Started getting serious with the mower. I had the new motor on the bench working and now all that is left to do is install it. This is all experimental for me, so I’m hoping to be able to put it all back together an carry on with the the old gasoline engine if things don’t go well. To get more room to work I took off the seat and fenders and disconnected some wires. I feel like I’ve crossed a line here.

While I would have preferred direct drive, for very practical reasons I have decided to go with chain drive. The electric motor is made for a standard 8mm T8F chain common in modern electric scooters and such. I decided to stick with this since modifying it looks difficult. On the other end I have a large pulley made for a drive belt. It is attached to the transmission which has a spline shaft connection (I’m learning lots of new terminology here). I couldn’t find an 8mm sprocket that would hook to the transmission shaft so I figured the path of least resistance is to get a sprocket and drill and bolt it to the existing pulley. So far not hard. I also drilled and mounted the motor and things seem to fit well. Could probably even upgrade to a more powerful motor without much work if needed.

Now that I have this 8mm sprocket the smaller sprocket on the motor means a lower gearing. I was expecting a 1:1with the direct drive. Right now it is something much smaller. I found a bigger sprocket I can easily swap for the one that came with the motor, but it still is geared down a bit. We will see how that all works out. Have a chain and some bolts on order and probably need a tensioner. Figured I would deal with that once I have all the other pieces more or less put together. Then it could be getting close to a test drive.