Cushman OMC Resistor Voltage

[KevinRB]

[KevinRB]

Charley
Everything seems to be working fine now. I believe the root of the problem was the solenoid not being grounded. The one I was using had plastic mounting brackets and didnt ground itself to the body. I switched to one with metal mounting brackets and wired per the diagram and problem solved. I appreciate the help you gave me.
Thanks
Kevin

[desertjoe]

Hey CharlieL,, I am impressed with your knowledge of the electrical on these Cushmans and hope you can help with an almost similar issue as KevinRB. When you get done with his issue,,I would appreciate any help you can send my way,,,

[CharleyL]

I know far more electrical than I do the mechanical on these, but I own the 1987 Cushman in my Avatar and restored it and the engine after it had been sitting on the edge of a pine forest for 13 years before I got it. I'm a retired Automation Engineer (EE).

The two manuals most useful for this age Cushman Trucksters is available for download in .pdf format on the www.sillylittlecars.com website. The main manual is exploded diagrams of mostly the sheet metal and body parts of each of the models being made back in the late 1980's and early 1990's and since most of these parts are un-obtanium (no longer available) this manual is mostly useless. The supplement of this manual is the valuable one. It contains all of the information available about the OMC 18 and 22 hp motors, the motor specifications, and the electrical schematics for all of the truckster models being made back then. The models weren't made by year like automobiles. They made the same models for several years before replacing them with newer versions.

www.directparts.com, www.denniscarpentercushman.com, and possibly others are your best sources of parts for the OMC engine, drive train, and front axle/steering parts, but many of the parts that Cushman used to build these parts of their Trucksters are standard automotive parts and are available at local auto parts stores. Unfortunately, there is no cross reference information available to find them. If you can show a steering knuckle, flexible brake line, or other part to an older parts guy working in the store, he can frequently find you the part needed on the shelf that matches the part that you showed him. Wheel cylinders for my 87 Truckster are almost the same as mid 70's Ford F100 pickups, so the rebuild kits for the Ford brake cylinders fit perfectly. The body of the Ford cylinder has a bump on the casting that needs to be ground off for it to work in this age Truckster, but it turned out that my wheel cylinders were badly pitted and honing them didn't fix them. Direct Parts had the Cushman version at only $2 more each than the Ford cylinders, so I bought from them. Back when these Trucksters were in use in industrial locations, it was the forklift repair shops that serviced them. Many still have Cushman parts on their parts shelves. My master brake cylinder was found new on my local forklift shop's parts shelves and I bought it for less than half of what they were selling for on Ebay.

A part that I was never able to locate was the temperature control that's located in the lower air ducts on each side of the OMC engine. I finally drilled, tapped, and added 8-32 bolts and washers to hold the air dampers wide open for maximum cooling of my OMC motor and threw the temperature controls away. Careful positioning of these bolts will allow their heads to catch the edge of the damper under the edge of the bolt head to hold the damper wide open. Two tapped holes in the front casting of the motor aren't much of a modification, and it's possible to go back to using thermal controls again if ever desired. Doing this sure beats overheating the motor cylinders. Our lawn mowers here in NC don't need temperature controls so I haven't missed not having them in my Cushman either. Well, it does reduce the cab heat availability a little, but there wasn't much of that available anyway.

I check in here almost every day to see what is happening, and I try to answer every request for help that I can, as soon as I can. There are times when I can't, but they are very few. It's been almost 10 years since I first began dragging my Cushman home and restoring it, and it hasn't needed much work since then, so my memory of some of it is getting a bit rusty. I have a photo studio that is consuming most of my time now, and hire a neighbor to do most of my yard work. Keeping 3+ acres surrounded on 3 sides by a lake is more than this 82 yr old can handle now.

I restored my Cushman enough to be relatively reliable for use around my 3+ acre property. I was never concerned with making it look like new, so not a full restoration. It just hauls me and my yard maintenance tools around to where i need to work. Being a 4 wheeler, it is considered by the police to be a "slow moving vehicle", like a golf cart, so doesn't need a license plate or motor vehicle insurance, but it can only be used on secondary roads. The 3 wheel versions DO need license plates and insurance. They have VIN numbers and are registered as 3 wheel motorcycles. There are variations of this from one State to another, so check your local laws carefully before using one of these on the highways. I added the farmer reflective triangle and flashing lights to mine, so I could use it on the local roads, but don't do it often. The local police follow me for a way, then pass and wave at me with a smile as they pass me. I have never been stopped.

Charley

[desertjoe]

Hey Charlie,,,82 years young,,,? I am also an old pfart at 75 years young and like yourself,,am still able to get around pretty well. I live in SE New Mexico close to where that Flying Saucer crashed in Roswell in 1947,,,I have seen an actual copy of the newspaper printed the next day, that quoted the base commander of the then Walker Air Force Base in Roswell, NM about the Air Force had found the crashed space ship,!! within 3 days he had to chaange his story and claim it was in fact a crashed "Weather Balloon",,,,???That right there is a true story,,just the feds will never fess up to them confiscating the remains,,,believe it or else,,,LOL
Well, on to my real story about my 1980 Cushman Turf Truckster with the single wheel front. I'm not sure if it is an 18 or a 22 HP,,,? Mine had been sitting along a fence line about 25 miles from me when I rescued it for rebuilding it as a future present for my GF. (My wife of 53 years passed in 2022) I was having a terrible time trying to figure the wiring as the PO had cut and even removed a lot of the wiring ,,SO ,I had a time with it until finding a copy of The correct diagram on www.sillylittlecars.com. A lot of the clarity was lost on the downloading and just happened to be on the section where the engine wiring was,,,isn't that about right,,,??LOL,,!! Anyway, after talking to lots of folks on several forums, I finally located a couple that have a repair shop in ND and they were very helpful. We targeted the timer as being the culprit where the spark was being lost from the two coils. After putting a 12 volt hot on the timer and moving the points and the condenser around, I finally move the condenser jusssst so-so and the 12 volts jumped and it was the main connector at the timer that was causing the short and killing the fire at the timer. I machined a fiber washer and installed it on the connector bolt on the inside of the timer,,,hooked everything back up and viola,,,!! I now have good spark at both spark plugs,,,,!!! This Truckster has TWO resistors and I was going to use the resistor closest to the coils as the PO had removed these two wires but it proved to have a direct short, SO,, I ran a 12 VDC wire from the coils which are in series and on to the timer,,,rolled the flywheel and EUREKA,,,I still got spark at the spark plugs. My diagram does not show me what wires went on the 2nd resistor,,,,?? WHY two resistors my diag only shows ONE resistor,,,??
Sure I have not bored you with my long winded disatation,,,,,
Were you able to download a Clear copy of the wiring diaagram,,??