Thursday, February 4, 2010

New Clutch Design

The Voyager has a hydraulic clutch. The hydraulic lever/master cylinder/reservoir can not be mounted vertically on the shift lever and work - only upside down and then its very awkward and interferes. A pedal/foot clutch won't work either because the steering column is too low and it would not be safe trying to maneuver your right foot from the accelerator, under the steering column, and over to the brake. So I initially built a cable to hydraulic conversion for the clutch. I think I totally missed posting any of that. I was not happy with it - too much cable stretch and too much unnecessary friction.


So last weekend, I figured out that I could use the rear brake master cylinder, which has a remote reservoir, mounted to the (slightly modified) shift lever with a home-made linkage. Of course I had to cut the master cylinder and reservoir of the handlebar mounted clutch assemble. The shift linkage attaches to the bottom hole on the lever:


I still need to cut the push rod to length. I also have to order a new clutch handle since I modified (cut) the original when making the cable actuated design.
Here are two pictures of it installed - the second is from inside the wheel well looking aft. (the push rod goes through the forward hole)
I still need to figure out where to mount the reservoir and get a longer hose for it and a hose for the line to the clutch on the bike.
Next I need to seriously tackle designing the pedal and dash mounting.