My Grandpa's got a new project.

[markh15]

Hi Brian,

Sorry to hear that you've 'Gone Off The Boil' of late, but it is really far too cold for us 'oldies' to be messing about in draughty garages / sheds.

Hope you soon get back into the 'shwing' of things, meanwhile, wrap up warm, put yer welly boots on, and get out in the park with Travis, take lots of pictures (as I will be doing) and we can make all of those still building really jealous!! (ha ha ha)
I've waited almost two years for this opportunity!

We should have organised a meeting somewhere for the first snowfall, but the weather isn't that predictable!

Thank You for the Seasonal Wishes, and a Merry Christmas, and a Happy(er) New Year to You, Valerie, and the children, including 'Test Driver Travis'!

Best Wishes and Kindest Regards,
Mark.

[brian]

Smee again.

Today, we had some friends visit us from Leicester, yes,  I know, but we've known them a long time, they are true Yorkshire ex pats, and they've got to live somewhere. Anyway, I digress.

They came bearing gifts, as you do, well you do if you are one of my friends, else we don't feed you.

Valerie got a bunch of flowers, I got a box of Maltesers, and my Grandson got a perfectly good but much used "Ketcar".

Now for those that don't know, the "Ketcar" is a sort of Go Kart with pedals like a bike, a handbrake bearing on the two rear wheels, a bucket seat and very direct steering.  Sound familiar???

We had arranged for No1 Grandson to come and visit us as our friends think a lot about him and like to see him, but we did not know anything about the toy for Travis 'till they arrived with it, there grand children having grown too large for it.

The new toy was duly presented to Travis, our four year old Grandson, who quickly sussed out the rudiments of driving it, and he was away, up and down the causeway.

He was travelling well in excess of the 4MPH of the Toylander, could turn it on a sixpence, and the direct toy steering was extremely light despite it's half a turn from lock to lock.

He was clearly enjoying this experience more than the sedate trundling, hard to turn Toylander I had put in many hours to produce for him.

This set me thinking, I do when I have to, it can be painfull, but some of us just have to grin and bear it.

I modified the steering as you know, "(well you do if you've been reading the tome that preceeds this)", to take it away from the direct steering it was supposed to have.  I fitted state of the art suspension bushes as king pin steering bushes and it steers as though it is a pre power steering double decker bus, requiring muscles that can snatch lift a couple of hundred weights..

So clearly, I've got it wrong somewhere.

I also went from a very simple and effective, if somewhat jerky, direct on drive, to a sophisticated speed controller that gives beautifull smooth starts with regenerative braking stops. But, the motor is not developing as much power now as it is capable of? as demonstrated in the direct on state.

Now this has obviously got something to do with the variable resistor, but I have got some investigating to do.

So, this simple kindly gift from our friends to my Grandson, has done my street cred with said Grandson, no good at all, and I have some serious modifying to do if we are not to arrive at the Landrover max show with the "Ketcar" rather than the Toylander.

Regards,

Brian.

[brian]

Well now, here we are again.  I've abandoned the railway build for the time being as I am awaiting some electronic parts from E-bay to enable the mimic diagram to show where the train is on the layout.  The original idea of using reed switches embeded into the track with magnets on the loco's having failed due to the difficulty in mounting the tiny magnets in the space available on the loco's.

So, I thought, what can I do to fill in the time between the demands of friends and family, to repair there various electric and mechanical household appliances???

The answer came easily, 'cos I've bean meaning to fit the second drive motor to my grandson Travis' T2.  When I first started building I found a pair of motors on E-bay but only fitted one at the time thinking that this would be sufficient.  Having seen and read some of the antics of other builders on here, and the kind of terrain that can be tackled by them, I fear that my attempts at forward motion are very limited to aircraft runways and other flat pieces of land, so back to the drawing board it is.

I will post some pictures of the process and progress as I go along.

Brian

[brian]

I have started to make the new motor/gearbox mount for the second offside drive. 

This is cut from 50x50x6mm steel angle, drilled and filed to accept the motor/gearbox.



The tub fixings are 6mm countersunk setscrews and flanged nuts, and gearbox mounting holes are 6mm clearance elongated to 25mm to allow the chain to be tensioned.



A new inovation on this mount, not done on the existing nearside mount, are the two setscrews that project into the tub undernieth the gearbox casing, adjustable from below the tub, these setscrews push the gearbox up and so tension the chain.  This is an improvement on the original prize it up with a screwdriver and tighten the fixing screws method.



The blue handled Alan key is in the adjusting setscrew.

The motor/gearbox mount was fitted to the tub floor, ready to accept the motor/gearbox assembly.

Brian

[brian]

Doh, who's a di*khead then??

Came to fit the motor and found that it is the same hand as the other one, ie. nearside drive with the motor at the driver's seat end.  I never noticed before.

[brian]

This is the motor as purchased off ebay, as you can see, the drive shaft protrudes the wrong side to mount on the T2's offside, so I need a plan "B".



The only plan "B" I can come up with is to split the gearbox and see if I can turn the drive shaft round, both sides of the gearbox are identical castings so it looks a possibility.



The drive splits easily but watch out for the four rubber cushions that fit between both halves of the coupling.



With the gearbox spilt from the motor, (2 x  M6, 10mm spanner)you will find the two gearbox halves are riveted together with 3/16" rivets. m A (3/16" rivets, 7/32" drill) will take off the rivet heads.  If the rivets spin, provided most of the head has been drilled away, a parallel punch placed over the part severed rivet head and given a smart tap with a hammer will punch the rivet out.


Brian.

[brian]

I'm sorry I am having to split this topic up but the forum does not like my long posts and makes it difficult to continue typing.

With the gearbox split, this is what the internals look like.



As you can see, we have a steel worm turning a plastic wormwheel with a coating of white grease as a lubricant.

Both ends of the shaft run in identical bearings, so I lifted out the worm, and tapped out the shaft bearing and shaft from it's housing from the bottom half of the casing as you look at the picture.  I turned the shaft round and pushed the drive length through the bottom of the casting as viewed in the photo.

The gearbox was reassembled, in good old Haynes speak, this is a reversal of the disassembly procedure.




I replaced the rivets with M5 nuts and bolts, the rubber cushions were a bit of a nuisance to get in position as both sides are brought together, but a dab of silicone grease, which does not affect rubber held them in place.

Brian.

[brian]

The reassembled motor was mounted to the mounting cradle in the tub, and now awaits the sprocket and chain on order from Richard. 



And there we are, one resurrected motor doing some useful work.

Regards,

Brian.

[brian]

Hello guest viewer, I hope you are finding my written words of interest and help.

Regards,

Brian.

[brian]

 

Hello to all our members

Can I take this opportunity to wish you all a very happy Christmas and wish you a safe, painfree and prosperous new year.

May all our Toylanders continue to give pleasure to children far and wide.

Brian.

[markh15]

Hello Brian,
Sorry did I make you jump?

Yep, it's me again, back from the other side of beyond!

Glad to see you've finally decided to upgrade the poor lads drive system, how old is he now, 18, 20?

I'm a fine one to critisize, I checked the Minimum Moke today, and found that one of the panels has suffered warpage and twisting due to poor storage, ah well, another setback for grandad!

Anyhooo, I've got my paws on the welder (again), so I might have a bash at sorting the metalwork out over the holidays.

Thanks for the seasonal greeting Mr Brian, Hope everyone in the household is well, and you're keeping warm.

Wishing you and Valerie all the Best for Christmas and the New Year,

Regards,
Mark.

[brian]

Hello Mark, just left you a message in your mini moke thread.

Not done much to the T2 since fitting the second motor, I've been busy working on the model railway, it's coming along quite nicely, lots of flashing lights and motorized models and features, wheyhey.

Kind regards to you and all your family,

Brian.

[brian]

Hello all, just a little update, Travis was out in our local park the other day with his T2 so I took the opportunity to take a photo or three.



Driving in the park heading for the play area.



Parked up while he's at play.



Still at play, Grandpa patiently waiting.



On the way home for tea and a recharge.

Regards,

Brian.

[markh15]

Good Evening Brian,

Glad to see Travis out enjoying the modified T2, and some late summer sun and fresh air.

I'm hoping to take Harvey to the seaside on Sunday (weather permitting), and am planning to take the T2 along with a pair of spare batteries, to prolong the play!
Am aiming for Southport / Ainsdale area, far away from the amusements!

Just hope the rain stays away.

Take Care,
Regards,
Mark.

[brian]

Have a nice day Mark.

It's amazing how an outing with the T2 can generate so much interest, a circuit of our estate road while Grandma finnished cooking tea brought two hairy builders down off of there scafolding to inspect and admire the T2.

If Richard gets as many enquiries and better still orders for a set of plans as I have given out the information "Just Google Toylander" to people who have stopped me to admire Travis's T2, then he should be a happy man.

It is a fact though that the cost of the build does tend to modify prospective builders enthusiasm for the project.  The new build I was hoping to undertake fell at the first hurdle when I told the prospective client just the initial cost of the tub materials and a few bits and bobs, such a shame, I was realy looking forward to another project.

Kind regards to you and your family,

Brian.