Making an electric scooter a gas scooter

[Jtsky]

I have one of these (http://www.clickslink.com/scooters/Currieelectricscooters_products_link.html) scooters. I want to put a weed wacker engine in it for more speed and runtime. The first thing I did was pull the motor off of the weed wacker. I noticed it had a plastic peice covering the shaft so i cut that off. Then I noticed thath the shaft wasn't round. It was like a octagon shape. I was wondering if you guys know if they make gears for an octagon shaft? If thay dont make gears like that what are the other options? Also, if you had to guess, should I gear higher or lower then the electric one?

[rv34]

well you could get a spricket and make it chain driven. I thank you would need more accel. withe the gas engine over the electric motor.

[Jtsky]

Yes, It is going to be chain driven I just need a sprocket that fits that kind of shaft. If those are not made then I need a different way of putting a sprocket on an octagon shaft.

[rv34]

you should be able to find one, call around

[Phroziac]

Originally posted by Jtsky
I noticed it had a plastic peice covering the shaft so i cut that off.

None of this plastic piece covered the fan did it? The fan on any of these small engines has a plastic/metal cover over the fan and a good portion of the fins. (Like on a lawnmower engine..). That's a neccessary part of the cooling system, it directs the air from the fan to the cooling fins. Running without it will most likely overheat the engine unless there is a lot of airflow over it. (Probably ok in your situation if you dont let it idle that much..).

And if you didn't already know, the fan is just the fins on the flywheel.

[Jtsky]

No it didn't cover a fan. I guess I will just call to find a place that has those sprockets.

[Phroziac]

That might be hard to do, maybe you can find someone with a lathe and bring it down to a round smaller size that you can find a sprocket for, and get a die and thread it...

[Jtsky]

Well the shaft is hollow so I dont think I can have it rounded. I dunno, I guess I will just call around and see what people say.

[Phroziac]

See if the company makes a different style shaft for the same engine, and buy it from them as a replacement part....A lot of companies make different engines that are identical to eachother except for little things like a crankshaft or spark plug, to use on different things. (like a weedwacker and a chain saw or snow blower...)

[Jtsky]

That sounds like a good idea and I will do that. The only thing is the shaft is stuck on to a part of the clutch so I think I would have to replace the clutch for that to work.