Want a Motor-Scooter Now?Here's How to Build One Yourself

Built out of odds and ends and junk pieces at acost of $46, this scooter covers four miles dailyand uses only six cents worth of "gas" per week.

WARTIME re-strictions onmanufacturing

and selling have madeit almost impossible tobuy a new motor-driven scooter. Despitethe great need of many"production soldiers"for some means ofrapid transportation toand from work, an un-used scooter is seldomto be had nowadays.And as for a used mo-tor scooter, well, I haveheard of one that orig-inally sold for $111 andwhich was recently re-sold for $195 despite itsused condition.

So, do not scold mefor taking some pridein the fact that I de-signed and built myown motor-scooter out

of odds and ends and even junk pieces,at a total cost of only $46. Not bad, is it?

I cover about four miles per day on myscooter which uses about five or six centsworth of "gas" per week. Weather per-mitting, it has been in constant use for ayear, and it has "done its job" even in badweather. It starts and operates easily.

The entire frame wasmade first. It is made ofsalvaged aircraft tub-ing, which is strongerand lighter than othertubing, and it takes alot of abuse. I used it,also, because I had alot of it on hand. Tub-ing of this kind, oftendiscarded, can be hadat almost any airport.Thin wall conduit, forelectrical wiring, couldbe used, but the air-craft tubing is better.

The steering shaft(see 1 in Figs. 1 and2) was turned out of1" round steel so as tofit the Ford V-8 gen-

Both f a t h e r and sonJohnny use the motor-scootei. L o w e r pictureshows the placing of thecushioned seat w h i c hmakes riding easy and

comfortable.

erator bearings (marked 2 in Fig. 2). Then Imade the three plates (3 in Fig. 2) which sup-port the shaft. These were made of 1/8" flat steelwhich can be obtained in almost any junk yard.Figure 3 shows the detail of the fork supportplate.

I used a Ford Model A brake drum for shapingthe fork (4 in Fig. 1) made of 7/8" tubing. Iwelded on the two bushings for the front axle(5 in Fig. 1) and used a spacer and a bolt forthe lower spacing of the fork and one of theplates for the upper spacing (6 in Fig. 1). Ibrazed the lower plate in place on each tube ofthe fork. Then I placed the second plate (tosupport the shaft) over the tubes and brazed itto the lower plate just 1/8" above the lower plate.The third plate was also set 1/8" above the middleplate. That completed the lower part of thefront fork.

The rest of the frame (Fig. 5) was laid out on

FIGURE 1. Side ele-vation, from the left.In t h i s and otherplans, the numbersrefer to the detailsdescribed in full in

the text.

a flat surface. I used the top of my work-benchto mark it out. I used the same brake drum toshape the four pieces of tubing (7 in Fig. 1), thefront ends of which were laid out with a blockcut to 65 degrees, to hold the pieces in position.

The fork bearing support (8 in Figs. 1 and 2)was made out of 1-1/2" by 1/16" wall tubing, or

Showing the brake drum and mud guard and theway in which the seat is hinged to the frame and

the air intake on the engine.

FIGURE 5. Hereis shown t h eplan of the hori-zontal f r a m er u n n i n g fromwheel to wheel.Again weldingwas u s e d top r o v i d e ade-quate assemblyand strength to

the parts.

BRAKE PEDAL'

conduit, which will just take the generator bear-ings without much machine work. I telescopeda piece of tubing in the bottom and on the toppressed the bearing race into position in the tub-ing and tack welded it.

The entire upper part of the fork (9 in Fig. 2)was made of 3/4" o.d. wall tubing which telescopedthe 7/8" wall tubing of which the lower part ofthe fork was made.

To the top ends of the two side pieces of 3/4"wall tubing. I welded a cross piece of tubing (10in Fig. 4) and then sawed that in half length-

wise with a hack saw.The upper half goesover the bicycle han-dle b a r s . B a n d saround t h e tubingpiece take the boltsand nuts which aretightened to hold thebars in position. Ipicked up a used pairof handle bars. Theyhad to be cut andwelded, to take outthe double curve andthen come s t ra ightback. So there wasno point to buying anew pair.

The top part of thefork telescopes thesteering shaft (38 inFig. 2) and is alsoused as the bearingadjustment. A smallround gusset 1/8"thick is welded aboveand below.

The seat frame (11in Fig. 1) was madeof 1/2" thin wall con-duit formed on thesame brake drumused for the othertubing work. It waswelded in place. Iwelded gussets acrossthe corners (12 inFig. 1) to hold thecowling fastenerswhich I bought at anairport for about adime apiece. I ob-tained the scat (13 inFig. 1) from a motor-cycle shop. It hadbeen used on the rearcarrier of a motor-cycle. The seat ishinged at the front togain access to theengine.

For power I useda 1/2 hp. Briggs and

Stratton engine originally made for a washingmachine. It runs the scooter at about 18 m.p.h.More speed would be much better. The scootercould take up to 1-1/2 hp. motor which would thengive a traveling speed of 35-40 m.p.h. The motormust be placed to turn in the right direction.

The pulley (14 in Fig. 1) I made up of two2-1/2" V-pulleys which I cut in half and adjustedby moving the sides closer together or fartherapart, which makes (he pulley smaller or larger.In dirt or snow the scooter has more power withthe smaller pulley. The pulley was fastened on

FIGURE 4. Top of fork andhandle bars. Old pair ofhandle bars was cut, andparts rewelded, to get shapeshown in the pictures of

father and son.

FIGURE 2. Lower part of thefront fork. Welding played animportant role in the making

of this motor-scooter.

FIGURE 3. Fork support plate.Location of this plate is indi-cated directly to the left in Fig-

ure 2.

(18 in Fig. 6). The whole assemblyis hinged on the rear axle tube.

To adjust the tension I used a Fordvalve spring to tighten it and forthe release the pedal turns over cen-ter and compresses the spring andreleases the tension on the belt. Theclutch release pedal (17 in Fig. 1) islaid out so that with the pedal itpasses over center and holds thespring compressed. The sprocketwas turned to fit a small shoulderto fit in the hub (19 in Fig. 6) andserves as a bearing retainer on theleft-hand side of the wheel.

with the screws which accompany it. The V-pul-leys I obtained at a hardware store.

The 6" V-countershaft pulley (15 in Figs. 1and 6) lies in Ford generator bearings the sameas the steering shaft. This countershaft wasturned to take the bearings. I turned the outsideto 1/2" on the sprocket side and also on the pulleyside. And I turned the middle to fit the bearings.This shaft had to be turned so that the pulleyon one side of the bearings and the 10-toothsprocket on the other side would fit snugly.There should be no play. The countershaft pul-ley is mounted on the 1-1/2"xl/16" wall tubingthe same size as the fork. A narrow spacer istack welded in the center to hold the races inplace (39 in Fig. 6). There is a piece of 3/4" o.d.tubing welded to the countershaft bearing hous-ing. That telescopes into a piece of 7/8" o.d. tub-ing (16 in Fig. 1) and is held rigid by tighteningthe clamp bolt. This is also the chain adjustment

Clutch and countershaft, exhaust system, and the gastank below the engine are compactly assembled.

MOTORCYCLE BRAKE DRUMFIGURE 6. Elevation, looking toward the rear ofthe motor-scooter. Nearly every part used was

made from discarded material.

On the right-hand side, I used a motorcyclebrake drum (20 in Fig. 6) brazed to a FordModel A shock absorber housing (21 in Fig. 6)spaced with a 1/8" pipe or tubing. Pipe will dothe job just as well as tubing and can be obtainedeasily. Six bolts were used. The wheels have a7/8" axle. For it I used a piece of 7/8" o.d. tubing(22 in Fig. 6). For side play adjustment, I presseda washer on a piece of tubing that telescopes the7/8" tubing (23 in Fig. 6), brazed a nut on the side(24 in Fig. 6) with a set screw for the adjustment,and to secure the whole assembly I ran a 5/8" boltall the way through. By removing the bolt, thewhole rear assembly may be removed.

The brake band was placed over the drum (25in Fig. 7) and the anchors (26 in Fig. 7) tackwelded in place. By putting the drum on, youget the right position without trying to measureand lay it out. The lower band (27 in Fig. 7)was made so the pin could be removed (28 inFig. 7) and the band dropped to drop the wholeassembly out. A rod from the brake arm (29 in

Fig. 7) goes straight to the brake pedal, the rodbeing made of 1/4" welding rod.

The hood or engine cover (Fig. 8) was madefrom two Ford rear fenders, one right and oneleft, 1939 model. They were damaged, but Ididn't need very much of the fender; so, I justused the back fenders which I cut to size andwelded with a V piece in the middle (30 in Fig.8). Ford horn grilles, 1936, were used for airintake openers (31 in Fig. 8) lined up with theair intake on the engine, a Plymouth 1937 hoodgrille being used as a top ventilator. I bent a1/4" flange on the upper ventilator to stiffen thehood and installed the Ford horn grille with theoriginal fittings. I punched a hole first to get

Engine cover was made from two Ford rear fenders.

FIGURE 8. Engine cover. Back Ford fenders werecut to size and welded with a V-piece in the

middle.

the snips in and cut the openings to accommo-date the size of the grille. Boeing cowling fas-teners were used to secure the hood to the flange.The mud guard is a flat piece of sheet metal. Aguard (32 in Fig. 1) had to be placed betweenthe engine and the wheel to keep the mud out ofthe carburetor.

A bicycle front wheel brake control was usedas a throttle control. It clamps right to the han-dle bars. I picked up a control housing in a junkyard and used it for a control housing going backto the throttle. The choke (33 in Fig. 1) is fas-tened under the seat and also used as a stop forthe engine. This I also obtained in a junk yard.

FIGURE 7. Brake drum. This motorcycle brakedrum was brazed to a Ford Model A shock ab-

sorber.

The gas tank (34 in Fig. 1) is mounted directlyunder the engine and holds approximately 3/10of a gallon of gas. The tank I made out of 16-gage sheet metal. The plate in the front of theseating housing also covers the gas tank fillertap. The plate is secured with Boeing fasteners.

The headlight was an automobile cowl lightpicked up in a junk yard and operated with fourflashlight dry cells. These are mounted in analuminum tube fastened to the front fork.

The tail light is standard bicycle equipment, atail light with one flashlight cell.

The front fender, I made up over a form ofwood. I made the wooden form the exact sizeand hammered out each side separately andformed it over the wood. The aluminum wasobtained in an automobile junk yard from an old

body. The wheels are 12x3.50 Goodyear tiresand wheels roller bearings with 3-1/2" hubs.

I sprayed the hood with gun-metal finish. Therest of the scooter, including engine hood andfront fender, I painted red with duco brush-on.The running board is a piece of 16-gage sheetmetal cover with regular running board rubberand molding. It is fastened on through the gus-sets in the frame with a bolt in each corner.

Lubrication: Wheels come with grease fittingsas regular equipment. Other bearings I packedwith grease and a fitting in the countershaft ad-justing tube (36). I drilled the top of the tubeand the lower part so that the grease passes intothe bushing on the axle and the bearings on thecountershaft.

Muffler: A steel box 2" square with hack sawslots cut in the side to quiet the exhaust. Thiswas connected to the engine by a short piece offlexible tubing, as shown in the pictures.

The whole job cost as follows: Engine, $20.00;wheels, tires, $8.00; and miscellaneous, $18.00.Total, $46.00. And you may be very sure that Ihave had more than $46 worth of pleasure anduse out of this motor-scooter which I use dailyto go to and from my work.

FORK ASSEMBLY LARGE VIEW

FIGURE 2. Lower part of thefront fork. Welding played animportant role in the making

of this motor-scooter.

FIGURE 4. Top of fork andhandle bars . Old pair ofhandle bars was cut, andparts rewelded, to get shapeshown in the pictures of

father and son.

FIGURE 3. Fork support plate.Location of this plate is indi-cated directly to the left in Fig-

ure 2.