Converting Electric Golf Cart to Gas Engine

orpackrat

New Member
Was given this electric golf cart and will be converting it to gas engine.

Stripped it down to this:

Pulled an old 340cc snowmobile out of storage and fixed the frozen engine, managed to get the engine to fire for a few seconds.

Working on modding the old motor and converting the shaft to use a sprocket. From there mounting the engine on top and dropping a 60 pitch chain drive down:

Plan on using the snowmobiles existing braking system in addition with what the cart already has.

Pictures gone due to Photobucket ransom.
 

orpackrat

New Member
Could not sleep so I worked into today on the drive system. I'm finally about to go to bed so here is an update on what is done.

Cut away on the motor drive shaft even more to get to the bare shaft.

Ground down shaft to fit new bearing assembly from lower final snowmobile drive. Still got to grind down on the shaft another 3/4".

If any of you have seen a snowmobile and how the drive system works, imagine this:

Its essentially identical in function except the back drive pulley floats with the axle and mounts above the electric motor.

From the drive pulley, there is the disk brake and a gear box that drops down to drive the cogs that turns the track.

Where the drive cogs where normally be, instead there is the modified motor drive shaft that connects to the axle.

Where that cog is spinning turning the track, the modified motor shaft is which bolts to the drive shaft. The "secondary clutch" (drive pulley), instead of being in a fixed position, will float with the axle.
 

orpackrat

New Member
I'm going to be away for a few days at least but I took the electric motor shaft assembly and snowmobile drop down gear system with me to work on. Hopefully I get get back for a day or so come Monday before my main trip and have the drive train ready to mount.
 

orpackrat

New Member
Modifying the motor shaft. Its taking some time, especially since its all being done with a 6" table grinder (I wish I had a Metal Lathe and Mill).

I'm going on a trip in the morning and hope to be back in a few days to put the 1/4" notches to secure the gear. Once that is done, assembly will start moving quickly.
 

orpackrat

New Member
Didn't get to work as much as I wanted to on the tank, got an hour or 2 more work on the lower sprocket assembly before its done and ready to mount. After that, its a matter of re-bolting the rear end, mounting the drive lines, mounting the engine, attaching cables, fuel tank, and hope it works.

Progression pictures, mock up of about how it will all fit together:
 

orpackrat

New Member
After looking at it a bit, I going to see if I can move the motor further back so I can sit down a little better with more room.
 

cartrodder

New Member
How did you get the sprocket on the electric motor shaft and keep it stabilized? I'm converting an old Club Car to gas using a 6.5 horse engine (will go to larger engine later when finances allow).
 

cartrodder

New Member
OK came up with a plan for mine. I pulled the electric motor, broke it down, pressed the bearings off it along with the windings. If you press the windings off you will shed a LOT of weight, resulting in a lot less rotational mass, meaning your engine wont have to work as hard. Will be ready to press the bearings back on and weld the sproket on soon. Just want to say thanks for the inspiration to get my project started. Have an '81 club car, will be running a 6.5 horse greyhound engine til i can afford something bigger.
 
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