The Spartan trike project by CaptainAmerica

About Ackerman Angles,here is an excellent article on this subject. it explains what happens when you move the rack in every direction.

(srx660 edited. This link has changed so i am putting in the newest link from Woodward steering.)
woodwardsteering.com/PDF/tech%20section%20guide.pdf

Download the article "basic rack and pinion tech" it's free.
Fred V

February '13

Bought some saw horses from home depot and a new replacement cut off saw since the other one broke in half literally, so the chassis is finally off the weld table. I have been getting used to the driver position and am liking it more and more each time i sit in it. I got the gauge cluster and the key off the bike and mounted them in a mock up of the real dash which will be cut correctly on the CNC plasma cutter. Other then the steering wheel cutting the top of the gauges off the system looks good and the key will add a little security and make wiring a lot simpler.

The swing arm has been mounted successfully, one wheel down, two to go.

Haha I have a good friend who works at an industrial metal shop. I like the feeling of rigidity in my parts and you use that to hop in an out of the vehicle. Beyond that I bought a sheet of 12 gauge to use for the body panels and the gauge cluster pieces just got put on that as well.

Mid March '13 Build

I finished the swing arm mounts almost two weeks ago and tested them out, and they work perfectly. I jigged them up separate from the car and then slide them over the engine mounts and they both went on first try no problem. Since the shock doesn't hold anything up yet and the chassis is three feet above ride height I opted to leave the swing arm off for now but you can see where it would fit.

Finally got a full day in with my lathe and made a bunch of parts I have been drawing up the last two weeks. The first rocker is done now and I worked late last night to get it installed on the chassis. For anyone wondering whats inside of a race car rocker I put a picture of all the pieces that are in there, two thrust bearings and two needle bearings stacked. They work great, but I need to work out the torque on the bolt, a the moment its a bit hard to rotate, I also need to pack it with grease.

Even Later March '13 - Easter Weekend

Friday - spent all morning sourcing my aluminum for the uprights and talking to a local waterjet machining company, and getting my front strut mount bar bent. Ended up getting enough metal for 3 uprights for about $180. After I got to the garage I used up most of my day trimming the tube (and modifying my tube notcher to do it). The fitting of this tube also gives a hard lower mount point for the gauge cluster panel and also the mount point for the steering column. In the evening I installed the steering column with its machined bearing mounts and roller bearings. The 3/4" DOM tubing I am using was 0.751" OD and the bearings would only accept 0.749" so I used my flapper wheel on the grinder as a crude lathe and took the offending amount off. At the end of the night I finished welding a bunch of pieces including the nose cone which is a serious looks addition to the car even if it does nothing else.

Saturday - I got up early and started working the tear down of the street bike and by lunch I had the wiring harness completely out and labeled, the rear seat mount removed, and the swing arm ready to go. With some help and outside the box thinking about how to get around custom Suzuki tools we got the swing arm off. None of the local tool stores carried a 19mm Allen wrench (NAPA was closest with a 17mm) for the swing arm axle so I bought two Honda lugs and welded them together which conveniently have a 19mm hex and used a wrench. Engine removal from there was pretty straight forward, only oddity I found was the alignment nuts for the rear mount bolts were so tight that I actually removed all the engine bolts and they held the chassis and motor together by clamping force.

Sunday - Spent the morning fixing the pedals (removing some zinc plated spacers I got at the hardware store which ruined my welds) and prepping the chassis for the attachment of the swing arm and the motor. In the evening with the help of some friends we mounted the swing arm and attempted the motor mount. The swing arm mounts that I designed actually interfere with the lower engine mounts and the whole this was quite a failure and it needs a mild redesign. Luckily we pulled it apart, removed the swing arm, and remounted the engine successfully with almost an 1/8" of clearance between the drivers seat plate and the valve cover. This is what happens when your nice CAD model is based on a GSXR600 engine which is somewhere around an inch shorter in the direction of the head. Overall a good weekend.

April 10/13

Picked up my parts from the waterjet company, they look very nice and the draft was much less then expected so the tolerances are much closer which is quite nice. I spent a very late night monday/early tuesday morning finishing one of the bearing centers, which is a little wrong and needs to be altered to be correct but its a good fit check. The Mcmastercarr bearing drawing made it look like the bearing race for the wheel bearing stuck out further then the tapered roller, however is passes through it by about .075" which make my part wrong and it makes me able to but the bearings further apart by 0.150" which is good for the load bearing surfaces. Lots to do this weekend, if I am lucky I will have some mock up spindles made and a rolling chassis....but thats a stretch.

They are 6061-T6 which are going to be TIG welded by a local shop. The reality is these are functional mock ups to use for testing that will be replaced by fully machined 7075 versions once the design is finalized and I know it works.

Not much on my plan to get a rolling chassis this weekend as a friend of my blew out a head gasket on their nissan xterra and I offered to help replace it.

April 25th, 2013

Spent all day in my shop today with my buddy Levi on the lathe and me on the mill. Got quite a lot accomplished with more to come tomorrow. Still waiting on the longer steering rack to arrive from England.

April '13

Finally got a wheel on the front of the car, and I am very close to have the other one on as well. Spent some time on the nose cone as well. I am quite glad I am making test pieces for both the uprights and the spindles. I found out tonight my caliper model is wrong and when I put the assembly together the rotor was passing through the caliper so back to the lathe for a quick fix but that would have been an expensive fix on a single piece spindle and an expensive paper weight on a single piece upright.




To everyone: hope you all like what you see after 10k views over the last year, making me feel special for my birthday.

It may not look super different from my other pictures but after two years all the wheels are on the ground, this coming weekend it will be a rolling chassis with the steering rack coming in tomorrow and I will be welding up mock up struts (tubes with rod ends) to get the car off the ground.

Hi Andrew,

Were we talking on Boxing Day in Sydney about your trike project?

Cheers,
Mark

Andrew,
It took me a while to find your project on the web, but I am glad I've tracked it down.
You have done a really nice job on the design work and build looks really fine too. I am inspired and you have got me looking at kit project R-Trike over here in Australia made by www.tripodcars.com.
Your complete scratch build (as we would call it) is way beyond my resources, so a kit would be the go. I have my eye on a BMW K1200 power plant that might be suitable.

I hope to have a new larger workshop space next year and I am thinking this trike project might just be the right way to fill it up. Anyway it was your conversation on Boxing Day on the other side of the world got me thinking, thanks for that.
Mark