Electric Trike Build

[Ulu]

I decided that it was time to break this out of my updates and give it its own place. I was going to put this in “built from scratch”, But I am planning to use 3 pre-welded assemblies in the construction.

Here is the latest sketch for my electric and possibly hybrid gasoline-electric trike. This is not intended to be suitable for travel over about 25 miles an hour. Basically for running around my neighborhood to the pharmacy and the grocery store.

This is the first sketch of the floor pan frame.

The idea is that one person can sit in the middle of this and drive it or two people can sit side-by-side and either one of them will be able to drive it.

The frame is intended to be welded tube steel and I have drawn the front end based on the BMW telelever suspension system. This is the system that uses two ball joints instead of a stem & ball bearings.

I’m planning to use the front wheel from the 32” Kent Big League cruiser. There it is compared to the 26 x 4 fatty.

This trike will be constructed around a modified transaxle from a 1970s Craftsman GTV6 garden tractor. Despite the name, it was not V6 powered, but had a 16 hp Briggs flat twin boxer motor. It would’ve looked right at home with the telelever suspension.

The transmission had three speeds, but what made it a V6 is it was based on the Craftsman 6000, but it had a “variator” pulley. This was like the variable width pulley on a snowmobile, but it was operated by a lever instead of a centrifugal flyweight mechanism. This gave you infinite ratio control over a certain range. It allowed you to burn belts like a madman if you miss handled it.

Anyhow, it was my father’s tractor and I mowed his property with it for many years. When the engine blew up I stripped it all down for parts and I kept everything that I wanted for future purposes. Most importantly it included this transaxle.

 

[Ulu]

More views of donor transaxle with hubs & shifter, for the electric/hybrid trike. The case and the hubs are aluminum. All the gears and shafts are hardened steel.

The wheels for are 12x8.50 and these tires are 23” OD.

Here I am looking at recycling a steel tube weldment as part of the seat platform.

 

[Ulu]

Stripping down the first bits and brackets.

Removing the brake band and drum.

I was able to remove that brake drum with a simple gear puller, but it took some force, because it had a tapered shaft, and it’s been together for 50 years.

 

[Ulu]

The hubs have to come off. If you pry off the circlip, the hubs slide right off the axle splines.

Well, the first one did. The second one was seized with rust. I lubricated it well and put on the crows-foot hub puller.

It came apart without too much provocation, once I applied some pressure and hit that aluminum hub with the heat gun.

The input pulley would not come loose either and there was no way to grab it so I drilled a couple holes into the pulley and tapped them.

I put the steering wheel puller on it and I put some extra nuts on the back.

It needed them too. I had to really wail on this thing to get it to pop off. It has been attached for nearly 50 years.

Eventually, I restorted to a pipe wrench and a breaker bar, and it popped like a gun shot.

Still quite a bit of cleanup to do before I split the case.

 

[Ulu]

This trans used to force oil thru the axle seals because there was no air vent.

Back in the ‘70s I added a vent hole thru the trans filler plug. I closed it with a riveted nail to keep the dirt out but still allow the trans to vent hot vapors.

The shift pattern is not like a car. This is a crash-box with no syncromesh.

These tires are much larger and heavier than what I am going to need, and I think they will just make the trike slow.

So I have this pair of wheels from an early ‘60s Plymouth Valiant. They are only half as heavy. They won’t be as stylish. Oh well…..

Those tires are spare tires out of two trunks. The tread on the both of them is good, and one of them still has a bit of the original nubs. So old and hard…

One is an Armstrong and the other is a Kelly Springfield so they do not match at all. This doesn’t matter because I will put modern tires on them. This uses the same size as my boat trailer: 4.50x12.

The key here is that the bolt pattern of the tractor and the Plymouth is exactly the same.

 

[curtisfox]

Same as Ford and trailer also............Curt

 

[Ulu]

That old Armstrong is in fact a trailer tire. I have some old 15” Ford and Plymouth wheels, but not nice enough.

The rims are 4.5” wide & offset 2.25” so nearly equal.

The Sears rims are 8” wide offset 2.6” inside. Outside 5.4”.

So the inset is about the same.
Track goes from 28” down to 22” by using the skinny wheels but Inside clearance only increases about 0.7”.

So a host of difficulties present themselves. The track wants to be 12” wider. The trans wants to be lower.

The trans needs to be lighter. With electric drive I won’t need reverse gear, and I surely won’t need low. 2 & 3 will be ok if I can get the overall gearing much higher.

This trans ran at 2x to 3x engine speed at the input. I don’t know the output ratios yet. It was slow, but with the variator could achieve 8 mph. Naaah…I don’t want v-belt drive.

Maybe 5 mph then, with a 3000 rpm motor. 8.4 at 5000 rpm, To go maybe 25 mph it needs the motor geared up by 2 where it was geared down by 2.

So the overall gearing is not what I might want but by limiting myself to top gear only and electric drive with the electric reverse, I can probably do it. Mostly I want this trans for the differential gears.

I want to remove at least half the gears and shafts, I want to lighten the rest a lot.

I want direct drive with a lovejoy coupling or “cush drive” hub at the motor, and I want the motor to mount right to the transaxle case.

I want the trans and motor to hinge from the frame like a Lambretta scooter. (Can you see the real me? Back in the day I owned two of those 150cc.)

I have a couple of air shocks with coil springs from a Kawasaki that will handle the rear suspension chores.

I knew I wanted different tires and wheels, but this isn’t the magic combo. I do have some 8”x4.5” trailer wheels that will fit. That will lower it 2”. BUT It will slow down 1/3 due to gearing!

I think I’m gonna have to forget about direct drive and religate my self to using some kind of a jack shaft, but it’s hard to say what I can do until I get this thing open and examine the insides thoroughly.

I wasn’t prepared to do it at this point but it looks like we’ve got another week of rain ahead of us and I am not gonna be in any mood to do welding outdoors. I will probably pop the transmission open today or tomorrow.

 

[Ulu]

I’d probably be pretty happy if I put all this gear up for sale on craigslist, and turned it into random cash.

Something I read over on the HAMB over 10 years ago keeps ringing in my head at this point. “Just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should.”

I promised myself to work on the ‘glass Jaguar, and that’s not getting done. I am afraid I’m getting too old for jalopies and choppers but I have three car projects out in front of me. One is only half done, one is only half there, and one is not even started.

If I should somehow managed to finish them all before I die (or get too stove-up to work anymore) it will be a miracle.

I figure it will take me about 15 minutes to get all the bolts out & split the box.

I’m going to go do it before the sun goes down. Tomorrow I might not wanna work on it at all.

 

[sdframe]

That is one ambitious undertaking! Good luck with the project.

 

[Ulu]

That is one ambitious undertaking! Good luck with the project.

Thank you, and please remember that this is not intended to the highway burner or a freeway flyer. This is going to take me around to the corner grocery store.

Lo-speed, So it wants to be low slung.

Well right off the bat it took me an hour and 10 minutes to just drain the oil, once I remembered that I hadn’t drained it 30 years ago. Anyhow it’s pretty much drained now. I have to set it up to get it all out. Here I’m deciding if I should use this special imported Mexican oil that still comes in glass bottles.

The first delay was a crooked bolt in the shifter housing, which was installed wrong by the factory (or the dealer?) and the drain: a little 3/8” iron pipe plug stuck in a aluminum case for 50 years. I heard that they can be impossible to remove.

I didn’t wanna roach it. I used a four point socket and the breaker bar, thus I was able to loosen it in one stroke without a struggle or damage

 

[curtisfox]

https://www.staton-inc.com/store/index.php?p=product&id=184 They have the sprockets also, also in 1". Use to find them in old lawn mower, but were offset so you needed 2 for long axle on both sides. ...........Curt.

 

[Ulu]

https://www.staton-inc.com/store/index.php?p=product&id=184 They have the sprockets also, also in 1". Use to find them in old lawn mower, but were offset so you needed 2 for long axle on both sides. ...........Curt.

Thank you Curt. I’m not sure I could do the machining necessary to make that work, but it is hard to say.

I need to look at a finished machine with that unit already installed.

In the meantime, the weather turned suddenly nice, so I’ve been out riding my bicycle and running the barbecue instead of working on this.

I’m going to go pull all the bolts out of the housing and finish cleaning it but I’m not going to pop the case apart just yet.

I found a video on YouTube where somebody tears a similar transmission down and I wanna have a good look at that first. I don’t expect any weird parts and springs to go flying but I don’t have a diagram for this so it pays to be careful.

 

[Son of Kradus]

Wow and heres me thinking I was clever putting a car tyre on a pushbkie! Will watch with intrest here coz I love what your doing! with 2 car tyres and the diff etc I rekon you may be needing upwards of 72V-3000W, what sort of petrol motor you thinking of!

 

[Ulu]

Wow and heres me thinking I was clever putting a car tyre on a pushbkie! Will watch with intrest here coz I love what your doing! with 2 car tyres and the diff etc I rekon you may be needing upwards of 72V-3000W, what sort of petrol motor you thinking of!

My thought was really to keep it all electric. At least initially.

This thing is not supposed to get over 25 miles an hour. It’s just for neighborhood duty.

The tires and wheels that you see in these photographs are not necessarily what I’m going to use. I’m going to be looking for something much lighter.

 

[Ulu]

I spent some time cleaning up the transmission case, and actually did split the case apart. But then I put it back together right away without letting it open.

I didn’t want it to come apart yet because I had not removed the woodruff key. The shaft won’t go through the bearings with this on.

I could not get it out with a punch or a pair of side cutters. Finally I grabbed a pair of 14 inch channel lock nail nippers and jiggled it. With the application of a fine penetrating oil and some world class jiggling it finally came out.

You can see a couple nicks in the shaft and the key itself took some damage. I wasn’t planning to reuse these two parts unless I needed to.

This was the shaft that had the transmission brake mounted on it.
Anyhow I cleaned it all up a little more and put it aside for tonight. It’s dinner time.

 

[Son of Kradus]

it didnt matter what type or grade of penetrating oil you used...... it would still be in there if not for the "World Class Jiggling"

 

[Ulu]

it didnt matter what type or grade of penetrating oil you used...... it would still be in there if not for the "World Class Jiggling"

I’ve never had one that was this difficult to remove before. I had to squeeze those nippers with all my might.

By the way, I used Seafoam Deep Creep. I’d already hit it a couple times with PB Blaster, but this is one of those occasions when you bring out the good stuff.

 

[curtisfox]

It would be about the same as a regular trike, only with a bigger sprocket. Needs bearings both inboard and out. Not to much to them Here is a lawn tractor one.

And what the gears look like, this is bigger, but same gears.

Allows for both wheels to drive and still turn. I have a new one same as .............Curt.

 

[Ulu]

Mine doesn't have spider gears. It's all done with straight cut gears and is 4x stronger.

Also much heavier!

I'll get it open and take pics today if it doesn't rain hard.

 

[Son of Kradus]

It would be about the same as a regular trike, only with a bigger sprocket. Needs bearings both inboard and out. Not to much to them Here is a lawn tractor one.View attachment 226634
And what the gears look like, this is bigger, but same gears.View attachment 226635
Allows for both wheels to drive and still turn. I have a new one same as .............Curt.

WOW,,, ok ive always wondered how you guys turn in the trikes without the differential, so almost every trike has a diff, or are some a solid axle left to right. in the hot wheels drifter with the solid axle (even with plastic sleeves) was a horror to pedal and turn, even on the bitumen. under motor power no probs!