Yay! Less Vibration!

Rather serendipitously, my friend Jonathan dropped by this evening and we joined the transmission to the electric motor and spun it up. I was quite relieved that spinning up the new transmission to 5400 RPM produced little, if no vibration.

We were a bit nervous when we heard a minor squeal inside the transmission case. We then put the transmission into first gear, allowing the fresh transmission fluid to flow from the bottom shaft onto the gears on the top shaft. That caused the squealing to subside.


Here's the transmission mated to the motor. Note the rubber bands on the clutch fork to prevent it from crashing into the spinning flywheel. Jonathan is holding a piece of cardboard over the license plate because the reflection really screws up the light measurement system in my camera, especially when taking pictures at night.

Tomorrow, my friend Rick will help me re-attach everything. For now, I came home exhausted from lack of sleep over the past few nights and I don't want to risk putting this baby back together with only half a brain. I'm "cautiously optimistic" at this point that things might actually work.

Next up: hooking things back together. Good night.