Flash IV

[Wheelman-111]

Greetings:

Got brand-new Kymco rear pulley yesterday. Speaking to Keoni at VT cycles about ZX conversions a while back, asking about ZX parts. He said they were out, can get 'em, but discouraged me to try. Something about broken belts. Took a closer look at Flash's belt case. There are a few places where you could see problems developing, mainly at low speeds/belt-in-low-gear, but one problem for High Gear as well. This is particularly true if the user plans to run the longer 669 belt:

See how it lives near the rim of that rear pulley? The prep I'd done appeared not to be sufficient. Worked some more.

Here's an area that could be a problem if the belt rides up to the rim of the variator:

One more spot to examine at the upper rear:

Not an issue under power, but under engine braking the belt can "slap around" on the low-tension side. I'm pretty sure this is the reason for reported belt breakage. The alignment looked pretty good using the stock SA boss shimmed out 2.25mm. The KymcoZX pulley was a whopping 4mm longer than the Honda AF16 item, and it put the belt out too far at the front.
Photos show grinding roughed in with a carbide rasp. I went back and polished the surfaces with a fine stone so that if there is incidental belt contact, it will be smooth.

I'm pretty confident this block won't be a belt-breaker, but I'm glad I didn't have to squat down beside the scooter to get this work done. It's a good thing I didn't try to install the ZX pulley into Flash III, because I now realize the crankcase belt cavity prep I did squatting - at night - in the cold - wouldn't have been sufficient. I'll try to move this post to the ZX Trans thread if I can figure out how it's done.

[Flea_Biskit]

i cant wait anymore this is awesome

[Wheelman-111]

Greetings:

Sorry to disappoint, Flea, but I'm at a stopping point until I decide on a bore kit.

Tonight I asembled the super-clean accessories from Z50R_Blank. Jon is the best seller here, and his OCD builds are the stuff of Legend. Thanks, Dawg!

The fan, starter, manifold from TreatLand ($34 shipped!) and oil pump all went on the block. No cable Bracket yet, but they're $9 from Honda-san. The cat approved.
I lightly greased both sides of each gasket. This habit makes assembly easier, guards against leaks, and makes future removal much easier. The pics show the nice belt alignment with the shimmed-out stock boss.

Greasing Gaskets

E4ManiGasketGrease.jpg (208.32 KiB) Viewed 3435 times

This shows the Gaping Maw leading to the mini-stroked crankcase of Flash IV:
I wondered about smoothing out the inside of the CT manifold but could find nothing to correct with Roto-Zippage.
The Shopping List is down to the Bore Kit, pipe, and maybe another Met rear wheel. I want this engine as complete as possible so that I can Dude! swap in a(nother) Dio in under an hour.

[Wheelman-111]

Greetings:

With the block buttoned up using 8.4:1 gears and a ZX rear pulley/belt, Z50R_Blank's squeaky-clean starter, pump and fan, 'twas time to begin accessorizing. The Polini-for-Ruckus arrived late this evening:

Will the Sticker, be unbroken? Bye-and-bye, Lord...
Ahem! Where am I? Oh, and ScooterWest even sent a bunch of swag:

The contents were vaguely familiar, as I had a Polini-for-Elite before. this one's 94.20mm in diameter and came with a full set of 5.5s, but curiously only 3 6.4-gram weights in a sealed plastic bag. The ramp plate is much steeper than the Polini-for-Dio at 25 degrees. Dio's was 15.

I"ve made it a habit to round off the sharp edge of the ramp plate before installation. I hate to deprive roller-makers of their living, but since I've begun doing this I haven't flat-spotted a roller.

The restricted variator that came with the block is now relegated to eBay.

[Wheelman-111]

Greetings:

Hit a snag trying to order & fit a Kymco ZX belt cover. NO fit. Not even close. There's a chance that the cover I received isn't the one I ordered from the Kymco online parts fiche, but the gasket part number was the correct one and didn't match the Elite block either. It did match the cover.

[devenex]

Thats a rough way to find out about the cover not fitting.

Are you going to shim out the elite cover then?

[Wheelman-111]

Greetings:

I'm in the process of finding either a proper Honda ZX cover or perhaps a SYM DD50 version. If all else fails, I'll see how I can affix semi-permanent "shims" to a regular SA/16 cover to clear the kickstarter castle.

There's another issue to address with the electric starter: With the fixed pulley shimmed out a couple of mm, the Bendix fully extended only barely engages it at the edges of the teeth of both gears. Not a good situation.

I sliced a 2mm Hockey Puck from the end of an 8mm bolt:



JB welded to the inside end of the Bendix shaft:

so it holds the assembly further out. Now the Bendix gear gets nearly to the middle of the available width.

My Kymco Parts dealer has been strangely silent today... Anybody need a new Kymco cover?

[Wheelman-111]

Greetings:

Not completely happy with CT Chrome manifold. The spigot section dumps into the reed pre-chamber with an awful lot of sharp 90-degree corners, the antithesis of laminar flow. Having Roto-Zip in hand, I sort of went to town:

I wish BB made a better phone camera for close-ups. Sure hope the rest of my build parts get here soon. I'll be porting the transmission gears next!

[bradthreee]

You are lucky I got no free swag

[Wheelman-111]

Greetings:

Update on shimming out starter Bendix. With the 2mm-thick disc of bolt material JB-Welded to the inside end of the shaft, the extended Bendix gear engages nicely with the ring of teeth on the Drive Face:

What's this? A Wheelman Close-up Pic that is actually somewhat clear?!
Thanks to EliteDio for the tip of holding a magnifying reader glass in front of the lens to reduce the BB camera's focal length.

[Wheelman-111]

Greetings:

Weighed my options carefully, wanting quality but suffering from SCD*. Settled on this 51mm Beauty from Jiangwayne and Ruima:

Wheelman "calculations" reveal Flash IV will beat with a true 90cc heart. One problem: Did any sharp-eyed readers notice the conspicuous absence of cylinder studs? Despite pics on the JW website that clearly show them as part of the kit? I emailed him with low expectations based on past Customer "Service" attitudes.

Meanwhile, I'll chop up some All-Thread just to mock it up. I don't intend to run those soft studs, but can get some work done with them. Anyone got a set of cylinder studs?

[wiguy05]

Build looks like its going well so far!

I'd just like to add that 4 cylinder studs and 4 "tall" nuts came with my RUIMA kit.

[Fishman43]

Was it this one you bought from Jiangwayne?

http://www.jiangwayne.com/scooter/p_i.php?i=13

If so, the description says it doesn't come with cylinder bolts any longer due to it being the same "size" as the original.

[Wheelman-111]

Greetings:

That bold statement was added today - literally! It wasn't there yesterday, and certainly wasn't there when I pulled the purchase trigger in late February. I suspect my email to them may have instigated the added sentence. As far as I'm concerned, they owe me the studs and nuts.

[Fishman43]

I concur... now how to convince them