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Pop De Clutch (Unregistered Guest)
Unregistered guest
Posted From: 69.136.126.12
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, April 29, 2005 - 11:36 am: | |
Hello 6x6er's...
I'm in the process of restoring an old Amphicat.Thought it would be interesting if I make a photographic step by step slide show of the progress.Will post as it happens (not sure if I want to mantain a web site)
I have several questions for the more experianced out there(the ones not stuck on the river bank at this time anyway)
1.I have to buy new axles rims & tires,maybe the gears as well - So would you suggest that a hollow axel is stronger than a solid one ? if I remember from 3rd grade science a hollow pole has more edge's to help it not bend.
2.Could I switch out the gears axles & rims from anouther 6x6 onto the Amphicat so the axles will be thicker & stronger ? anyone try that ?
3.Richard has no bodys for the Amphicat at this time.I'd like to make one from scratch anyway for fun.Thought I'd use Plastic truck bed liners if I can figure out how to attach the P.T.B.L's together.From what Ive learned a plastic welder is about the only thing you can use since they manufacture the things with chemicals to repel everything,including glues.
Harbor freight does carry a plastic welder,But does the weld make the plastic weaker ?
My current thoughts is to lay a strip of rubber between the two pieces of P.T.B.L's I want to join,then use bolts every half inch or so along that edge to hold it together.then on the inside maybe a little black silicon.
Anyone experiment with that method ? Sounds like it would work (but so did the biplane & rocket bike I made,Kid still hasn't forgivin me for the rocket bike incident)
4.I'm still wondering about the original setup of an Amphicat-I must be missing a piece.
after the tire & on the axel there must have been a plate 6" x 3" or so with a gaskit on it that bolted onto the outside of the plastic body,or I should say it bolted into the gear thru the plastic body.This is the only thing I can figure out that would keep the water out.Whats it called so I can order it from Richard or How does the water stay out around the Axels ? ( please don't say "get her goin' fast enough",that was the advice I gave on the Rocket Bike)
Thanks in advance for info....
Yes,I have posted before -I turned this 6x6 into a non floating tank like contraption - But we tore the body off & desided to make the Plunge . |
david berger
Intermediate Member
Username: Davidrrrd
Post Number: 54
Registered: 01-2005
Posted From: 172.156.75.204
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, May 02, 2005 - 10:46 am: | |
is this the astralian pop de cluch?
that plate your wondering about is actualy shaped like a volcano with the con riseing from the center of the 3x6 plate and at tip it holds a grease seal wich keeps the water out of the axel tube by sealeing agenced the 3/4" hardend axels
another question you were trying to ask was about our thoughts on chainging the drive train, spisificly the sprokets, drive tubes , bearings, and axels, well yes you should,solid is the way to go butyour oridganal fraim's small,you might only get out to 1" with your axels unless you chainge the politics of the drive system, that is you may need to abandon the drive tube as bearing load ( best feture amphicat has)
in faver of axels in the bearings and drive tubes between the bearings to keep them aligned,
you need to build the outside plates with grease seals,
i hope this helps you,
i think my friend george will also have to go this route or otherwise buy another type of vehicle soon, he weighes a little too much to be driveing a lil toy like amphicat so his drive keeps shearing pin's and axels brake too easy also.
another friend has sheard pin's but never brakes axels. |
Steve (Unregistered Guest)
Unregistered guest
Posted From: 203.202.181.237
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, May 09, 2005 - 11:11 pm: | |
G'day Dave, Pop de Clutch,
Steve here from Down Under. Nope, 'Pop de Clutch' isn't me, but I like the nom-de-plume!
I made new axles for my Amphicat from 4140-grade ground steel rod. They turned out very well indeed, but boy were they a pain to drill.
After a bit of work, my 'Cat is now in great restored condition, complete with the original tires. I'm putting in a Vanguard 16hp, working on it when I have time (there are not enough hours in the day to do all the things I want or need to do).
If I were making a hull from scratch, I would make a plug from 'blue foam' and carve and sand it to a nice shape, then gelcoat it, glass it and make a mold. This would be in bolted-together sections. Then clean up and polish that, then lay up a hull from woven glass. I'd take some care in the asthetics (no sharp boxy lines or edges) in doing the plug.
Dave has described the plates pretty well. I have done a CAD engineering drawing of this plate and the axles, let me know if you'd like a copy. I made new bushes for all mine, and replaced all the seals and ballraces. I've got a bunch of photos of all these I can email, but here are a couple:
http://home.iprimus.com.au/alec/axle_flange_assy_with_new_gasket.JPG
http://home.iprimus.com.au/alec/rear_left_axle_with_wheel_hub.JPG
I agree with Dave on his observations about your proposed modifications, you might be making more changes than really necessary.
Dave, did George get that tranny that was on eBay a while back?
Cheers from Oz,
Steve. |
david berger
Intermediate Member
Username: Davidrrrd
Post Number: 62
Registered: 01-2005
Posted From: 172.136.157.133
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, May 10, 2005 - 10:17 am: | |
hi steve, nice photo's
you may get many takers for your drawrings and photos,
george did indeed get the e-bay trans, but when he removed his old one and tryed to install the e-bay one he noticed the e-bay one was smaller in most dimentions by cloase to an inch!
weird huh! looks the same but would not work, so he took it apart on the off chance it contaned gears he could replace his with, but it was worse inside then the one he had, the e-bay seller dos not retern his call's,
but your manual copys helped him out plenty!
we did go to Modina NY a week or two ago and road arround all day saterday threw the rain,
he managed to wast all the shear pins he had befor brakeing the left frount axel,
in true amphicat form it drove back to the trailer on 5 wheels and only 4 wheel drive,
3 on right side and 1 rear on left!
yah got to love them cat's for this alone!
Sunday although the folke who were saposably puting on this ride wernt there we out of staters went out for most of the day and had an enjoyable time, i captured some quads geting pulled out of a creek by a maxII on the video from this event, heh heh
marc stobinski and i talked george into driveing marc's husteler for sundays rideing,
when we were packing up to go george said he was spoiled for life now by the husteler and will now have to buy a more ruged machine now for certin!
If there are any dealers in the massachusets area who could offer dealer financeing please do let me know as he has $1000.00 to put down on one NOW |
Argonaut II (Unregistered Guest)
Unregistered guest
Posted From: 69.244.42.30
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, May 10, 2005 - 08:36 am: | |
Thru a decafe mishap I lost my password list & couldn't sign on thru the name I used before
My original name was Argonaut II,Auther of such wonderful posts as "What am I,I'm an Amphicat owner!,& Boom , I was an Amphicat owner"
I used Pop de clutch becouse I remembered an old Hodrod movie poster & liked the name.Had no idea there was anouther Hotrod'n'6x6'er out there.
Thanks very much Steve for the posts - picture's explain everything very well.
I know your right on the body suggestion,I should just buy one or do it right I suppose.Since I had a pile of plastic truck bed liners I wanted to justify draging them home heh heh....
As for JPG's , yes please.If your ever bored enough to email them off.
Trying to attach a jpg of the Amphicat I own...
This was the old body I made & matching trailer.The artillery cannon isn't shown & was mounted on post on the trailer - fired tennis balls. |
Steve (Unregistered Guest)
Unregistered guest
Posted From: 202.63.50.228
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, May 11, 2005 - 04:26 am: | |
Dave, Pop de Clutch,
That is reeeeeaaally strange, that tranny not being the same size... how utterly wierd! I wonder how it came into existence. I feel sorry for you and George, I can well imagine what you were thinking (and saying!) when you'd gone to the last step to put it in, and it didn't fit! Arrrrgghhh.
I bet that footage of the quads being rescued is going to make it onto a forthcoming video  I'd love to see it.
Argonaut/Pop de Clutch, here are some drawings of the axle, hull plate, axle flange gasket (for want of better descriptions). Since you most likely don't have the CAD app I use (QuickCAD), I exported them as JPEGs so I hope they're readable. The shortcoming of this is that when saving as JPEG the whole drawing has to fit in the drawing space, as that is all the JPEG save code looks at when writing to disk! Hopefully they'll appear as images attached to this post.
Axle seal:
Axle hub:
Axle plate (these are contact-glued to the hull):
I hope you're comfortable with metric measurements
There is another drawing but I just found it exceeded the image upload size. It showed the axle length.
Steve. |
argonaut II (Unregistered Guest)
Unregistered guest
Posted From: 69.136.126.172
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, May 24, 2005 - 09:48 am: | |
Both of these are off topic, but some may find my backyard projects interesting.....
The Spiderman bike is scary fast, I'll have to make a rocket bike to catch up to him. The next bike will have a sidecar for the dog
The airplane? I took it to a place I have since renamed " oh God it hurts Hill " & ran/ jumped off the short cliff.
Rather than throw the thing away later I wrote on the wings "Handyman & cheap flying lessons" & made it look like it crashed into a tree on the side of the road - it worked better as an advertizement.
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Argonaut II (Unregistered Guest)
Unregistered guest
Posted From: 69.136.126.172
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, May 24, 2005 - 08:58 am: | |
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Argonaut II (Unregistered Guest)
Unregistered guest
Posted From: 69.136.126.172
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, May 26, 2005 - 09:08 am: | |
Front & side of the Spiderman Bike  |
Argonaut II (Unregistered Guest)
Unregistered guest
Posted From: 69.136.126.172
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, May 26, 2005 - 09:15 am: | |
More of the Amphicat with the homemade wood & metal body...
A chap in a 4 wheel drive truck saw them in this large mud puddle driving thru it & having fun, We couldn't stop him before he tried to drive thru it.
What he didn't know & soon found out was the depth of the mud.Poor guy sank all the way past his open driver window & flooded his wife's new 4 wheel drive truck.
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Argonaut II (Unregistered Guest)
Unregistered guest
Posted From: 69.136.126.57
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, February 03, 2006 - 08:18 am: | |
Any suggestions on what I should sell this for ?local in Tucson Arizona or on the web?
With the cost of shipping why sell online ?
The amphicat has no body unless I fiberglass it first.
It has a 10 to 12 hp motor & a good tran. |
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Restoration of older ATV's