Front Suspension
After my parents bailed again to their winter home in Tucson for the winter of 2016-2017, I towed the cart back from Bellingham to Seattle for some tear down and rebuild work. When I do projects, I rarely work from formal plans. I loath structured work like that and prefer to do it as I go with an informal plan in my head. I had decided what I wanted to do was replace the front suspension, resolve the steering shakiness, replace the secondary (rear axle) clutch spring with a higher tension spring which delivered more torque, upgraded exhaust system, improved electrical system, higher wattage headlight bulbs, connect the horn, and some additional engine work.
I started with the front suspension by ordering some 11 inch coil over springs that I bought on eBay I think. They were basically motorcycle shocks and much more rigid than the original 30 year old ones. They also looked cool.
The first problem I discovered was the metal sleeve inside the bushing of each shock was too small for the pivot point where the top of each shock mounted. What I did to resolve this was remove the sleeve and take clutch springs from the 1973 Honda CB500 I used to own, cut them in half and place one half of each spring on each side of the shock mounts. I could have mounted each shock without these springs, but since I had removed the bushings, the shocks would slide back and forth on their pivot points. The springs would push against the mount points and prevent this movement.
One of the other problems related to overall stability of the cart was the engine mounts. They were all broken, so I had to order new ones; over $100. Ugh. Replacing them wasn't terribly hard; I jacked up the motor with a floor jack and removed the old ones, then installed the new ones.
I started with the front suspension by ordering some 11 inch coil over springs that I bought on eBay I think. They were basically motorcycle shocks and much more rigid than the original 30 year old ones. They also looked cool.
The first problem I discovered was the metal sleeve inside the bushing of each shock was too small for the pivot point where the top of each shock mounted. What I did to resolve this was remove the sleeve and take clutch springs from the 1973 Honda CB500 I used to own, cut them in half and place one half of each spring on each side of the shock mounts. I could have mounted each shock without these springs, but since I had removed the bushings, the shocks would slide back and forth on their pivot points. The springs would push against the mount points and prevent this movement.
One of the other problems related to overall stability of the cart was the engine mounts. They were all broken, so I had to order new ones; over $100. Ugh. Replacing them wasn't terribly hard; I jacked up the motor with a floor jack and removed the old ones, then installed the new ones.
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