Mini Blade

[Mini Blade]

Hi guys this is my first post, just wanted to post up my project my project thread to show my progress as i go along and get input and ideas from everyone,

I am planning on building a rwd rear engine fireblade mini. I have been lucky enough to be given a few items which has allowed me to do this project. I am a university student studying mechanical engineering and i am tying this project into my 3rd year dissertation. My project will be on chassis design so i am goin to try an come up with a space frame/chassis for the rear to hold and locate the engine. after lots and lots of research i am just about ready to start/just started lol

as above i was luckily given a few items for free, these include a mini shell with lots of supplies and a 1998 CBR 900RR Fireblade engine with 2k miles on, so fairly new. Alot of those miles where track miles so has been nicely run it, the owner (Girl Friend's dad) said they bike had just start to wear in nicely and getting to peak performance (so should be good for the mini :D).

The last few weeks have been abit hectic trying to find a diff, i decided to go with a LSD for all the obvious reasons . After a long hard search and many scrap yards later i managed to aquire a Late model Sierra XR4x4 (2.0 engine) 7" LSD (god damn they are pretty rare and hard to find now lol) with a 3.92:1 ratio. I did alot of reading about LSD and there ratios and seen alot of people on forums talking about ratios and on other BEC sites, and aparently speaking to a family friend who has his own grass track engineering company said this one was meant to be good acceleration but lower top end (which suited my needs perfectly), however after lots of reading an researching it all seemed pointless, and that is because when stripping it down, you remove the outer anulus gear and dont have the helical gear from the prop shaft, so surely that ratio becomes irrelevant and it doesnt matter what lsd ratio you have ? and that the new ratio is completely down to the 2 sproket sizes attached to the diff and the bike ?? (correct me if im wrong)

i will post up pics when i get back home and some more of the project

good to meet you all !!

[Mini Blade]

here are pics of the diff and casing when i first got it back home, and some pics of the casing being taken apart to get the diff out.

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4012/4174693511_44a91dfd51_m.jpg

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4043/4174693447_815043fef5_m.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3481/4050709633_73c92fc56b_m.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2772/4051436232_2e6193ca71_m.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2655/4175459296_861b2bd936_m.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2568/4174704307_68b0f611f0_m.jpg

And a quick pic of the heart of the car, 98 CBR 900 Fireblade :D

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2528/4175729146_773e0c2e17_m.jpg

[Deano]

Great pics mate i was thinking of doing the same myself a while ago but i was told the bike engine wouldnt run sideways with out being dry sumped which is mega money:(

I also like the idea of a prop shaft with no chain to worry about.

I cant see how the oil serge would be any different from a biker with the knee doen on a bend :confused:

good luck keep us posted

[Mini Blade]

hi mate, cheers i will post lots more pics up in a bit of how the diff is coming along now after a few weeks worth of machining.

i am going to be running the engine parrallel to the width of the car, i think they general reason for not being able to run the engine sideways is because of surge, which on a bike doesnt happen as it is not designed for that orientation and on a bike centrifugal forces in a corner keep the oil in place more. thats just from what i understand anyway. if you contact ABperformance they specialise in just bike engine cars and have developed a baffled sump to over come this, at the end of the day, all 7 type cars run there's sideways and im pretty sure they dont all have dry sumps, plus your only gonna really experience it badly if your doing lots of track driving in it.

[Mini Blade]

so my mate back home is working on my diff at the mo, he owns his own race engineering company and comes from a background of autograss tracking and is still racing. he has been doing some top top work on the diff and is starting to look sweet !

ill try explain the pics abit,

basically the diff opening has been sealed and welded, with a bolt hole left (inch an a quarter if i remember rightly) for changing oil etc.

ends of the diff shaft openings have been lathed into to allow the oil seals to be put in.

bearings have been delivered and are ready to be put on, there are 4 bearings for extra strength and support. the bearings are a lifetime bearings which are sealed to prevent any damage or debri getting into them and never need greasing or maintaining.

all the welding is going to be ground back and smoothed and all cleaned up nice, these are just progress pics.

The output shafts are also being lathed to allow another bearing to fit, and the casing and output shafts are going to be lathed and machined to enable the circlips to be placed outside the casing instead of on the awkward place that was right in the middle of the gears that is now unaccessable

The aliminium is race spec and very light and very strong, it has been machined and thread holes added etc, the bearing carriers are nearly finished, bearings just need to be machine pressed into the alluminium carriers, a punch hole has been machined into the carriers just in case the bearings need replacing, these bearings are real heavy duty so shouldnt need changing regularly at all, and take alot of abuse.

images of setup look slightly confusing, but basically there are two bearing carriers each side of the diff, once the bearings are pressed in the carriers are bolted together using flush alan key bolts. the big block of aluminium still needs to be rounded off at the top to look nicer but is looking real smart so far, sooo pleased with the work he has done, and he just seems to know everything, and thinks of so many ideas to make it better, top guy !!

you can also see the reverse gear, as you can see it is SUPER light lol (looks more like an alloy wheel design lol) needs alot of machining to slide over diff and needs a block of steel welded to the back of it to create threaded holes to bolt to the diff. spacers will then be machined, allowing the sprocket to be bolted on giving a good gap tollerance for the chain.

once the aluminium is finished being machined, it is being sent off to one of his mates to be anodised in red, plans are to have the mini anthracite with black arches and red frame. the diff will be spreyed athracite when the tig welds have been smoothed.

the whole thing should start to look really nice soon as the machining is coming to an end and the tidy up process begins. and the whole setup should hopefully be really strong and very light.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2710/4174709751_0f6034fe29_m.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2791/4175467858_765c5368a5_m.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2722/4174712513_819d658a7f_m.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2658/4174712653_1cee065d57_m.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2626/4175473206_76d92efe76_m.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2675/4175473364_fb4c532447_m.jpg

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4043/4175473414_5b869224ab_m.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2690/4174712723_af02618d20_m.jpg

Sean

[Deano]

Looks great :) So its basically a Z cars type coversion ? but instead of spending 10 - 15k your building it .. I Like it

[Mini Blade]

similar concept yeah, cheers mate will update when get more pics !

[Mini Blade]

hey guys, hope you had a good christmas !!

its really hard to keep more than one forum going so thought i would post the link to my thread on this project, as it is abit more progressed now, hope to see you on there.

http://www.theminiforum.co.uk/forums/index.php?showtopic=139114

sean