,
The new clutch slipped right on to our Harbor Freight 212cc output shaft, just as it should. Because of the smaller front sprocket, we had to adjust the position of the engine on its plate to regain proper chain tension. Fortunately on the Dooblebug it’s a simple task of unbolting the four engine mounting bolts, sliding the engine forward, and retorquing them, then finalizing the chain tension with the idler pulley.
Along with the clutch, our Craigslist seller also threw in a pair of 80 tooth rear sprockets for a lower final drive ratio. One came pre-drilled with the correct bolt pattern for the Doodlebug’s hub, the other did not. Here we compare it to our bike’s preinstalled 70 tooth sprocket. We left the 70 tooth sprocket in place for now, but we can revisit these later on.
By this point, we were pretty well ready to ride. We threw some fresh gas into the tank, flipped on the kill switch, tugged the starter cable…and the starter immediately shattered. The 5+ year old cheapo Harbor Freight starter had clearly deteriorated and the plastic wheel inside snapped. Luckily this starter is directly stolen from the Honda GX200, so we picked up a replacement from Amazon, aka the land of free shipping.
The red starter sort of matches, but also kinda doesn’t against our blue engine covers, but whatever, at least this one works.
Finally, we began turning needles on our carburetor. It turned out our snappy throttle was due to the engine being SUPER rich. We leaned out the mixture over a turn, which gave us much better throttle response. The super rich mixture also forced the old owner to raise the idle high enough to engage the clutch. By leaning it out, we were able to lower the idle speed, so our bike actually sits still on its own now. We did all of our tuning by ear and feel, riding around until things felt and sounded right. When there were no bogs or back fires, we were satisfied.
So, now that we’ve fixed all of our niggling issues, have we gone out riding? Hah, no! We’ve taken a few laps around the neighborhood with it, but we have yet to have a chance to really off-road this thing. There’s still some more tweaking we need to do (like that leaking front tire that has got to GO!), but on the whole we think this is going to be an awesome project. We definitiely want to get this thing dirty soon, so stay tuned for more!
