Prancstaman's X1 Scorpion

Hay People,
Sorry for such a late update on this project. Been busy, my laptop took a crap, then my car took a crap, my dog had puppies and now my house is full of crap. Gee People. Then to top it off, the trans in my Jeep took a crap. Fixed my car, found homes for over half of the puppies, cleaned the house and started potty training the pups to go crap outside, fixed my laptop and fought with the software to get working. As it stands, crap level is waste high now, LOL. Oh, Jeep still broken, good thing I got a spare one just sitting in the back yard to get running, no way am I going to change trans in the winter in my driveway. While all this is going on I still found time, well some time, to work on this project. Saved alot of pics and made videos too, I got one more video to edit but that's for the end of this. Probable take a couple days to put up what I got so far with what little time I got to do this.

So stay tuned............. Uploading as you read this for the first post, that is if the pups don't wake up for me to take them out in the cold to crap!!!

Hay People,

I do a little work on the engine. I adjust the governor by loosening the screw to the arm on the shaft coming out of the engine. I just turned it just a hair to the left. Now the engine revs higher and the hand throttle is more responsive to where it changes rpm all through the movement of it.


Next was the choke. The choke originally worked when the throttle was wide open then a little more movement would move the choke, I hated that so I disconnected the linkage to the governor and used a hand choke linkage to go to the choke. Mounted it to that support bracket on the back of the carb buy using a ring terminal with some heat shrink on the connection to hold it together, bent the linkage to work the choke, and I'm golden.


The choke linkage in place. When I made the dash, I made the square hole in the dash for it way back when.


Ok, On to the drive system......

I originally wanted to do some kind of scissors thing on the clutch setup but no go, no room for the linkage to work it. A double pulley clutch in a classic sense won't work either because of the room between the pulleys, about 2.5 inches of room. Then I thought about it all day, maybe if I turn it sideways, the double pulley clutch, so it squeezes the top and bottom part of the belt with a hinge in the middle, get my scissor action going. To hold it in place would be an arm that pivots on the frame going to the double pulley clutch so the whole clutch mechanism can move up and down as needed when I go forward and reverse. I'll need another arm to squeeze the clutch and have the spring hooked to it to tighten the clutch. Confused yet........... It will make sense after the pics. Thanks MatthewD for the suggestion....

Out of time.... To Be continued................. More maybe tomorrow, if I got time.

Lookin good! Yeah I hate the choke and throttle combo thing that some mowers have as well, I'd probably do away with it like you did hahaha.

Maybe have the clutch work on a vertical plane? Youd need a cable to actuate it or something but if it moves straight up and down it shouldnt interfere too much.

@AllisKidD21 wrote:

Lookin good! Yeah I hate the choke and throttle combo thing that some mowers have as well, I'd probably do away with it like you did hahaha.

Yah, I guess the engineer just had a six pack in him when he thought of that one. My riding mower with a plow has it this way too, as soon as the engine catches I have to hurry up and slow it down. Like it's a good thing for the engine to redline on startup.

Doug Fackler wrote:

Maybe have the clutch work on a vertical plane? Youd need a cable to actuate it or something but if it moves straight up and down it shouldnt interfere too much.

Yes, on a vertical plane. I got it to work with an arm though instead of a cable, you'll see. You got the right idea though.

Hay People,

On to making the drive system.
This first pick was the first thing I did, it was jumping the gun and I didn't even know for sure how I was going to use it yet but I made it. It got me, I didn't even know how I was going to make the drive clutches yet but I figured I'll need this somewhere along the lines. It's the silver rod with the little hole in it and silver nut. In between the nut and the little hole is a spacer that goes over the silver rod, the spacer is able to spin on the rod.
OK, a better explanation is in order. I needed an attachment point to the frame and I chose this location, behind the big pulleys. I used the tubing that was holding the original linkage since I didn't cut it out of the frame, which is the tubing piece above the brake in the back of the frame and the little piece of tubing welded to the side of the frame. I also wanted this piece I'm putting there to be removable too. I made a slug to fit inside the little piece of tubing welded to the frame behind the pulley. Next I took a long enough bolt and cut the hex off, I can fit the hexless bolt in the tubing to bridge the space. Now I put a nut on the threaded end of the hexless bolt to where the hexless bolt is put into place and I turn the nut, the nut will push the hexless bolt into the slug and lock into place. I am also able to have a spacer on this and be able to put it into place and the little hole will keep the spacer from sliding sideways by a pin in the little hole. I am now able to attach something to the spacer and be able to remove it and put it back in. Got it, LOL. It will be in the video......



OK, onto making the actual clutches......
I needed to make them removable so I make them in two halves and connect the two halves with bolts to make a whole clutch. This pick is of the swing arm part. The bolt that goes from one side to the other with an alternator spacer in the middle and ofcourse a nut to hold it together. Here's the kicker, the alternator spacer is the pulley. with the nut tight at the end of the threads, the alternator spacer can still spin. Yes I know it will ware the bolt down probably quick too without grease, but if this setup works I'll be replacing the alternator spacer with bearings to make a pulley that will last.


The other part of the clutch is made a little longer. The alternator spacer on this end is a pulley too. Nut holding it together. The center long bolt without a nut, I'll get to that later. The little bolts are the hinges. The long half stays stationary or no influence of movement, and the short half is the tensioner for the belts, is 1 inch long so fully straight is neutral and can close up to 2 inches of movement if needed but not necessary.


Here is the clutch partly made and put into place. It is not mounted to anything at this point and the belts are holding it in place right now. With it fully extended right now, the drive pulleys can slip. The small half tightens the belts. That long bolt in the center without the nut on it will kinda be explained in the video......


Here's the video.



TO BE CONTINUED.................

What's the plan with the suspension now, replacing the air shocks with something else?

By having the belts be squeezed together, wont the force from the tension side of the belt force the clutch system to slacken?

@mr.modified wrote:

What's the plan with the suspension now, replacing the air shocks with something else?

I'm keeping the air shocks, The top mounts for the back air shocks will be moved rearward, as far as I can. Right now the suspension can compress all the way and I still have travel in the shock. I am going to have to have the shock bottom out where I want the A-frame to stop at now. How I have the shocks mounted now I am loosing mechanical leverage. I'm also adding something else to the rear suspension that will help too, a rod from the A-frame to go to the front wheel tensioners to keep the tracks tight. I'll tie the rear suspension to the track tensioner. Should help some also.

@Doug wrote:

By having the belts be squeezed together, wont the force from the tension side of the belt force the clutch system to slacken?

If the clutch was mounted to the frame on where it is at in my last pic, yes, but if is not mounted to the frame then the whole clutch will move to the tension side. My next set of pics and video will show how I do this.

I know, a cliff hanger.

Hay People,

On to the next part of the clutches.

I weld on arms to the short half of the clutches. The short halves are the part I control the clutches with.


The clutch back in. Note the short halves are on the bottom and the arms are hitting the transaxle's axle.


I'm actuating the clutch by pulling up on the arms which move the bottom half. At this point the top half has no influence from anything on it, it goes where it needs to go on its own. And again, the big center bolt without a nut on it, well keep ignoring it for now, I have it in place for clearance reasons and it is not attached to the frame and never will be.


After playing with the clutch for a day or two to see if I can see any problems, I flipped it over and turned it backwards. Seemed to work better that way, so the next time you see it, it will be installed that way from now on.

OK, now I have the short half on top and the arms pointing towards the back and that has the arms beside the big pulleys. I add an arm on the tips of the arms to reach over the top of the big pulleys and a bolt goes through to connect each side and this bolt will be on top of the big pulleys. So to actuate the clutch, the movement will be upwards and forwards.


Test fitting the clutch with the brake caliper in place.


The arm is hitting the brake caliper just a little bit


I trim the brake arm and all is good. Note the clutch is in the new position now, pulling up and forward.


So I have the clutch in place and working. Right now it still is not attached to anything. How I mount it and exactly how it will work will be the next post.

OK, here is the video up to this point.

Hay people,

Working on the rest of the clutch setup. So the clutch is made and I show how it will tighten the belts, works good stationary. So this next part being made will let the clutch float up and down. As long as the tension on the belts stay constant on the top and on the bottom when the clutch squeezes the belts, the belts won't slip, theoretically. Which direction I'm driving in, will tell the clutch to move up or down by the pulling side of the belt, the whole clutch can also pivot too to help tighten the belts. Everything can pivot.

This first pic is the clutch assemble only and the movements it can do. A side view and a top view of the assembly.


Ok, on to the clutch arm that holds the clutch in place. I make it out of 1/2 square tubing and bend it to curve under the sprocket axle, X's 2.


On one end Is the spacer from the bolt that is behind the big pulleys. You know the bolt I first made and didn't know what it was for, LOL. Well the spacer is what that bolt holds in place and is welded to one end of the tubing. You can hardly see it in the pic but it's the side that is marked "PIVOT".
On the other end, I drilled a hole, this is where that bolt with no nut goes through, and I weld on each end of the hole washers to elongate it some for strength.


The next 2 pics are the assembly in place. On this pic the clutch is relaxed all the way without the spring connected.


And this pic is with the spring pulling the clutch and tightening the belts. Sorry for the glare, apparently I suck at taking pictures. I even tried to photo edit it but didn't work.


Here's the vid for the pics. With a demonstration on how it will work.


I don't think I made a vid for putting in the frame work for mounting the springs but I gave a description in the vid how I'm doing it. Here's the pics for that part.
The white ash on the ends of the tubing ofcourse are the bars I welded in. This thing is starting to look like a jungle jim from hell now, LOL. I also have to be careful at this point not to block in the transaxle. I want to be able to still pull that out whole.




The cross bars has 2 washers welded to them on the outer side of the bars to line up with the clutches. I can run a single spring, duel spring, or a triple spring. I'll be starting with a single spring first on the next test drive. Sorry, don't know when that will be yet.




OK, Next post will be me making covers for the clutch area, which is the vid I need to finish editing. May take a while.  The pics of that will be with it.

Brilliant! And as for the idea, you're welcome. I was just bouncing ideas around lol.

@MatthewD wrote:

Brilliant! And as for the idea, you're welcome. I was just bouncing ideas around lol.

Glad you like it. Sometimes I just need a spark to lite the fire.

Are you using bearings on the belt idlers?

@Hillbilly Homer wrote:

Are you using bearings on the belt idlers?

Nope, no bearings, not yet anyways. I need to still buy them still. I used Chrysler alternator spacers that roll on a bolt for now. Should last a couple miles the way it is with a little grease, just to see if my clutch setup will even work. If my clutch setup works then a rebuild will be necessary and the Chrysler alternator spacers will be replaced with small bearings for the setup to last. No sense in buying over $100 in bearings if it's not going to work.

Don't forget, "X1" means the first experimental model Scorpion. Still under development, LOL. And thanks for the comment.

Hay People,

Now that I got the clutches done, I need to make some covers for them for protection, safety, and to keep anything from falling on them. The area won't be completely enclosed yet but getting there. Also the covers will define the area more so I know how to run the controls for the clutches and brakes.

So......
I start out making templates from cardboard.


The templates are traced out on the sheet metal.


Then are cut out using a hand grinder with a cutoff wheel.


Bent them using my sheet metal brake. One of my favorite tools I made. Makes a nice clean bend.



To hold them I place, I bolt them in using on bolt hole on top and drill and tap 2 bolt holes on the cross bar I just put in.



Here is the last video on the work. I finally had the time to edit it. You can tell it was a while ago because there is no snow. Enjoy......


As it sits, I still need to make the controls and I want to fix the rear shocks issue and front idlers issue before I drop it back on the ground. Don't know when that will be so, TO BE CONTINUED............

Cutting those plates out does not look like fun.
Makes one of them el-cheapo plasma cutters sound pretty good eh

Wasn't too bad. I had the camera out to record me cutting them out but forgot to push the record. Plasma cutter is on my wish list though, right after a TIG welder .

Well for what its worth, an old Lincoln AC/DC+/- stick can make for a cheap scratch start Tig. Thats what I have anyways. Works good when I dont turn the gas off mid weld.

I was out attempting to plow some snow with the sears the other day and got to thinking a tracked unit would probably be a bit better.... not Im thinking about how to build something.
Looking forward to see how yours does.

@TheBeal wrote:

Well for what its worth, an old Lincoln AC/DC+/- stick can make for a cheap scratch start Tig. Thats what I have anyways. Works good when I dont turn the gas off mid weld.

I was out attempting to plow some snow with the sears the other day and got to thinking a tracked unit would probably be a bit better.... not Im thinking about how to build something.
Looking forward to see how yours does.

Can you post a couple pics of your tig welder. I have a stick welder doing nothing and a busted harbor freight one also. Was thinking on how to make a simple tig the other month out of one of them.

Yah, this thing should do pretty good in the snow, tracks have 1/4 inch cleets on them and are 10 inches wide. Hopefully I don't bust an axle shaft on the sprockets, them being 3/4 axles. I got a plow for it also that is 54 inches wide but is 8 inches short. Would need to put extensions on the sides.

Here is the welder, and the Tig Torch.

The welder has quick connect thingys for the cables. It came with 4 or 5 stick leads, and extension, and the Tig torch.
I tried to get a better picture of the tig connections but my light wasnt working.



I apologize this is sideways, I tried uploading it a couple times and it keeps going crooked.




Im not real thrilled with this torch, it works... but it feels kinda flimsy. Ill get a better one sooner or later. Definanly gona get a long endcap so I can fit the whole tungsten in there.

Once I have more room to work with, I want to look into adding a high frequency box and foot pedal.

Pretty cool setup. The blue nob on the torch handle, does that turn the gas on? I'm assuming the the gas line comes off the torch handle and goes straight to the regulator? The positive lead from torch handle to the welder positive?

Lookin good with the sheet metal

@prancstaman wrote:

Pretty cool setup. The blue nob on the torch handle, does that turn the gas on? I'm assuming the the gas line comes off the torch handle and goes straight to the regulator? The positive lead from torch handle to the welder positive?

Yup, blue nob is gas. There is a plastic case where the cable, and gas hose seperate, I assume there is just a tab under there the cable it attached to.


It would be real simple to build one of these rigs. Before I got this welder, I was looking into putting together a rig like this here.