robin diesel

gilburton · Post by **gilburton** » Wed May 23, 2007 2:14 pm

Hello,I've just bought a Robin DY41D and intend to find a bike to fit it to.I believe this is the engine that was fitted to the UK enfields but I was thinking more of an MZ ETZ conversion or an older brit bike(no road tax).Any info or links to other sites would be a bonus particularly gearboxes that have been used and has anyone in general tried rubber engine mounts or is it better just to bolt it in direct?Anyone got a suitable bike?I am in Northants

Anorak_ian · Post by **Anorak_ian** » Wed May 23, 2007 3:11 pm

Hi, I am using a 1948 Ariel frame, and rubber mounting the engine, the Enfield gearbox I’m using is in bits as I'm fitting a metric main shaft to an old imperial box. Lots of fun there.
I would not recommend using an Ariel frame (too small) or any other that has a down tube separating the engine from the gearbox, as the primary setup will be to far apart. An Enfield frame would be a good choice for a single.
The bottom rubber mounts I have chosen may be too big, as the engine wobbles about a bit, I'll have to see what happens when I get the top mounts on.

My website is
http://www.dieselbiker.co.uk I haven't updated it for a while so the rubber mount photos and more gearbox info are yet to come.

Cheers
Ian

sbrumby · Post by **sbrumby** » Wed May 23, 2007 11:01 pm

My thoughts on rubber mounts, if you put them on the engine you will have too solidly mount the gearbox or whatever you use to the engine as any movement will transmit to the primary drive, chain going slack & tight or belt doing same. Then if you do this final drive will be doing the same. I have built 2 so far & am on the 3rd. Number 2 the Yam 750 when first fired up was moveing in the frame as it was only attached on the bottom of the engine,the primary chain was all over the place. I attached a mount to the engine top, problem solved. The only other thing I did was to fit rubber mounts to the mirrors. Engine vibration I dont believe is much of a problem if you are standing on rubber tyres & have suspension, more of a problem if you choose a solid back end. They went out in 1940.

gilburton · Post by **gilburton** » Fri May 25, 2007 2:14 pm

I have not yet decided which route to take.The engine has a 25 mm shaft(nearly 1" in old money) does anyone have some good links to suppliers of pulleys/sprockets or do you just buy the "blanks" and have them machined?Can you get a spigot to mount to the shaft and then bolt on sprockets?or do they generally just come in standard bores?I was thinking of rubber mounts as the MZ is halfway there but the diesel would be too heavy so I was thinking of a downtube suspended from behind the steering head by a rubber mount to take some of the weight off the MZ mounts.Peugeot 106/metro/citroen AX cars use a "suspended" mounting.I haven't decided on the transmission either as the Comet drive is compact and neat and might prove easier to get hold of as Brit bike stuff is getting dearer.I was thinking of mounting the whole engine/transmission rigidly together.A lot depends on what I find at a reasonable price but I do think the engine suits the older Brit look.Once I get hold of the basics I'll take a closer look at gearing etc. before I actually start to build

Anorak_ian · Post by **Anorak_ian** » Fri May 25, 2007 3:28 pm

http://www.gates.com/index.cfm http://www.fptgroup.com/index/index.asp

gilburton · Post by **gilburton** » Fri Jun 01, 2007 10:14 pm

well,the great ebay hunt has started.The trouble is when I see a complete bike I don't want to rip it apart if it's in a half decent condition!!!There is a nice ETZ MZ on there at the moment with no engine but has the world gone mad? the bidding is currently £100???? with a few days to run.

I've also been looking for a comet drive but these either seem to be the smaller ones for karts or only available in the US.I know they can be bought over here from Tecumseh dealers but being a Scotsman I hate paying dealer prices.It would be great if someone could point me in the direction of anywhere these can possibly be obtained s/hand or let us know what agricultural/garden machinery these were fitted to in the UK.In the meantime I'll continue to search for a suitable bike/frame to start me off.I've even considered a chop frame as they usually have lots of room to play with but nothing yet. ps anyone with a part modified frame or abandoned experiment get in touch

balboa_71 · Post by **balboa_71** » Sat Jun 02, 2007 10:47 pm

Gilburton,
Over here (US), i paid $480 for Comet drive, driven unit and belt (500 series) and that's kind of a normal price. I would guess you can get the same thing over on your side of the pond.
I looked at Ebay before buying from a dealer, but didn't have any luck finding 500 series components.

Cris

gilburton · Post by **gilburton** » Wed Jun 20, 2007 12:41 pm

I've managed to buy a cvt unit that was fitted to French Aixam diesel microcar and they have Canada on them so I presume they were originally snowmobile units.I need to get the centre bores machined and/or bushed to fit the Robin and a suitable jackshaft sourced.I now need to find an engineer in Northants as I don't have the tools to do it myself. Apart from that they should be able to take the "power" of my engine as they were on a Kubota 500 twin diesel

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robin diesel

robin diesel

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