Those of you that followed my paddock starter exploits may well be wondering how well it went, well the answer to that one is - pretty badly. After having burnt out yet another starter motor I came to the conclusion that none of the top race teams were going to be coming to me to purchase my dodgy solution and that perhaps a change of approach would be the best course of action.
Stickney auto jumble came to the rescue once again, this time in the shape of a Honda GX series engine with reduction gear that looked like a more chunky but much more reliable option. I saw it on the floor of a bloke's pitch, he didn't know if it ran, he was selling it on behalf of a mate. A bit of haggling happened, it was ridiculously cheap anyway but in the end just 45 of yer finest British pounds changed hands and I scampered off back to my pitch smiling like the proverbial Cheshire cat. The smile got a whole lot bigger when I gave it a pull and it started first time, yes there was even a pint of petrol in it.
The task of reengineering the original rollers was a pretty simple one, it has made it rather hefty but I no longer need to take a bloody great battery with me. I can operate it by myself, just start it up and leave it running until I have a spare hand to turn the ignition off, I might make a remote switch to make life a bit easier. I used nearly all of the previous electric version, only the motor has gone and some engine mounts added, all the rollers and chain drive parts are the same.
It is only a 3.5 hp engine but with the reduction gearing it has a mountain of torque, way more than the electric version ever had, I have turned up the governor a bit to get a few more revs out of it, I think it's about right now. I need to add some grip tape to the rollers, I think I am getting some slippage at the moment. It's a better solution in some ways but not so good in others, the size and weight being the big disadvantage, I need to add wheels.
It's been a lot of messing about, mostly because I had a very low budget and my attempt to use second hand parts that were not in the first flush of youth had a negative impact on my success. The impolite would say the first 2 starter motors were 99 per cent buggered before I started. An off the shelf brand new item would be best part of 900 quid so that was never going to happen, I reckon this whole debacle has cost less than 150 quid so I'm still quids in, as long as I value my time at zero quid per hour. Yes a proper bought one would be a lot lighter, probably made of ally rather than steel and would also look a lot better but AI simply can not justify tat sort of expenditure Despite the set backs it has been a lot of fun and a very worthwhile project, all's well that ends well, as they say. I just hope this one lasts a bit longer then the previous versions.
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