swing arm unit
Here is a revised left view mock up of a possible Chassis Assembly:
Landers delivered my new bike right to my workshop so I could keep my promise not to ride bikes again. I had moved the stage set stuff to another location to make room for it, but I still have to clean up the benches and reorganize the space to work properly on the built.
I started stripping it yesterday morning even though the workshop is still a mess. Not so easy for an old man with arthritis. I couldn’t lift the darn thing up on my hydraulic lift because of the way the bottom is configured, and the ground is much lower than it used to be. Left hand can pick up a wench, but can’t do much more. I can already tell it’s gonna be a laborious and tiring project...
Everything is packed so tight my basic wrenches can’t reach some bolts, like those holding the exhaust pipes and the transmission cover. Part of the frame is actually used as the air intake.
I really need some expert advice(Landers') on how to proceed.
I would like to re use as much of the frame as possible, and design the chassis so I can:
1. Leave the engine attached to the bike frame and weld the front half of it into the front end of the chassis
2. Weld the back half of the bike frame onto the back end of the chassis.
So it is critical to cut the frame in exactly the right places, and I need to look at it and talk about it with Landers.
Now, assuming I go with the idea of using the Honda as a donor, what kind of chassis do I want to use?
The original Morgan 3 Wheeler actually used a very simple tubular backbone design:
That was used again in the Tatras, and in a much beefier version by Colin Chapman for the Lotus Elan:
I like the simplicity of the design.
The old fashion option is of course a ladder design like the Bugatti 35, which also means an old fashion rigid front end and leaf springs:
The back end would be simplified and just follow the shape of the body, while a strong cross member and braces would be needed to attach the swing arm.
The third option, which offers more rigidity, is a tubular space frame like the Lotus 7, with the back adapted to attach the single wheel swing arm:
The mockup might then look something like that:
The Morgan is using the S&S V twin and a Mazda Miata 5 speed gear box. A chain drives the single rear wheel. I am looking for a simpler solution. Also, I find the motorcycle kick shifting much simpler than the standard automobile grid shifting. My two Mini Coopers have had the Automatic transmission, with manual shifting, and I like the way it works. Push a lever backward to shift up, and forward to shift back makes more sense to me than trying to find gears on a grid. The 6 speed gear box on my Z could be confusing sometimes.
So, I definitely want to use a motorcycle gear box. The shift lever is going to be short and the clutch is going to be a lever on the stick:
Engine wise, the Victory was my first choice for reasons I explained before. But I was at Landers a couple of days ago, and he had a 2001 Honda Shadow 1100 WITH 15,000 miles on sale for $2650:
I looked at it and thought: cut this thing in half, move the rear fork unit back a few feet, extend the drive shaft by the same amount, drop the engine in the front of a chassis, put the radiator in front like an old car, and build a front end. That is a much easier built even than with the Victory motor, and a lot cheaper: Victory engines go for $1800 without exhaust or fuel injection, and I wouldn't have to buy a rear wheel and drive). Good donor bike!
It would not look like a Morgan, but so what, it could look just like a Bugatti instead, which was my original purpose...
My mock up doesn't even change, except for moving the engine back behind the radiator,and therefore behind the front wheels, which should actually improve the handling substantially:
I might move the front wheels back a bit, but that will depend on actual full size mockup tests.
Let's take a look at the parts.
First, a really solid V Twin good looking great sounding engine with the gear box built in and a shaft drive on the left side:
Then the rear end, that can be cut off the bike frame and grafted onto the back of the chassis:
The drive shaft and enclosing tube will need to be extended about 5 feet, and a C joint may have to be added:
Finally, the front brake caliper and disk
will hopefully fit the design of the front end:
