Hi, My toylander build

[Gremlin]

Progress..................

Painted the bumper in hammerite, gave it a galvanized look. Put the wing top chequer plate and bonnet catches. Installed the dash and started working on gear lever. I finished the throttle pedal and angled floor boards. The rest of the floor will be covered with the rest of the chequer plate sheet i got.

Pics..............................













Grem

[markh15]

Hi Grem, have just spent some time looking at your build and I have to say Brilliant! I only have one question, do you live on the moon? The suspension looks as if it was build for a lunar rover! Its fantastic.   Can I ask what the suspension came from? It looks like a golf cart, as it's wider than the disability scooter that I used. I too had trouble with the hub assemblies, but solved the prob by using trailer hubs and wheels and adapting the axle and scooter hubs.  I had a thought, maybe you could use dampers from a mountain bike! These are only about six inches long and are adjustable. Keep up the good work and stop putting the rest of us to shame!, Best Regards, Mark.

[Gremlin]

Not yet but sometime i do wish i live there

Suspension is a mis of bits, front springs are from an old bike with suspension, rears are a steering relay spring cut in half from a land rover, ball joints at the both arms are vw items, the rest of the design came from being in the offroad comunity for over 20 years.

Yes i made it wider due to the fact i wanted fat wheels and also to clear the movement of the suspension. I also made it taller for the previous reasons. The wheels are usually used on the front on ride on mowers. i avoided using hubs to lower costs, but until i got the rears right it took some time as the scooter axle is narrow so i got the width buy making my own hubs welded to the rims.

Dampers, i will probably resort to washing machine drum dampers. But i will look into the bike ones......

Thanks for the compliments. You went into certain details on the body work that i did not manage to do as i thought they where extra, nice work.

I made some progress today, hooked up the controller and it all works!! I also managed to sort the brake disengagement before the controller kicks in. So theoritically as soon as the pedal is pressed the brake disengages, let the pedal go and it brakes.

Next is trying to sort the reverse switch, i actually want to try to make the vehicle stop before reverse can be engaged as a safty feature and also to avoid undue stress on all the components, especially the controller.

Pics to follow soon...........

Patrick

[Gremlin]

Made some progress this weekend with finalising my electrical issues.

Basically I was trying to achive some sort of delay period before reverse kicks in. I made all sorts of setups with various relays and none worked, so i resorted to having a reverse lockout button. That way the darling should not be able to slam it into reverse while going forward. It can be done but there must be another control box to make it all work and i am not an electronics engineer..........................

I also finally made a working gear lever with forward, nuetral, reverse positions, thanks to a 3 way switch coupled to the rod, my first attempt was with microswitches, bad idea..............

Some pics as i know many like them.....................

Testing.......
 

Wire jumble


After.........


Details of gear lever + rubber boot




Positions............ forward...........


Reverse........


The reverse lock out will be behind the lever.

All is left now is to wire up the lights and horn, fuse them accordingly and tidy up the front end wiring. Bolt the batteries down (when i find a decsent price), upholster the seat bases and its ready......... sort of..........

Grem

[Gremlin]

Not much done after the battery search saga, but i seem to have finally sorted out the logical steps so reverse is not engaged while moving forward. I wrecked my brains on this one, i guess it was the worst bit of the whole project!

The steering feels very heavy after the batteries are in the car, i think i might resort to what others are doing and gearing it down, i will see how i might do this, got a box full of various gears i might use! Probably worm and wheel arragement.

Pics after the weekend....................i should be taking it on its official test run....................

Patrick

[multisync]

Hi Patrick
Glad to see you're getting close to drivability, I'm a bit behind you yet, I've replied in the other post about the brake mechanism, but you may want to read my post about reversing wiring. Don't make changes at this late stage, get it up and running first!
I have noticed that as I disconnect the power from the control box, (pulling lever into neutral), there is some delay as a relay in the controller can be heard to drop out after a second or so. I don't know if this will prevent immediate reoperation in the oposite direction, which may be advantageous. As my switches are lying on the cab floor at present it's not so easy to test anything beyond the basic function.
I'll let you know if or when there's anything useful to add.
The problem you mention over gearing the steering is a worry, I've been moving it about without batteries and it's not to bad, but now I'm getting a bit concerned, I think I'll take my own advice tho and get it running before I start making changes.

It's gone really cold here last few days, as low as 3 or 4 degrees some days, and feels colder in the wind, I guess it's warmer with you.

Best of luck on the test drive!
Hope all goes well.
Walter

[multisync]

Hi again Patrick
I've just been looking over your build details again, and I see something new each time!
Am I right that you have used a scooter type drive motor and axle, and fitted larger wheels without a reduction drive? O was it fitted with similar size wheels originally?
I have used a scooter drive but am gearing it down to 2 to 3, to compensate for a wheel size increase of 3 to 2!
I'm wondering now if it was worth the trouble, won't know til I get it all running.
Regards
Walter

[Gremlin]

Hi Walter, its 18deg here but getting colder.

I did not know what wheels the motor had i just put the wheels on, i will control the max speed via the controller.I felt it was geared enough to make it run well, the real test will be at steep inclines, but the motor is pretty strong so it should make it.

I will give a full report when its running.

The steering is a pain, my fault for using such wide wheels, i will eventually gear it down.

The reverse wiring worked a treat, so i can call it done.

Patrick

[multisync]

Hi Patrick
Thats interesting, be worth comparing notes when we're both fully operational. I've put a pic on the gallery...the blue one
Walter

[Gremlin]

Pics as promised......................











Patrick

[Gremlin]

Started making my steering gearing, i had to dismantle half the car again

Hopefully i will have it ready some time this weekend...............

Patrick

[multisync]

Hi Patrick
Look forwqard to seeing the steering gearing
Walter

[Gremlin]

My gearing attempt has failed, i reworked the linkages and now its a bit better. i will give it another attempt after some use, hopefully.

Basically after i was done the whole worm and wheel thing did work but it turned the wrong way!!!, i should have thought about this before i was nearly finished!! The problem was growing and i would like to keep it simple, there where too many linkages to make it reliable. Add to that that i have suspension on it and it gets very complex indeed. I will resort to finding a ready made gearbox if possible.

Patrick

[multisync]

Patrick
Why don't you leave it like that, turning the wrong way.......you could offer prizes to anyone who could get it around an obstacle course!!
Richard once mentioned to me, that he had heard that someone had used a car window winder mechanism as a steering box, no details I'm afraid, I don't even know if it was mechanical or an electric window, but mechanical I guess; (I think the electric one's use a cable drive on a drum).
I think the mechanical units use a small gear and a segment of the larger one to save space. May be worth a trip to the breakers, just for research of course!
Keep trying
Walter

[markh15]

Hi Walter and Patrick,
It's funny how things work out.
It's only the other day, Gary and I were talking about steering modifications, and one of the suggestions made was a window mechanism from a car! 
It's uncanny how people's minds work on a problem, and come to the same conclusions!
I have two winder mechanisms from my car in the shed (I think), so I'll look into it and let you all know.

The winders I have are the newer 'continuous cable' type. This loops around and joins to the window lift plate.
I think that the older type, made from pressed steel would be a better idea if you can find one.
If memory serves, Morris Minors definitly had this type, and would do about 2.1/2 turns of the handle to drop the window completely.
The trouble is that Breakers don't tend to hang onto vehicles for long these days, the price of scrap being as it is.

The more I look at your car Patrick, the more I want some of those 'chunky' wheels, they really complete the look of the car.

Keep thinking, and Busy,
Regards,
Mark.