manual clutch for horizontal shaft engine
- Thread starter briggsscooter2
- Start date
- Tags clutch engine horizontal manual shaft
Cushman used disc clutches with a manual override for shifting back in the 50's. nothing new but at least you can come up with a modern version.
My buddy built a minibike years ago for his kids that was belt driven and had a foot operated clutch. It had an idler pulley that applied tension to the belt. When you pushed the pedal down the idler released the tension on the belt and allowed the belt to slip. When you let up on the pedal the idler would gradually apply more pressure to the belt and tighten it up and away you went. If you pushed the pedal all the way down the linkage would go over center and stay in the loose position allowing the engine to idle. Neat setup, long gone though.
Hi everyone,
I just wanted to chime in with a quick update. Testing has been going better than expected and the clutch works exactly how you would want a manual clutch to operate! Burn-outs, donuts, power slides, fast starts, decompression braking, and clutch feathering are no problem with our 7 hp 212cc Predator Invader Kart. It really does add a new dimension to driving a go-kart, and our friends hate it when we pop the clutch out of turns and accelerate past them! We've also tested the clutch on a mini-bike with awesome results. After our provisional patent application was approved, we spoke with the some of the largest clutch manufacturers in the US (Horstman, Max Torque, Noram etc.) to gauge interest in the product. Since the responses were overwhelmingly positive, we have decided to pass on a licensing agreement with a larger company to test the waters in business for ourselves. In order to make the product at a larger company, the design would have to be mostly 'watered down' (stamped instead of machined etc.) to keep manufacturing costs down. Since our company is just myself and my brother, we do not have much overhead and we can sell these nicely machined and robust units at a competitive price. We have received quotes for manufacturing, and have established vendors for the internal hardware so now we have an idea of how much they will cost to make per unit in bulk. Currently, we are hoping to sell these units with a price tag of around $100 so that the average go-karter or mini bike enthusiast can afford to buy our product. Once our website is live within the next couple of weeks, we will be open to taking discounted pre-orders to the first set of people who want to try the manual clutch. In addition, we are in the process of filming videos of the clutch in use, and will have these on display on our website along with any testing data that we can come up with. I just wanted to update everyone on here and just get a sense of what our potential market might look like. Please comment if you consider yourself someone who might be interested in buying this product in the near future! We'd love to hear your thoughts, positive or negative.
Thanks,
D
I just wanted to chime in with a quick update. Testing has been going better than expected and the clutch works exactly how you would want a manual clutch to operate! Burn-outs, donuts, power slides, fast starts, decompression braking, and clutch feathering are no problem with our 7 hp 212cc Predator Invader Kart. It really does add a new dimension to driving a go-kart, and our friends hate it when we pop the clutch out of turns and accelerate past them! We've also tested the clutch on a mini-bike with awesome results. After our provisional patent application was approved, we spoke with the some of the largest clutch manufacturers in the US (Horstman, Max Torque, Noram etc.) to gauge interest in the product. Since the responses were overwhelmingly positive, we have decided to pass on a licensing agreement with a larger company to test the waters in business for ourselves. In order to make the product at a larger company, the design would have to be mostly 'watered down' (stamped instead of machined etc.) to keep manufacturing costs down. Since our company is just myself and my brother, we do not have much overhead and we can sell these nicely machined and robust units at a competitive price. We have received quotes for manufacturing, and have established vendors for the internal hardware so now we have an idea of how much they will cost to make per unit in bulk. Currently, we are hoping to sell these units with a price tag of around $100 so that the average go-karter or mini bike enthusiast can afford to buy our product. Once our website is live within the next couple of weeks, we will be open to taking discounted pre-orders to the first set of people who want to try the manual clutch. In addition, we are in the process of filming videos of the clutch in use, and will have these on display on our website along with any testing data that we can come up with. I just wanted to update everyone on here and just get a sense of what our potential market might look like. Please comment if you consider yourself someone who might be interested in buying this product in the near future! We'd love to hear your thoughts, positive or negative.
Thanks,
D
Completely rebuild-able, and we will offer replacement parts for sale on the website. Given that we are still in the early phase of testing for this product, we are very excited to have our first round of customers provide additional feedback for us. We will have a place on the website where users can post their setup and experiences with the clutch. The clutch was designed by myself (a manufacturing engineer) and my twin brother (a materials engineer), and we purposely made it robust for various types of applications. Eventually, we will have the clutch tested on a Dyno and we will publish this information.
You certainly have my attention!
Before I solidify my spot in line (I am in line!...right?) what are the requirements for the engines output (or PTO) shaft. I see that the clutch bolts to the standard engine bolt holes that is common to Briggs, predator, etc., but does the length of the output shaft make a difference? I have a Briggs Animal I'd like to try this with, but I also have a Chrysler Power Bee 820 that I am building a bike with now...can it be made to work with different engines? Also, both my bikes are Murray Track2's, and I am retaining the #41 chain...will you have different sprockets available for different teeth count and different chain other than #35 (which I can only assume is what you are using)
Your product looks awesome! Thanks for posting here, and please reserve my spot in line! I'm all in!
Before I solidify my spot in line (I am in line!...right?) what are the requirements for the engines output (or PTO) shaft. I see that the clutch bolts to the standard engine bolt holes that is common to Briggs, predator, etc., but does the length of the output shaft make a difference? I have a Briggs Animal I'd like to try this with, but I also have a Chrysler Power Bee 820 that I am building a bike with now...can it be made to work with different engines? Also, both my bikes are Murray Track2's, and I am retaining the #41 chain...will you have different sprockets available for different teeth count and different chain other than #35 (which I can only assume is what you are using)
Your product looks awesome! Thanks for posting here, and please reserve my spot in line! I'm all in!
