This is I think the right place to begin. This trike build started 2 years ago and has been documented on NGW, before I found this site. If it's ok with you I will put up a summary over the next few weeks of the last 2 years, may take some time, and then pick up the build proper.

It started with this. A non-runner, sold with 'electrical problems'. I looked it over, found the throttle slides moved ok, put it in gear and it turned over ok. Otherwise, and as you can see, it looks a right shed. It was advertised near Birmingham. took the Transit down and a bunch of fit lads put it in the back. Bought a crane to get it out and parked it in the garage. It came with the usual piles of plastic, most of which won't go back on. It is a nominal '78 but the engined dates from around '75, recorded miles just 22,000, and the evidence of electrical problems everywhere.




One of seven grandchildren trying it for size.

Started pulling bits off.





and started to make bits up. Spent a lot of happy hours in scrap yards, found loads of good stuff. After a couple of months got the basics together, an industrial calorifier for the tank, holds 5 US gallons. A Morris Minor back axle, and for those who don't know what a Morris Minor is, it was a post war jelly mould with an 845 cc motor and it stayed in production for many years finishing up with about 1100 cc. It was a surprisingly good drive. Designed by Alec Issigonis who went on to do the original Mini, amongst others.

The wheels came from a scrap yard too, 4 Range Rover Sport wheels with excellent tyres. These tyres and the axle ratio of 4:1 gives me a slightly lower driver, about 8%, which is what you would look for when hanging a chair on a bike, by fitting a bigger sprocket.





Building the suspension. I have a 50 ton pipe bender which makes mincemeat out of 1/4 wall tube. Turned up the bushes, threaded them, fitted rose joints and made up the brackets for the axle. Sounds easy now, took months!

More to follow.

_________________________________

Photos look great transitman You don't say but I take that you have had it running by now?

_________________________________

Very cool! It's so nice to have the tools to be able to do things like this!

We'll be watching...

_________________________________

Could be better, could be worse - could be riding in a hearse!

Running? 2 years off yet! Still a pile of bits scattered all over the garage.
Frame largely complete, few more bits to stick on. Engine hanging from crane getting paint stripped off. No wiring attempted yet, propshaft still in build, no reverse gear, the list is endless.

_________________________________

What a great project! Making it up as you go, trial and error, keep building 'till it's right, and a one-of-a-kind when it's all done!

_________________________________

Could be better, could be worse - could be riding in a hearse!

_________________________________

Gerry <///><

yep this will be neat build

_________________________________



thank god and hooch im gone

thanks people, nice to hear from you.

_________________________________

Has anyone seen the trike build that ian did on full custom garage?interesting way to go about it


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

_________________________________

How many stones weight of jello have made with those minor bodies... lol

_________________________________

Joe Dey
85 GL1200 Interstate
81 GL1100 Interstate
DAV Viet ERA USAF SSGT Tech Controller

catch up episode 2, and first off thought you might like to see a couple of the tools I use.





this is the pipe clamp, holds it solid with only a little pressure and will take any amount of force needed to work a tube.
next up a handy little chop saw does 1/4" wall tube easy enough.





only problem is new blades are about $50 and get used up fairly rapidly. Tend to use the angle grinder for rough cuts.
Thought I had a pic of the pipe bender on the laptop but must have lost it. Will post it next time.
On to the trike, this is the stripped down frame, took a lot thought and hesitation to get it this far, and I kept the bits, just in case!





made up these assemblies to weld to each side of the axle tubes





and then placed the main swinging arm in place





In the end of the arm is a turned down end piece welded into the tube with a cross hole and shaped fitting for the rose joint. In the original swinging arm position I turned up a brass bush to be a tight fit in the housing and a sliding fit for the rose joint.

next post soon as I can!

_________________________________

nice moves ....

_________________________________



thank god and hooch im gone

Very nice work!

_________________________________

Could be better, could be worse - could be riding in a hearse!

Looking good!

_________________________________

Catch up episode 3, this was the work going on around Christmas time 2012. The pictures aren't necessarily in proper order, they have been dredged out of the file to best illustrate what was going on. For example, the back of the frame was not cut down in this post, it was in the last, but it shows what I was thinking in sequence.





This shows how I was looking at the propshaft, rear axle, and rear frame. The flywheel is on the propshaft to allow a reverse gear by running a starter motor against it so it runs backwards. Motor and flywheel off Alfa 156, flywheel heavily skimmed on a really big lathe and a fancy centre welded in, cast to carbon, that fits the Morris Minor diff nose and the Mitsu L200 short shaft. I turned it up on a hobby lathe. Much searching in scrapyards preceded this lot.

Wheels are Range Rover Sport. I will try and find a picture of the adaptor I made to join the axle to the wheels. What really sold me on the wheels is their 8 inch internal offset which allows me to not have to shorten the axle. The 3 inch offset of the propshaft (to go around the bike back wheel) I dealt with by making one wheel to axle adaptor 3 inches longer than the other one. This has led to some really strange looking alignments as the build progressed, but nothing I can't live with.







This pic shows the first stage of the rear suspension arrangement and how it carried on in the first pic. Everything propped up on bits of wood here, and as you can see I have made a dolly to take the engine. It is just the right height for pulling out of the frame and pushing it back in, which I seem to have to do an inordinate number of times. All the paint marks on the axle help me to line things up fairly quickly each time something moves.







This last pic shows where I thought the tank would go. After fiddling with it for a week or so I gave up on that idea and stuck it on the rear frame, leaving me the space where the old tank went to make some sort of electrical system box and also to take a car battery earmarked for the build. You can also see, if you enlarge the picture, the unfinished suspension tube position. There is more suspension work to do yet and I will gather that stuff together for the next post.

BTW, you just wouldn't believe the fun I've been having putting all this together. Never mind it will take years to finish, much as I want to ride it making it is something else.

_________________________________