Smackley's G1 restomod, plus big block 440cc

[smackley]

Slonomo - yes I ended up trying the torque spring on the driven pulley. I can burn a wheel on wet grass which is fun. I haven't noticed gear shift issues yet but I kept all the old stuff just in case. I used some leftover 1" ID pipe I had from building a harness bar. I stepped it up to 1.25" pipe before using a 2" step up for the muffler. The 1" pipe was easy to bend with my press but the 1.25" stuff was thin walled and not easy to shape.

Jbrowne - yes I kept the balance shaft as I wasn't aiming for top power performance or ultra high rpm. It's using stock piston as well. If I went flat top piston, I'd have gone with a more aggressive cam and spent more time on head work. For a golf cart, I couldnt convince myself to spend the extra effort but Ive heard you can get wild on these thumpers.

[smackley]

Predator 670 Vtwin upgrade, disc brakes, and electric fuel pump being added now. Ditched the OEM fuel tank as well since it was difficult to find parts for and I needed the space for a new header setup.

[TheNewGuy]

Looking good!!

[smackley]

Everything all buttoned up nicely. Added a 12v relay off the accessory ignition wire, to power a fuse block. Now I have running lights in the rear, my fuel pump and spare spaces for accessories like a stereo or something later.

I filled the tank with gas and the engine fired up first try, wow. The fuel pump is a low pressure HEP-02A, 12V at 1.5-4PSI but it is still overpowering my mikuni. I tried to adjust the float lever to dial it in 22-24mm per spec for mikuni, but when the fuel pump is running, gas is just pouring out of the overflow ports. I've read on here that stock needle and seat for mikuni VM is 3.3 GPH cutoff, but many who run electric fuel pumps replace with a 1.5gph option. I found one on summit with a viton tip, and hope that removes the need for me to tee in a return line.

[smackley]

Ok, new problem maybe?

Cart idles and revs up nice, and I can shift gears just fine (F&R). When up on jack stands, everything rotates great. I can get car into neutral and engine idles great and the clutches don't engage until winding up.

I shift into F or R and everything spins nicely and wheels seem to spin just fine. When I drop the cart to the ground and take off, it feels like it bogs down a bit. I also noticed I don't "coast" after being on throttle at all, and rarely need to engage the brakes.

I double checked by brake engagement, and I'm not binding and not cables are bound up either. In "neutral" the cart rolls freely and I can 'coast'. However, when in gear, the cart appears to have a ton of resistance to rolling.

I will drain the diff fluid to check for metal shards/sparkles in the oil. Otherwise, anyone know of reasons a diff might start to bind up/cause drag when rolling in gear? I know the drive clutch is no engaged, because I can hear the engine back down to idle quickly, and I'm not engine braking so to speak... just slowing down what feels an abnormal amount instead of coasting.

[smackley]

I am searching all over for insights on the forum, and my best guess is something internal to the G2 transmission / transaxle assembly. In neutral, the input shaft doesn't spin, and theirs no resistance to rolling. In gear, I can turn the input shaft by hand and its not perfectly smooth in rotations. It's almost as if the gears are experiencing pre-load, but it doesn't feel like something is getting caught up in the gears. The fluid was murky when drained but not metallic.
The input shaft has no sideplay either. The retention clip is still in spec, and I get no rattles per say. There is a bid of a rattle / vibration that I can feel in the seat when I am at speed driving the cart, and all these signs seem to point to something internal to the case.

Luckily, I have a spare used G2 setup I can swap over this weekend. I does have a bad retention clip on the input shaft, so I might fashion up a spacer of some sort on the lathe. I also see a toothed spacer for sale on Amazon, I might just order and wait for. I don't want to do the swap out twice if I don't have to.

[smackley]

Welp that did nothing. I took apart both transmissions, and the one I had in my cart seems squeaky clean. The other one had so many metal flakes in the gear oil I couldn't justify swapping. I took digital calipers to each gear shaft inside both and the first set was far better (less worn).

All washers were double checked, and no endplay remains in any of the gear shafts as far as I can tell. Buttoned it all back up, and even left brake cables unhooked. Resistance to rolling while in gear remains high. I can't really push the cart by hand when in gear. Takes way more force than I expect.

I'm at a loss as to what it can be...

[smackley]

Pics from working today. See the difference between the transaxles.

[smackley]

Transaxle issue seems resolved. I had a few things contributing to the issue.
- high torque red spring was causing the sheaves to close faster than the drive clutch opened during off throttle.
- one sheave on the driven clutch was actually from the old clutch assembly and it had a different ramp angle than the other sheave (no fricken clue how I mixed that up)
- input shaft on the old transaxle was loose needing a shim inside the gear case

It's also entirely possible the belt was a bit too tight on previous assembly. Regardless, everything seems much smoother after sorting out the above.

I extended my exhaust to exit out of the rear as I wanted to reduce some of the decibels for neighborhood drives.

I also flipped the front upper strut mounts around to lower it a bit. Camber is crazy negative so I'll have to find something to dial it back in a bit.

[smackley]

Still working on tuning the VM34 I'm using. I've got the idle dialed in decently. I'm using a 17.5 idle jet, with the idle speed screw turned in ~2 turns, and the air fuel mix screw turned out ~2.5 turns. Plugs were getting fouled badly in idle when I was using a 30 pilot jet. Much better now.

I'm running a 190 main, and stepped my needle down to a 6DP1 from a 6DH4. When I stab the throttle, the engine seems to stumble badly and almost die. If I slowly roll on the throttle, it runs fine. More trying things out to get it just right.