Author Topic: The Hammond Harding finally gets its turn  (Read 18588 times)

Stuart Cyphus

  • Possibly the most fabulous person in the universe....
  • Moderator
  • Prolific Poster
  • *****
  • Posts: 1491
Re: The Hammond Harding finally gets its turn
« Reply #15 on: October 09, 2018, 06:14:17 pm »
And so after a somewhat longer break than expected, it's back to the resurrection of the Hammond Harding, with today seeing the start of reassembling all the braking system, from shoes to rod linkages. The handbrake rod is completely kaputted after years of being dragged on the ground, but nothing a rummage in the box of threaded rod off-cuts can't cure. Tomorrows job is the reassembly of the main brake cross-shaft after some paint has dried & so by this time tomorrow it should have fully working brakes for the first time since at least 1986.

 The big news of today though, is that it is back on three wheels at last, with the front forks finally going back on. For thirty-two years the steering bearing balls had all been missing, but now, after empting the local cycle shop of just about every packet of ball bearings in every size going, it now sits firmly on all three. Slowly, life is returning, along with the all-seeing eye....

Jean

  • Global Moderator
  • Prolific Poster
  • *****
  • Posts: 698
    • www.rumcars.org
Re: The Hammond Harding finally gets its turn
« Reply #16 on: October 11, 2018, 09:38:34 am »
Great news Stuart can we have some pictures please?  Jean
Jean
Register of Unusual Microcars

Stuart Cyphus

  • Possibly the most fabulous person in the universe....
  • Moderator
  • Prolific Poster
  • *****
  • Posts: 1491
Re: The Hammond Harding finally gets its turn
« Reply #17 on: December 09, 2020, 05:34:12 pm »
Sooo, two years on & where are we? The floor is in, and a suitable tempory seat was installed, care of the legendary Alan Hitchcock, complete with free complementary dalmation hairs....

 And then work slowed. For something like 18 months whilst a rather more derilict Harding Model IV discovered in Guildford commanded my attention sooner rather than later so that it could continiue to remain in existance, such was the sorry state of said Guildford Harding.

 Then in August 2020, attention turned back to Hammond Harding. As has been recounted, 163 CLD was orginally powered by a Villers Mk 31C unit construction  engine. As this engine was utterly four-letter-worded, complete with a  squirrel nest inside it, I then half fitted a Villers Mk 26c  engine from a 1954 Tippen Coventry invalid carriage scrapped in the  '70s.  Now, after a ponderance on my limitations on being able to  rebuild knackered old engines and the  costs of doing same, plus the fact that the seperate Albion gearbox is  steadfastly refusing to fit in the remaining space where orginaly 163  CLD had the said unit-construction engine, it was a toss-up between 163 CLD standing idle for yet more years with an old engine of unknown condition, or up & working within days with something else...

Thus, after a tour round varius modern engines I happened upon this 'ere brand new 98cc "Villers" G152...  It may "only" be a chinese clone of a Honda G100 engine, but it's still playing the game as far as I'm concerned.  Anyway, said engine arrived brand-new-in-the-box ready for the August bank holiday weekend & the  weekend was spent working out to bodge it into place using the original  unmolested engine mounts. I've said it before & I'll say it again,  in the doing up of old crap; "Dexion & Dulux Works Wonders".

 Of course life is never easy and it was then discovered that the axle sprocket and 5/8" centrifugal clutch (neatly doing away with the  need to mess about with a gearbox that was never up to much even when  new)'s sprocket did not match. No real question of changing the clutch sprocket as said clutch can only be sourced to fit 420 chain whereas the axle sprocket seems to use some sort of chain pitch no longer known to man nor beast. So change the rear sprocket I hear everyone yell. Again, not so simple, for Harding built their machines with sprocket welded directly to the axle & then both chassis rails wilded direct to the axle tube, trapping said sprocket for all time.

 So, how to get round this? Many hours browsing 420 sprockets brought me to split-sprockests as used in some go-karts, split in the fact that they come in two halves, to be bolted onto a kind of cradle to keep the halves alined. Ah, perfect! So such a sprocket duely wings it way to here as I tap away on these keys.  In the springtime, when the weather lets me reaquaint myself with the feeling in my fingers, it's out with the Black & Decker to dril said new sprocket mounting holes in the old fixed sprocket and shift the whole engine over by the said half-inch.

 By hook or by crock Hammond Harding will be running by St Leonard's Day, come what may.... (answers on a postcard as to which 1983 BBC sitcom I referance with that somewhat fractured quiote...)
 
 Meanwhile, a proper seat also slowly takes form...




Stuart Cyphus

  • Possibly the most fabulous person in the universe....
  • Moderator
  • Prolific Poster
  • *****
  • Posts: 1491
Re: The Hammond Harding finally gets its turn
« Reply #18 on: December 09, 2020, 05:36:11 pm »
 :)

Stuart Cyphus

  • Possibly the most fabulous person in the universe....
  • Moderator
  • Prolific Poster
  • *****
  • Posts: 1491
Re: The Hammond Harding finally gets its turn
« Reply #19 on: December 09, 2020, 05:39:05 pm »
 :)

woollen797

  • Just Starting
  • *
  • Posts: 8
Re: The Hammond Harding finally gets its turn
« Reply #20 on: December 11, 2020, 03:50:58 pm »
Those look lovely

Stuart Cyphus

  • Possibly the most fabulous person in the universe....
  • Moderator
  • Prolific Poster
  • *****
  • Posts: 1491
Re: The Hammond Harding finally gets its turn
« Reply #21 on: March 19, 2021, 05:41:04 pm »
 And so with spring sprunging all over, its back to inserting the cheapo chinese Honda-Villers clone engine properly, and finally sorting out that back sprocket. A weekend spent hacking away with hacksaw & drilling with Black & Decker, two six inch bolts and emptying the shed of all 17mm nuts and the engine is in firm & solid with reliable 420 chain slung between. For those pondering what sprocket & what chain fitted, the sprocket is from a 2001 Derbi scooter & the chain from a Yamaha FS1E no less.

 With Hamond Harding featuring 19-inch rear wheels (21-inches overall if tyre height is also included), an engine running at 3,600rpm flat out, driving a 10-tooth centrifugal cluch and a 52-tooth rear sprocket, an hour spent browsing through varius speed/gearing caculations would seem to suggest Hammond Harding may well be capible of pulling some 50mph top speed with a good run-up! Tis going to be interesting when I fire that engine up for the first time in a few days time methinks... But certainly the target 25-30mph normal use cruising speed looks eminantly sustainable.

  Meanwhile, a throttle cable takes shape right here right now, using a suitably converted 9ft long heavy duty tandem bicycle brake cable no less. Well, it was there in the shed & if it can stop a fully-loaded tandem it can take care of a dinky little throttle arm...

   Stay tuned folks for the next exciting instalment of the resurection of Hammond Harding as its only a matter of days now til it goes broom broom again for the first time in at least three & half decades...   

Stuart Cyphus

  • Possibly the most fabulous person in the universe....
  • Moderator
  • Prolific Poster
  • *****
  • Posts: 1491
Re: The Hammond Harding finally gets its turn
« Reply #22 on: March 19, 2021, 05:43:44 pm »
 :)