3 Wheeler Engine
The engine for the 3 wheeler is from a 500cc Kawasaki GPZ500 motorbike. The picture below shows the engine mounted in the 3 wheeler frame at the same angle as it was in the motorbike frame. The information below explains how this was achieved.
Engine & Swing Arm Mounting
The location of the mounting points for the engine, swing arm and rear suspension were taken directly from the frame of the motor bike. This was achieved by creating a jig due to the complex nature of the bike frame.
Jigging the mounting points for the engine and swing arm
The jig was nothing more than two pieces of chipboard with a large block of pine in between. The jig was drilled to create a location or origin hole that all the mounting points would be found from. The jig was then bolted into the frame of the motor bike. This enabled the other mounting points to be located on the jig. The jig was then removed, drilled and refitted to test the accuracy. As predicted all the holes lined up and the jig was then measured to gain the dimensions for the engine mounting points and swing arm.
Creating the rear mounting frame
After studying the bike frame a design was decided on that consisted of two vertical plates mounted on and separated by box section. The plates were drilled using the dimensions from the jig and then joined together with the box section. Once the frame had been produced that had the two rear engine mounts and the swing arm pivot hole drilled the front engine mount was designed. It was clear that to extract the engine from the frame with relative ease would mean that the rear engine mount frame would need to be removable. This was accomplished, produced and works well.
Adding the rear suspension mounting points
To find the positions of the rear suspension mounting points, a jig was created that consisted of bars with holes in that were bolted together. The main bar was drilled with holes that exactly matched the rear engine mounts. The jig was then attached to the existing bike frame by the rear engine mounting points and the top suspension mount. The bolts in the jig were then tightened so that the location of the top suspension mount could be located from the locations of the rear engine mounts. The jig was removed from the bike frame and bolted into the rear mounting frame. A bracket was created and welded in place whilst connected to the jig. This ensured that the accuracy was high. The bottom suspension mounts position was calculated in the same way but it was decided that to gain some more rear ground clearance the mounting point would be changed.
A problem that later occurred was that one of the engine mounting bolts was in the path of the chain. This was corrected by creating another bracket that was welded into the frame. This ensured a clear path for the chain.
Adding the frame to the main body
Once the entire rear mounting frame had been created it was welded onto the main frame of the car. Other struts were added to give strength that was needed to cope with the forces that would be generated by the drive system.