Tass 928's Open class "Doodlebus"

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Tass 928

Member
#1
#1
As a byproduct of creating a fleet of matched, clone powered doodlebugs (racing excitement for when I have garage visitors) I have accumulated this pile of DB engines. So, for no good reason whatsoever, I have decided to lump them all together into a single doodle bug.

It will be long and heavy and probably not all that fast. Maybe I'll paint it yellow and it will be a sort of Doodle Bus.

So back to craiglist and the first DB that shows up is a very clapped out, beat up example that the youthful seller assures me is a "totally awesome ride ! " and "really fast !" to boot. It was too far away but an extra $20 thrown into the deal was enough to have him get a ride from an adult and deliver it to me.
So here is my starting point, a beat up DB and 5 engines ! The goal will be to get the 4 best runners and mount them in a single frame. The chains will be a minor challenge and the throttle linkage maybe a little more daunting. The frame stretch will be straight forward and with the added weight and speed (?) perhaps a front brake would be useful.
 
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danssoslow

Active Member
#3
#3
More of a reader, I wasn't going to respond to anyone's threads; but I had to say, this project is ridiculously cool!

If I may, the first thing that popped into my head when thinking of a throttle control was a bicycle gyro. All the ones I have ever seen have only two outputs; but maybe it would be possible to modify one to have four outputs.

Good luck!!!
 
firemarshal71

firemarshal71

#4
#4
I will be interested in learning a thing or two watching you put this together. I can't even imagine how I would attempt something like that, Welcome to the fun!:thumbsup:
 
T

Tass 928

Member
#5
#5
5horsebriggs said:
Cool! I wish you luck for trying to figure out a thortle of some sort
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Agreed, much luck needed :laugh: Thanks! Two of my engines do not have the original throttle linkage so that's going to mess me up a little.

danssoslow said:
More of a reader, I wasn't going to respond to anyone's threads; but I had to say, this project is ridiculously cool!

If I may, the first thing that popped into my head when thinking of a throttle control was a bicycle gyro. All the ones I have ever seen have only two outputs; but maybe it would be possible to modify one to have four outputs.

I will certainly look into that, thanks. Any and all ideas are appreciated.

Good luck!!!
Click to expand...
firemarshal71 said:
I will be interested in learning a thing or two watching you put this together. I can't even imagine how I would attempt something like that, Welcome to the fun!:thumbsup:
Click to expand...
Thanks for the welcome ! Lets see how far down my planned path I can go before I have to cut it a part and start over :laugh:
 
T

Tass 928

Member
#6
#6
Got my show on the road here....

It looks like I will adding the 3 extra engines and only 18" to the wheel base. That's not as bad as I had anticipated so I might actually be able to ride this thing!
The starting point is a single motor mount plate made to the smallest possible length and then add back the front and rear frame section from my donor.

So, first step is this 11ga. (1/8") steel plate cut to 9" x 38". Once the holes are in it, I will bend the edges with 1" lips and it will be the stock 7" width. The bent edges will give it the strength I need to carry the weight and extra wheel base.

Forgive me for not including a roll of toilet paper in my shots from out in the shop. That would be to hard to explain.........

I did get my quarter into the others though :smile:
 
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Tass 928

Member
#7
#7
I figured out my engine locations and then punched in all of the mounting slots. My drive line plan has three jack shafts and the bearings for them will arrive tomorrow. At that point I can punch the bearing mount holes and then bend up the motor plate. Until then, I'm poking with the donor doodle-turd. It turns out the frame is bent in a few spots so I'll need to straighten it before I go hacking it apart.

Pics of the slotted plate and the frame canage:
 
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Tass 928

Member
#8
#8
Do you guys have a thread for the "worst hack repair imaginable" ??

The steering head was sloppy so I pulled it apart and check out the contents !

We have a couple of washers, a pc of tubing, wraps of masking tape, a single outer bearing race and a section of inner tube!:doah::doah:
 
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Tass 928

Member
#10
#10
Wow, thanks WLB ! Good solid advice! It seems the very early 750's had the 1 into 4 cable.
Found one on ebay so lets see what happens. If I can snag that cable, the rest should be smooth sailing.
 
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WLB

Active Member
#11
#11
Tass, if the 750 Honda cable doesn't work for you, it really isn't hard to make one from scratch if you have inner and outer bulk cable plus a supply of appropriate ends. I have a 1 into 9 that I can photo if that would help.
 
jeep2003

jeep2003

#13
#13
Haha thats cool! looking forward to see how you set up the drive with those jackshafts. Throttle should be easy with the split cable :thumbsup:
 
N

N8ball

Member
#14
#14
This reminds me of a Harley I saw in 2010?? at the Sturgis HD dealer. It had every motor from the first Flathead, to the current twin cam at the time. All putting power to the tandem rear wheels. It had 10 seats on it. A ha! Found a pic. 7 motors in all. It is a real history lesson.
 
T

Tass 928

Member
#15
#15
Just a quick update...

I have a 4-way honda throttle cable on the way so my linkage issue should be 90% resolved :thumbsup: Thanks again to WLB !

I punched the last of the holes and then bent up my engine mount plate. There was a change of plan on the drive side of the plate when I needed clearance for the sprockets on my jack shafts. The simple solution was a double bend that narrowed the mounting section and still gave me the width I wanted for welding to the frame tubes.

I stripped the rest of the donor frame and I'm ready to start chopping it up. I have the engine mount and drive stuff mapped out to the point where I am comfortable putting the rough frame together for a total bike mock up.

A couple of pics:
 
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WLB

Active Member
#16
#16
That motor plate is very nice. You must have some serious equipment to be able to bend 1/8 th inch like that. Nice touch on the punched holes as well.:thumbsup::thumbsup:
 
gumpit

gumpit

#19
#19
Did anyone see "The Human Centipede" ? Im picturing an exhaust going into an intake and another exhaust going into another intake.... Gross movie...
 
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