My First E-Dune Runner

[Guest]

Wow... That's a big chunk of metal. Are you still going to be lighter? Looks really tough!

 

[mulepic]

I thought the same thing Right now I want to get the pulleys supported on both sides w/ bearings.

Once this thing is bullet proof we can focus on taking material out to reduce the weight.

 

[mulepic]

A little more progress on the clutch pulley mount. The pulley is now fully supported on both sides w/ bearings:

 

[Guest]

Now that looks stable. Very cool.

 

[mulepic]

Here is a little update. I'm making progress on the larger pulley mount.

I'm sure by this point I've added weight

One of my goals for this pulley mount is to eliminate as many as the stock bolts and nuts as possible. All of those required locktite on a regular basis. At the Nitro Challenge I felt like I went through a whole bottle during the weekend. And it's messy and doesn't work well unless you have time to let it dry.

For this mount I'm hoping to get it down to just a couple of bolts and none of the maintenance ones on the bottom of the chassis. You can see how the 3 pieces fit together like a puzzle. Also notice the idler bearings require now screws, they ride on a captured shaft. I hope to do the same w/ the tensioner.

 

[Guest]

That's very innovative. You've been busy. It's came a long way.

 

[mulepic]

Here is the tensioner; it's the set of bearings towards the bottom of the shaft. Again, it uses no fasteners to hold it in place. The shaft is captured between the plates.

So that I could run different ratios and belt sizes I needed the tensioner to be adjustable. There are 10 different holes to mount the tensioner in to accommodate various belt lengths and/or pulley sizes. If needed I could even change to larger bearings but this should pretty much cover all the options:

Look closely at the first picture and you'll notice a black bolt head sticking out of the front. My plan is to make that the only bolt needed to take the whole thing apart and remove it from the chassis. I'm going to use a spring washer to avoid using locktite on it.

So the next piece will be the mounting block that will be permanently mounted to the chassis. The pulley plates will key into this block holding it in place and the black bolt will clamp it all together. I don't quite have it figured out yet but that's the plan.

 

[Guest]

All very impressive dude!

 

[krashkrieg]

Re: My First E-Dune Runner

Fantastic piece of machining!....

 

[rampagemt]

Re: My First E-Dune Runner

That's crazy dude!! You got a lot goin on there but I know you got it figured out

 

[mulepic]

Thanks for all the positive compliments. I'm looking forward to running this thing again.

 

[mulepic]

Well I think this is the final piece to be machined for the pulley drive. It has several slots and a keyway milled into it. This piece will be mounted to the chassis w/ red locktite w/ no intentions of ever removing it. All the pulley drive plates key into this w/ the single bolt (shown above) locking them to this chassis plate.

I think I need to remake the large pulley shaft b/c it's off by about .030", there's just a little too much play in it. Hopefully it's up and running soon. But I'm sure I need to make some adjustments to refit the brake parts.

 

[rampagemt]

Re: My First E-Dune Runner

Ifs coming together very nice. You got a sweet belt drive system set up there

 

[Guest]

Look'n great. You've got some skills dude! It should work better than your previous setup.

 

[mulepic]

I actually drove the DR today. It runs very well and I feel much better about the belt drive holding up. But it was short lived b/c I don't have the brakes hooked up yep; that'll take some more modifications. And it's not too wise to be driving around a 35lbs missile on the street w/ no brakes

 

[Guest]

Sooo True! LOL

And it's not too wise to be driving around a 35lbs missile on the street w/ no brakes

 

[krashkrieg]

Re: My First E-Dune Runner

Happy to hear the new design is working out....can't wait for some video of that missile!

 

[mulepic]

It was suggested I take a video of how the pulley drive plates all fit together so maybe I'll do that video first.

One more item before the car is track ready is to make a rear chassis brace. The stock rear posts sheered the bolts at the NC and I need to come up w/ something different.

 

[mulepic]

I made up a chassis brace (2 actually) and it has stiffened up the back quite a bit. In stock form the motor engine and gear plate brace the chassis. Since I eliminated both of those I had to come up w/ another option.

The brakes are turning out to be not a trivial task of re-fitting the stock setup. I have all sorts of clearance issues w/ the stock cam rod and the rods the pads ride on are much too short now. So this will take longer than anticipated to solve.

But I did manage to bring the e-DR to a huge parking lot and test out the belt drive. The parking lot is so big that I can drive it in a 45 second loop at full throttle. So that's just what I did but for 12 minutes. I'm happy to say the belt never got more than warm and everything worked great and stayed nice and snug. I'm hopefully this nut is cracked.

Now for those darn brakes

 

[krashkrieg]

Re: My First E-Dune Runner

Fantastic! Sounds like your belt issue is now a non-issue...I have no doubt you'll fix up something great for the brakes...