A new Kitty in my life

I've been using postimage since I first came to this site and never had problems till recently. Now it sometimes takes 2 or 3 goes before it responds to image requests and although it shows ok when I upload to here, it will either not show at all or not for very long. I'm not having problems with any other PC progs.

Yes the chassis is a nice thick girder type and has no rust at all that I can find. Body obviously fibreglass so no rust but one or two places need strengthening such as around the door hinges (no door restraints were fitted so just relied on the hinge mountings which were not tough enough for the wind that whistles across here).

Yes Danny that's my thinking. No messages that I need 'adblue' topping up or the car will cease to run in 50 miles, No going into limp mode for some wierd fault that can only be found using a OBD2 computer program at a Citroen service centre which will cost several handfulls of my pension and after which the garage will try three or four different fixes before finding the actual problem.
Admittedly modern cars will do high mileages without problems where an old one really needs servicing at intervals but at least I know what I'm looking at when I 'open the bonnet' to check the points and plugs.

I think I have just proved that I'm an old planet polluting luddite who needs to be put out to pasture. I'm ready just lead me there in my delta trike and a freshly charged lithium battery.

John.
 
Absolutely- and after replacing a few bits like oxygen sensor, maf sensor and crankshaft position sensor plus keep topping up the adblue and regular 60mph+ runs to purge the cat. Add to that the forced 20mph crawls in city traffic control zones and I think my old classic isn't at all bad. I suspect running costs and total lifetime pollution of the modern vehicle will not be so much better than a well maintained 'old tech' car.
Well that's my opinion and I'm sticking to it. :)

Anyway popshot sorry for the hijack and please keep updates on the Kitten coming.

John
 
As a public service, for those who can't view it, here's John's Ant, again, in all its glory :)
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First task was to get it jacked up with one of these.....


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That should save a lot of up and down and I even hit the balance point first time.

First actual task is done. The shifter is made though not connected at the engine end yet and I can't bolt it down as the seat needs to go in first and other things too before those etc etc.



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Next job is to convert the Kitten pedal box so I can have balance adjustment on the brakes. I don't want this so I can fiddle (sic) with the brakes whilst driving but so I can find the point at which they all lock together so I don't waster any braking. Given the mix of parts of Astra front discs and Micra rear it'd be all too easy to have one set lock way too early. For those not familiar with the Robin / Kitten pedal box they are a builders delight. Small, self contained and already have mounts for two master cylinders. I can use both for the brakes as the clutch is cable.



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Thanks undertoad. My pics put on other sites seem to be sticking ok now once I get them up so not sure why these are disappearing on me.

Potholes are an 'adventure' in a three wheeler as most of you delta/tadpole bikers will know. I've had three wheelers since age 16- probably twenty different ones. If you keep eyes on the road ahead then mostly you can avoid the worst bangs and thumps. Worst time is in heavy snow when it's almost impossible to avoid ploughing a third furrow and being thrown back and forth. Slowly slowly or stay home is the only way.

You've made a good start on the Rebel D. Great to see most folk on this site are just as messy as me in their workshops. I'm a bit like Danny in that when I need to work on the bench I end up just pushing everything to the back to make space. Big drawback to untidyness is that with my fading memory I spend crazy amounts of time looking for the bit that 'I just put down a minute ago'.

That lift is a very handy thing to have. I'd love to have a decent lift or a pit. The front wheel of the Ant is now a foot in the air on a contraption made from bits of 4x2 to make getting underneath easier. A pain to jack a car high enough to get it in position but great once it's there. Biggest pain is getting my 15 stones of lard up and down to get underneath and back up again to go and fetch the one spanner I didn't think I'd need.

Don't know if you've ever come across 'mustie1' on youtube? I get the impression you are a bit like him in the way you can tackle most vehicular type tasks. Methodical perhaps is the word. Give him a look if you get time.

John
 
Pedal box coming along....


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The clutch however is going to require a lot of fabrication at the engine end. I had in my mind from somewhere it was cable. I don't know where I got that idea from but no matter. A look at the spare engine showed me it was hydraulic and an issue. The clutch rod and the hole it passes through are shown here. The slave fills the bowl on the right. The propshaft adapter replaces the sprocket and is almost the same diameter as it. ie the propshaft and clutch slave now want the same space!! A bit of a problem to be sure.


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Some thinking time later I can convert to cable by making a complex bracket across the blue line and a lever in red. Another complex bracket at the other end of the red and it'll pull enough to shift the rod. I've had a bit of metal in there and can generate enough force to move it by hand so a foot will have no problem. I'm awaiting a (hopefully) suitable cable so I can modify the pedal to take it before the pedal box gets fitted.



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Pedal box now modified to take a cable by the expedient to adding on a bit of a bike lever and bolted into the car along with the steering column. The steering column attachment is rather flimsy considering the job it is doing and will likely get beefed up. I intend to use the bike switchgear to save splicing into 50 year old wiring so have removed all the Reliant accessories from the column. I have a rather shiny carbon wheel to add to the column but that will wait until complete.





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Next up will be to fabricate the bracketry and a lever to convert the engine to cable clutch. This will involve dragging the spare engine to the welder or the welder to the spare engine. Given the amount of junk / part finished work / valuable lifetime accumulations in the way is a feat my back is not looking forward to. The actual work will be less effort. The only other option is to build it on the engine that's installed which means welding directly above myself. A few burns may be less painful than knackering my back further.

I have a whole extra CBR100F bike and 80% of another coming next week so a whole extra shed is going to be needed.
 
Popshot said:
I have thought many a time about a car turner but they take up room I just don't have.
Click to expand...
I saw one made from 2 of those fold away engine stands , so they were just braced at the bottom to prevent them drifting apart.
However once the braces were unbolted they just folded up out of the way ?

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One here without even braces ?


Even made the Tube of You ?

Paul
 
Not recently. I've been working on an old Honda these last few days. Making the engine a cable clutch is the next job but that will await sorting an old trailer first. Too many demands and not enough me.
 
Just been watching a youtube vid of guy who put 100bhp Kawasaki engine in a Reliant Rialto. Really bodged up install but never intended for the road. Went like stink when he got it going - almost looked fun. Then he tried to do a burnout and snapped the Reliant propshaft in half?? Kids eh!
 
The reliant parts are 50+ years old and designed for a 35hp engine. My dad had a propshaft let go on a Marina we had on the motorway. It made several sizeable dents in the transmission tunnel. I like my propshafts on the outside of the car.

After a couple of other projects intruded on my time I finally got back to the Kitten.

Bracketry is now made for the cable clutch conversion. There's three bolts on two levels at the pivot and two bolts on two levels at the cable end. The main bar is a bit of 10mm keyway steel and the rest is a bit of 15x3mm stainless bar. Over the rod I used a M10 nut slightly ovalled inside to allow for the angles the rod will work within. I used a guide to keep the arm as far from the propshaft as I could as without it it has the ability to wander left and right by a fair amount. I've tried to keep the bracketry to a minimum as the whole car is about being lightweight. The cable has 75mm of movement in it and that is maxed out at the pedal end. It only needs 42mm at the engine end to hit the max travel so less than that to actually operate so I have plenty of spare to allow me to align the clutch and brake pedal positions at rest. I can operate it with my hand without exerting myself so the pedal which itself has 2.5:1 "ish" leverage and a foot to operate it means it's a very light unit.

Most bike engines have a multitude of bolts holding them together so it's likely most bike engines could be converted in this way. I had to weld the brackets together on the spare engine to get everything aligned from one level to the next. It could have been done on the engine in the car but welding over your head has never been a favourite pastime of mine and I have the burns to show why.


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Nicely thought out and fabricated. Took me a while to see exactly how it worked but now I see it I'm impressed. I take it you won't be re-fitting the cover over the sprocket. Will the propshaft bolt to the sprocket assembly somehow, via a layshaft perhaps, or will you make up a new propshaft/ adapt the Kitten one or am I way off?

John
 
I have a propshaft adapter that slides onto the sprocket splines. These already exist for the bike engined Lotus 7 market so no need to get creative. The prop then bolts to that. The prop is a two piece design with a UJ in the middle. Despite the engine being as far over as it will go in the bay the prop will run at a fair angle which is undesirable but unavoidable.

I now need to make a gear selector at the engine end and make that miss the new clutch. The main part will again be the cable mounting.
 
Got it. That's handy and saves a lot of awkward fabbing- always a worry on a critical item like that. I assume the centre of the prop will need a support bearing and carrier bolted on somewhere?

Gear selector may well need some careful thought but not safety critical and I'm sure you'll manage to sort it. A satisfying job I reckon.

I have my Ant back axle in bits waiting for a taller ratio diff to arrive. The Ant was designed with a really low ratio as it was considered a load carrier and Reliant didn't want to strain the engine so ratio is crazy with poor little engine revving it's bits off at 30mph. Terrible racket is too much for me so new ratio has been ordered from a Reliant breaker. Not a job I was wanting to do as rolling around under a car has lost it's charm for me these days but I really want to get the Ant in a comfortably useable order so I can use it regularly.

Keep up the good work and posts popshot.
 
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