Too Much Vorce!

 When I was in high school, I built a go cart.  I had the idea to use electrical conduit and braze it together for light weight.  That part worked out great.  Super light weight chassis!  Now I need a powertrain.  I repurposed an engine from a lawn mower that Daddy had retired.  I forget how I got a lawn mower engine to run on its side or how I fabricated engine mounts without a milling machine, but I managed it.  The whole thing came together quite well.  Until I tried to bring the engine power to the rear axle.  

As I recall, I used a V belt and pot metal pulleys.  I had a tensioner pulley that was connected to the clutch pedal.  My plan was that releasing the clutch pedal would allow a spring to tension the belt and launch the kart.  This is actually a working strategy in snowmobiles and side-by-sides.  However, they have an enormous belt clamped between the pulleys of a CVT transmission..  I actually didn't know that at the time.  I also didn't know how to calculate the friction energy required to get the kart rolling.  That energy all has to be dissipated as heat.  This is fairly easy if you have enough thermal mass of metal.  I did not.

I also had no way to properly connect the axle pulley to the axle.  I ground a keyway with a Dremel and hammered a key in.  Started the engine and eased into the clutch.  It ripped the key out in a heartbeat!  I then drilled a hole through the pulley and axle and drove a screwdriver shaft through the hole.  The next launch attempt bent the screwdriver shaft into a pretzel.  At that point I had to go back to school and gave up.  My Dad saw my results and said "Too much vorce, sonny!"  Little did he know how that was to be revisited!

Now here I am, 58 years old and finally realizing my dream of upgrading an MGB to modern standards.  I was, however, determined to keep the knock-off wire wheels for the looks.  Knock-offs transmit all the wheel torque (engine torque and brake torque, through a large spline (similar to gear teeth)).  I thought this spline was so robust that I did not need to worry about it, but alas, alackaday, I missed that bet.

Apparently the combination of near triple engine torque and frequent aggressive braking have been eating away at the splines.  To the point that one morning, on the way to work, I got a strange grinding sound.  I took the SUV to work and jacked BB up that night.

Houston, we have a problem.  On forums, I learned that these splines wear out even without engine upgrades or autocrossing.  When they do, the wheel often falls off.  So I got lucky.  Just missed 2 autocrosses!

So, I've decided to go to lug nuts.

I hope my measurements are correct because I went a half inch wider.  I'm up to 15x6!  Wider tires on the next set!  Now for the real challenge.  Since the entire car is custom, I'll be machining new wheel hubs for all 4 corners.  Further updates as events merit and keep on having #funwithcars !