[Bryanlj]

The original imp engine used to overheat for a pastime which was strange as it started as a coventry climax engine powering a fire pump

 

[yoeddynz]

Yeah the original Imp engine is a fantastic little thing but once you start pushing them for more 'usable' power they become a bit more fragile. There's way around many of those issues but you can't beat starting with an engine that has a bit more capacity and over built strength built in. Hence the Datsun engine I currently have, although 20kg heavier than the Imp engine, is a very robust little swap and if I was to keep it in there it would allow me much more room for gaining reliable power.

If all goes well though this Goldwing beauty will be even better in those respects and with an amazing soundtrack to boot!

I'm glad this thread is keeping you all entertained. Here's another dose...

Starter motor time. I had bought a Subaru leone 1.8 starter from the fella I'd got the gearboxes and 1.8 ring gear from. Made sense to use all the same bits. Only thing I'd have to do was move the mounting face for the starter forwards towards the engine to suit the new ring gear position on my home made flywheel...



Easy as I thought and I had it all planned out. I shall start at dawn!

However that's not what happened once I got a friendly query from a friendly chap on here a while back about the starter motor turning the engine the wrong way.

Oh yeah. Of course it will do that. Silly me. Yay.

So after a few ideas and suggestions from various folk I had a few options. My first option was to mount the Subaru starter on the front of the bellhousing adaptor, facing backwards. Essentially turn it 180 degrees and it would spin the Honda engine in the required anti-clockwise direction I needed. But would it fit?

Yes it does...



It wouldn't be too tricky to mount and on extension the pinion almost lined up perfectly with the ring gear. It sat down in place quite low too. So this solution was a strong contender. But it had a couple of weaknesses that meant it went to the back burner.

One: the ring gear would need turning around so the leads shaped into the teeth faced the pinion. Turning it round and having the pinion strike it from the opposite side then meant that the step I had machined into the flywheel would have been on the wrong side and the gear could potentially work off over time. I was reluctant about the idea I could add a few welds, as some folk will do, because it adds stress risers, could affect the balance. I really didn't want to muck about with the ring gear.

Two: having a fairly large ugly starter motor plonked right there on the top of the motor was something I never had in my minds pictures of how I wanted the engine bay to look. It would be right where I might want some linkages for the itbs, possibly a centrally mounted plenum between the itbs and there was also going to be some water pipes around that area too.

So back to the other options- the main one being to look for a suitable Honda starter that's mounted from the gearbox side or a starter from any standard clockwise rotating engine that mounts from the front. The pinion had to have the same pitch and ideally the same tooth count. I did some research and it seemed that all the Japanese cars of this era all shared the same pinion pitch and were all around the 9 or 10 teeth. This was handy indeed.

Off to the wreckers then...



I went through the various shelves of starters, starting with Honda and found a possible candidate within a couple of minutes. Feeling pretty satisfied with my find I still double checked the other shelves just in case there was something even better but eventually I was spotted skipping out of the door happy with my Honda Civic/accord starter.

Back home I looked at my booty. Subaru one is on the left...



They were so close but not close enough. The Honda item has a smaller diameter 'locating spigot' that centralises it in the hole on the mounting face of the bell housing.



This was a better turnout than it being bigger than the hole though! I would machine the hole in the plate to suit the new starter, which I was going to have to do for the original plan using the Subaru one anyway.

The holes for the starter mounting bolts, that go through the bell housing into the engine, were 5mm closer at about 115mm and they were also offset to one side, not in line with the starters centreline.



This was handy though because I could then have separate bolts holding the bell housing and room to turn the Honda starter about its axis, having the solenoid positioned in the least obstructive way. A plan was forming in my head. I took some measurements, did some scribbles and it all looked like it should work ok...



I had already bought a hefty bit of 12mm plate for the Subaru starter repositioning and luckily it was still going to work with the new starter. I swapped the 4 jaw chuck onto the lathe and set it up. Drilled a big hole...



Bored the hole out to suit the Honda starter spigot...





Marked and drilled holes to suit...



Recessed and spot faced one of the holes for the bellhousing to the engine bolts that just happened to slightly clash with a bit of the starter casting.

 

[yoeddynz]

So I now had a plate that the starter fitted neatly into, with not a hint of slop. The bolt holes lined up perfectly with the bellhousing bolt holes so lining the starter up the correct distance out from the ring gear. Now I need to move the face of this plate closer to the engine...



So I cut a big lump of alloy from the bellhousing with a grinder and a hacksaw...





This allowed me to move the plate closer and let the pinion fully engage with the ring gear...





I tested the fit of the starter...



The height was good but I wanted it to be perfectly parallel to the face of the flywheel so I really had to mill it. Luckily I was just able to squeeze the gearbox into a position on the mill that allowed me to face it perfectly...





I must have some pretty honed hacksaw skills because I only needed to skim off about .75mm to get it flat. Sweet.

Now I bolted the plate in place, then the starter and tested it...



Oh I forgot to mention that once I had decided I was going to use a starter mounted in the original position I popped a hole through the adaptor plate in line with the starter pinion. This was to allow me to check the pinion mesh...



I was super happy with the mesh so I marked the excess on the plate to be trimmed off and gave it a hair cut in the bandsaw...



I also milled out the back of the plate where it just clashed with the rivets and pressings on the outer edge clutch pressure plate. Bolted it back in and welded it up, taking lots of care to avoid any chance of movement or warping. It went well..



Added some little filler plates to tie it in neatly and gave it a tickle with a flap disc...





Bolted the starter back in, stood back and admired it all, really happy that one of the trickier jobs had been completed and that the starter was sitting in there very neatly and tucked away nicely, no higher than the top of the bellhousing...



Next step was to make a cover for the 'front' of the engine, adding a connecting link between the oil filter outlet and the main oil way into the engine, a filling point for the sump, a dipstick and allocations for engine mounts to suit a cross member.

Still lots of work to do but I'm getting closer...

 

[OnaWingAndaPrayer]

I appreciate the update and photos. I really do enjoy watching along as you work this out .

 

[AZgl1800]

That is some serious workmanship there, you are doing an awesome job setting this all up.

 

[Bryanlj]

This is real neat, you sure youre name isnt Millyard?

 

[tamathumper]

My favorite quote so far - "So I cut a big lump of alloy from the bellhousing with a grinder and a hacksaw...". LOL. Easy peasy.

I fantasize more about having the time to do such things than to actually do them.

Keep up the great work and the entertaining posts, great stuff.

 

[yoeddynz]

Hey thanks folks for the lovely comments. Its made better by the fact that I'm getting this encouragement from a bunch of motorbike owners as I chop up one of your engines to fit into a car! I guess we are all simply petrol heads, two wheels or four.
I have been a motorcyclist in the past, with both Hannah and I getting our CBT license in the UK and ripping about on an old Honda Sl125 and XL125 respectively...

We do intend to get bikes again, here in NZ. Most likely old road legal Japanese trail bikes that we can bumble out to the local forestry blocks on and have some fun on forestry roads. I'd love a fast sports bike but I dont have anywhere enough experience to even consider one right now- I'd end up running out of talent and coming to a messy end.

Since embarking on this project we have started becoming Goldwing fans, spotting them about and thinking what a neat way to ride. I do love the idea of some of the Goldwing stripped down cafe racers I have seen too.

 

[tamathumper]

If you're bombing about in NZ, watch out for possums!

 

[yoeddynz]

Oooh yeah- we know all about them. Our property has plenty of the buggers. Luckily they are only out on the roads at night time. I'd not want to hit one at speed on a bike!

 

[yoeddynz]

Back on the chain gang !

Yep. I'm back into this project. Its been a hectic busy last few months. Well for me, but others would probably laugh at my work levels. The last update was in September and both Hannah and I were pretty busy building a custom coffee cart for a customer. It was a fair old mission not helped by that pesky lockdown stalling a load of stuff ordered, including some double glazed window materials from Auckland. We put in some hard efforts to get the thing built and ready in time for the agreed date and managed it with a 2am finish on the last day before delivery. I was well chuffed with the cart we built and the customer is soooo happy with her new cafe ! All fully insulated, huge windows that roll away into the walls, loads of stainless benching and a lovely outside wood framing we made using Eucalyptus timber then oiled.

Here's some pics of the build...



















Phew. Check that one off the whiteboard of jobs. Loads more work to chip through and we are now onto the steel framework for a local ladies housetruck. So I am going to do my best to just put down the tools, lock my bicycles away so I cant be tempted to just go riding and instead do more on this engine swap.

Most recent bits I have done are as follows.

I wanted to finish off the oil system. The internal stuff from the pick up to the pump and filter was sorted. Now I needed to get the oil from the filter to the engine. Luckily, well I kind of planned around it, there is a hole left where gear selector shaft went. This was ideal to pass a pipe back from the filter block outlet towards the front/belt end of the engine. But it needed to be bigger with some clearance. One big drill bit later...





next up was a plate to cover the front. What used to be here was a cast front cover, much deeper obviously because I have lopped off a huge chunk of engine casing. It housed the oil filter, now moved to the side. Instead of that I now needed a flat plate of thick alloy that will serve several things. The engine mounts, most likely typical compression bobbins, will be mounted off it. There has to be a way to get the oil from the pipe coming from the filter block to head back into the main oil feed hole higher in the block. Finally I need somewhere to put oil into the engine and also to check the oil level.

I started with a plate of alloy I roughly cut to size. Drilled it to suit the holes in the block that the old front cover mounted to. I then drilled a hole in it to suit the oil feed pipe. This was a hole perfectly located to make sure the pipe would line up with the filter transfer block nice and square. Because I'm using the O rings that Honda used throughout the original system. There is a small tolerance for being out of square with these but I might as well get it as close as I can.

 

[yoeddynz]

I then needed to make a bolt on block that would take the oil from this pipe end and direct it through another hole in the plate which locates right over another O ring sealed port into the engines main oil way, just as the original front cover did.

I started with some more chunks of alloy and made a thousands of teeny tiny chunks of alloy with the tablesaw...





One of the blocks was then milled out to suit the pipe outlet and oilway inlet sizes. I also used a tiny little slot drill to add a groove to help keep the sealant in place..







Flipped it over and took more material away. Added some cooling grooves. But really.. come on. They were more just so it looked a bit nicer than just being a lump of alloy. Why not..





Clamped it down onto the front plate and drilled mounting holes...



There's a nice amount of room to still use the original honda cooling hose if I want but I may well do something else when I get to that bit- depends on my cross member design and engine mounts etc..





Next up was how to get oil in place! I needed a filler point. The original filler and dipstick are in the wrong spot and kind of chopped out. I could have made a dipstick to suit the now chopped down dipstick housing but that's at the rear/flywheel end of the engine. With the engine turned round 180 degrees that puts it under the parcel shelf and would mean reaching over what ever induction setup I use (cough*ITBS*cough) so that's not cricket.

A filler tube, right at the front, but actually now the back, of the engine with a combined dipstick under the cap made more sense.

I rummaged through my collection of alloy..



Playtime in the lathe...



and out popped this...



..into which oil will pour as such....



Now I needed some more bits to hold it in the right place so I made these flanges to suit more pipe.



Once I know what I'm doing with the cooling pipes etc I'll cut the pipe to suit and epoxy it into the flanges. I ideally need the main large flange to bolt over a hole below the oil level height - which I have roughly worked out allowing for about 4.5 litres thereabouts. This pipe and cap will be right there, on view, easy to get to at the engine bay opening. The two smaller flanges are so I can remove the upright pipe to allow for the cambelt covers to be removed, or so its not there liable for getting damaged when removing and moving the engine about.

I did think about being super silly and adding a sight glass to the pipe. Or use some thin glass or plastic tube. I then even thought about being really silly and adding an led light into the pipe to light up the oil.

But oil does not stay honey clean does it. So a neat little dipstick under the cap will do.

Lastly I needed to bolt the sump cover in place. I had to think carefully about bolt placement for sealing purposes and get the bolts square. This sump plate is going to have to be sealed well because there is no usual high sided sump like most cars. Hence I built it rigid to help against flex. Good quality sealant will be the order of the day*

To get the bolt holes square I had to do this...



Impy sat outside looking in at his new heart being crafted (said like some car obsessed bloke who anthropomorphises his cars)...



Well then. That's it. Crikey. Another wall of text. I hope you enjoyed my ramblings. I promise I'll put more effort into working on this (but it is summer after all..)





*It will leak. Its a British car. Its destined to leak.

 

[DaveO430]

I do enjoy your ramblings.

 

[OnaWingAndaPrayer]

Glad to catch up with your newest chapter of this build.

 

[AZgl1800]

sure have missed you posting regular, glad to see you back today.
I've been having internet issues in the way of:
some websites won't let me see them, this forum does,
BUT, is it just me, or did the pictures now show up in the last two posts.?

 

[RambozoClown]

BUT, is it just me, or did the pictures now show up in the last two posts.?

Might be just you, but they did take some time to load. (worth the wait)

 

[AZgl1800]

Might be just you, but they did take some time to load. (worth the wait)

Well,
brought up this page of the thread, hit F5 and went off to tool around the house, made breakfast, and then came back to a lot of very good pictures

I think my Download speeds of late, are at the immensely speed 0.500 kHz
T-Mobile seems to be experiencing a lot of Holiday Rush ills...

 

[rayjoe]

This is the most interesting thread I have seen on any forum!

Thanks for posting.



Rayjoe

 

[RambozoClown]

I think my Download speeds of late, are at the immensely speed 0.500 kHz
T-Mobile seems to be experiencing a lot of Holiday Rush ills...

Have you looked into StarLink at all? Might just be the thing for you folks out in the stix.

 

[AZgl1800]

yes

Have you looked into StarLink at all? Might just be the thing for you folks out in the stix.

Yes,
I have been watching the Facebook Starlink group, if it weren't for the $500 up front fee for the equipment,
I would probably jump on it right now.

On the Up Side, for me as of this minute, T-Mobile has upgraded their tower to n41 giving me some really decent speeds in the last couple hours.

I think i will wait on TM to get their harness fixed on their horses, before I change the wagon hitch.

I can live with speeds in the 30+ range, 54 is just about unbelievable here in the Cow Pastures, where they use Horse Dung for fences.

.