My project is a chinese offroad go kart with a 200 cc yamaha quad bike engine. I have a shift cable from a car to attach to the bike engine gear shifter. I need some kind of shifter to operate it. I'm thinking some sort of long truck lever or somthing you might find in a hot rod so that I can get it up as close as possible to the steering wheel. I'd mount it on the outside left of the frame as it is two seat left hand drive. Of course I want to pay about five bucks for it. Any Ideas kind sirs!
NZTools,
Aug 31, 7:59pm
Make one out of a bit of 12mm rod. Thread the end and srew a gear knob on, cut to the length you want and make a pivot point at the bottom and a mounting point for the cable. Should take all of 30 minutes.
red97,
Aug 31, 8:21pm
would a mechanical linkage be simpler and more reliable, im assuming the motor is mounted right way up and standard orientation, if so you may be able to get away with one pivot point for your shifter but would have to mount in between seats or left hand side of drivers seat. one of the good things about mounting low at your side is its one less thing to smash your face into when things go wrong.
it should be possible to remove original gear lever and replace it in any position that suits your setup, obviously if you like the feel of a long stroke gear shift you just extend the lever to suit
slater-bug,
Aug 31, 9:39pm
you'd need a pull and push system, ( up and down shift ) cable won't do it unless you have a very stiff cable with very secure capture ends for the outer cable, original gearshift repositioned and robust rod to a forward lever ( just a simple shaft with an attachment hole for the rod above or below the pivot point and a couple of old handbrake yokes for the ends) - below means you push forward to go up a gear, pull back to go down - sits with the mind a lot easier) and on that note the lever pivot can be central in quite a large rub area which then lends rigidity to the forward system
kazbanz,
Aug 31, 10:25pm
What slater bug has posted is pretty well bang on. There are some"secrets" to a good gear shift. First of all make the pivots as tight as possible by tight I mean as close to NO slop as possible both horosontally and vertically. This will remove the useless/unwanted movement in the lever and means it doesn't rattle at idle. Make the pivots really well lubricated. I like a good HMP grease.This will take the notchyness out of the gearshifts. less is best-by that -having as direct a line from gear shaft to gear lever is always best. weak link.-I would STRONGLY reccommend that you build in a weak point into the system.The reason being that if some rough stuff happens its better to break an external-easilly fixed/replaced part rather than the gear shaft of the engine. Angles-When doing the build desighn it so you have 90 degree angles =lever to rod. You get best leverage at 90 degrees
Incidently how I would build it would be to grab a linkage system from a sport bike or a cruiser and just extend the link rod and the lever When
NZTools,
Aug 31, 11:11pm
Morse cables off an MR2 or similar are plenty strong enough for this application. (probably overkill) A long rod actually flexes quite a lot when used on a gearshift. Morse cables are real easy. just a mount at each end to secure the outer of the cable, and you can run it where ever you want.
kazbanz,
Sep 1, 12:34am
Morse in one direction I can see working no issue at all -ie pulling. But pushing and rotating the shift lever on the engine ,,,,,,,, Ahh dag why diddn't I think of that Weld aflat plate to the shifter on the engine. run two cables. One for up shifts and one for downshifts.a bracket to hold and support the cables a few cm forwards then the cables can run up the cart across a long way
NZTools,
Sep 1, 12:38am
The gear lever only moves 35mm in either direction. A morse cable usually has around 200mm of solid shaft at each end of the cable It si designed for exactly this type of function.
The 3 tractors I have to drive utilise morse cables for the gear lever to operated the selector arms on the side of the gearbox. One for push/pull and another to move the gat across and back. They also use morse cables to operate the hydraulic spool vales for the front end loader and rear remotes. All would take a lot more effort than moving a quad bike gear lever backwards and forwards.
daryl14,
Sep 1, 2:08am
Wow cool responses, thanks. I have a cable shift from out of a car on its way to me. Want to use this over solid rod due to engine being mounted on swing arm and so it moves in relation to forward part of buggy.
Hmm 12mm rod, I just wonder if strong enough! Normal vehicle gear levers being hardened and what not. I guess whatever works will be trial and error. Now I know the name (morse cable) i can look them up.
kazbanz,
Sep 1, 4:08am
daryl --then for sure a solid rod will NOT work
illusion_,
Sep 1, 4:43am
use a bit of tube, about the size of m/cycle handlebars. mount a m/cycle handgrip on it, and mount a m/cycle clutch lever on it as well.
quater,
Sep 1, 5:24am
I'm with Tools on this one, mr2 cables would fit the bill. plenty strong enough for forward backward movement as that is just how they work in the mr2.
andrew241,
Sep 1, 5:56am
You can do it with a tractor morse cable,try to get one with eyes in each end.I have done excatly what you want to do except I used a ct200 motor and mounted the gear lever in the middle were the forward & reverce lever was my set up has 40mm each way 35mm was to tight.gear lever is 350mm long and needs a bit of weight to shift up or down light morse cables ie jet skietc are to light we wrecked two before we made up the system we have got now.
NZTools,
Sep 1, 5:59am
why would 12mm rod not work as a gear lever! you are after all only using it to move something that you normaly move with you left big toe. Nota lot of effort reqired.
matarautrader,
Sep 1, 6:01am
How about a throttle system off a bike. I had a 500/4 Honda that had a throttle return cable as well as the normal throttle cable.
daryl14,
Sep 1, 7:54am
Kaz is talking about a solid linkage between engine and lever. It could work. it just may move around a bit as the swing arm flexes.
Don't need a cutch as quad motor is just crash and go. (centrifugal clutch)
kazbanz,
Sep 1, 8:43am
You missed the bit down the track that says the engine pivots independant of the main chasis. I know that particular setup and its as much as a 30 degree movement. So shifter is mounted to main chasis. Use solid linkages to the box and either as a minimum every bump will change gears up and down/the gear lever will be like a flail as you hit bumpsor more likely first bump with snap the linkage or worse snap the gear shaft in the engine. Have a look at 507671933 -Im pretty sure this is what the OP has and is putting a bike engine into
daryl14,
Sep 1, 9:04am
Yeah you're on the money Kaz, Hammerhead Twister Kart. Let me know if there are any other ideas you can come up with for set up, Mods etc.
quater,
Sep 1, 9:10am
@Kaz Tools is talking about the gear lever that has the noob on top. not the linkages to the engine.
NZTools,
Sep 1, 9:53am
correct. the 12mm rod with a knob on it is connected to the front end of the morse cable. the other end of the morse cable is attached to the gear lever on the motor, and mounted to the swingarm. The swingarm can rotate as far as it likes and the cable will just bend with it.
kazbanz,
Sep 1, 10:52pm
In all honesty mon I ask why you are reinventing the wheel. Why not just use the shifter thats already there! Or are you a smart cookie and its one of "those" quad engines that has forward/reverse gear!So you will use the centre shifter/cables for engaging reverse gear Although I see the sense in mounting the shifter so its in the :"natural" position for a kiwi driver I'm still not convinced having it externally mounted is the best option.
Now regarding the actual shift lever itselfAgain why bother reinventing the wheel. I'd be going to my local Pick a part and ripping the shift lever out of something appropriate. Off the top of my head I thought Cortina mazda familia etc Or as someone else suggested grab a handlebar from an old school type motorbike or a mx bike bike. -even from a wrecked bmx bike This means you can slide a bar grip onto it with no issues as something to grab hold of.
kazbanz,
Sep 1, 10:53pm
Sorry mon I had a different mental image of where you thought the rod would be used.
daryl14,
Sep 2, 12:24am
kazbanz wrote:
In all honesty mon I ask why you are reinventing the wheel. Why not just use the shifter thats already there! Or are you a smart cookie and its one of "those" quad engines that has forward/reverse gear!So you will use the centre shifter/cables for engaging reverse gear.
Yeah, guess I've left ya guessing too much. I bought this thing with the quad motor in it. Motor is fitted in sideways with a sprocket fixed on to the original drive where the quad drive shaft would have been. there is also a reverse linkage on the engine. There was a crude solid rod linkage to a shift lever that was a piece of sraight pipe between the two seats.
We've ripped out all the linkage that was under the swing arm and redone all engine mounts because they were ripping apart. We've added a lay shaft above the main axle to take the large drive sprocket and the brake disc. All hopefully to give better ground clearance.
I'll try pick a part in the hopes of finding a shift lever with a decent length. I'm thinking I'll try to mount it down low so I don't lose too much of the hole that you swing your legs in through to get in, but with enough height to get it up nice and handy to the wheel. Sadly the original shifter levers and cables are long gone.
kazbanz,
Sep 2, 1:37am
Sorry mon my mental imager has gone haywire. I can't imagine why the engines around sideways when the output shaft is usually north south to the engine--
NZTools,
Sep 2, 2:07am
Quad was shaft drive. the took the driveshaft off and fitted a sprocket to the flange> hence it would need to be mounted east west! If so, would definately need a morse cable. lol
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