Getting the right parts...

Well, its been a while, and the model is now officially a little behind schedule. That's OK, and the subject of another post...

Until then, let's talk about parts.

With a curb weight of just 400lbs, (160 of which are batteries,) I'm obsessed with weight of every component. I'm also very cost-conscious. Mark Twain wrote: “The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug.” For the Moonray, almost the right parts won't do. Getting the right parts has become an ongoing exercise in lightening. Three cases in point: the steering wheel, the front suspension arms, and the front wheel/tire package.
 
Initially, I thought the steering wheel (handlebar?) from the very interesting Honda Odyssey FL350 Off-Road  Go-Cart of the mid-1980s would be ideal for the 'ray. It has brake levers, a throttle and cable, headlight and other switches, all built into a cool aluminum aircraft-style yoke. It says Honda on it, too. I bought one for $95 on ebay, complete with cables, switchgear and wiring harness. It really is cool, but when I got it in my hands, I realized its very rugged and heavy. Sure enough, it tips the scales at almost 7 pounds, about 10 with the $35 steel steering shaft that I bought with it. Since I would still have to rig up some motorcycle cable-actuated brake master cylinders, (I bought one of those, appropriately sized for my Wilwood PS-1 front calipers, and had trouble figuring out how that was going to work...) the whole "fully integrated hand controls" thing started to become more of a project than the actual drivetrain, steering and brakes combined, and it was already too heavy for the weight budget. The lightning bug of steering wheels. So I reluctantly put the super cool Honda Odyssey yoke on ebay, and it fetched $100 from a disabled guy in New Zealand who wants it for a hand-controlled dune buggy. The shaft is still listed, and the brake master cylinder sold for what I paid for it, about $25. Consider it time well wasted...

Meanwhile, I found an even cooler steering yoke, from a 1959 Beechcraft Bonanza. Its a smaller, super-trick aluminum casting with an emblem surround that would support a little domed moon in place of the Beech "B" emblem there. Fantastic, and only 1 pound, 5 ounces! I snapped it up on ebay for $85, and was thrilled. No controls on it, but having switches, the throttle and brakes on the steering wheel was adding complexity and weight to the vehicle, so this is better. It is very hard to beat aircraft parts for lightness. Here's a comparison between the Beech and the Honda yokes:

I was so happy, at least until a week later when I saw an early Ercoupe steering yoke on ebay- its more steering wheelish and looked super light. I didn't really want to give up the Bonanza yoke, but I won the stylish Ercoupe yoke for only $22. Then I discovered its much simpler arrangement for bolting it to any old steering shaft, and, oh yeah, it weighs just 9 ounces! Lightning has finally struck the steering wheel of the Moonray. The Bonanza yoke is currently back on ebay. Here's a comparison of these two yokes:

 

From 7 pounds to about a 1/2 pound in two easy steps...

I've had a similar mission of refinement with my front suspension (unequal length) arms. I'm using the front suspension from a Suzuki LT250R Quadracer. Its a good choice, because the Quadracer is an old-school design from the mid-1980s, with less suspension travel, and arms that operate closer to horizontal than newer quads that tend to have arms at a 45 degree angle to the ground. There are also improved (lighter, stronger) replacement arms designed for racing and available in the aftermarket. My plan was to use the stock used arms for the initial build, and move up to the lightweight racing arms as my weight and money budgets dictated.

I bought a used set of 1986 front arms, complete with spindles, steering arms, hubs and brakes, for $100. They were cheap, but upon further study I discovered Suzuki improved the arm design and mounting, while using the same spindles and hubs, in 1987. So my '85-'86  arms are less common than the later '87-92 arms. More important, all the available aftermarket ChroMoly racing arms, (that are lighter and stronger than the stock arms and offer adjustable alignment settings) are also the later design, and incompatible with my early arms. Worse than that, I suspect my arms have worn ball joints at the spindles and bushings on the frame side. These parts are over $175 new, so I've been in the market for stock or aftermarket '87-'92 arms for several months. Stock ones in good used shape could be $75-$100 a set, and aftermarket racing arms are three to five times that, and harder to come by used and good.

Then lightning struck again. For whatever reason, a set of fully restored 1987 arms, freshly stripped, sandblasted, powdercoated yellow, and fitted with all new ball joints and bushings, came up on ebay and somehow attracted no attention. I was the only bidder at $45, and I was giddy unwrapping them. They are perfect, and were a plain steal even with the $29 Shipping. If I make weight with them, I'll probably forget about upgrading to aftermarket arms unless the handling requires tweaking. Aren't they just beautiful? Take a look:

 

Nice, but racing arms are camber/caster adjustable- and lighter.

I struggled with the front wheel/tire problem for a long time. I bought stock Suzuki 10" x 5 1/2" wheels in a couple of styles to evaluate using them with auto tires. Even 10 inch car tires are really overkill for the Moonray, and at 11-12 lbs. each, they are relatively heavy. Add the stock wheels to them at 3 1/2 lbs. each, and the total package is over 30lbs for the front wheels and tires. More like a June bug than a lightning bug. 

While I was worrying about all that a drag racer at the QuadracerHQ put up for sale his custom-made Douglas 10" x 4" (standard width is 6") aluminum front wheels, complete with mounted, DOT-Approved street legal 3.5" x 10" scooter tires. These are ideal for my purposes, and under 7 1/2 pounds each! That's the lightest possible setup, already tested to over 100mph, and road ready. Incredible, and fairly priced at $150 delivered. Its enough to make the air crackle with electricity.

Way cooler than it looks...

So, for now, its all about the parts. When building a vehicle from scratch, there are many more choices for how things can be done. With constrained vehicle mass and cost budgets, each of those choices needs to be made carefully. I'm not unhappy about revisiting the choices several times, so long as the outcome improves and the expense is modest. Its been like this for almost every component, just gradually finding exactly the right thing. Of course, this is fun and easy only so long as nothing is built that these components attach to.

Once chassis fabrication begins, swapping parts in and out will be much harder and more expensive...