Windscreen Alignment (slipped a gear)

[STPaulK]

Hmmm, dare I suggest that you *ahem*, hint to your Father-in-Law that he could feel free to donate to the Sennister garage heating fund, given that you spent considerable time and energy to get his dang camper dug out of the yard and moved down south?

 

[STPaulK]

Say, I just thought of something. Is there a chance the drive could be eliminated altogether and rigged to be a manual push/pull lever running the cable? It's about as poor man hokey but it would be a way to allow guys to still use the adjustable screen. Yes, I know there could be cases where the lever would stick way out if the screen is all the way up.

 

[sennister]

Naw. I am not going to bother with that. They have been putting up with us at his house for the last week and we have a little over a week to go. The old camper is now here in Florida and they completed the paperwork on the new one yesterday. There is some final stuff that needs to be done to the new one before they pick it up but that will be any day now. The plan is now to keep the new one here until spring then they will bring it back with them. We are going to have to cut down one or two more trees to make room for it. The new 5th wheel is quite a bit longer than the old one and they won't be able to make the corner to get it in like they could with the old one. I want to get the trees cut down in late March or April as I have a tractor with a loader at my place until then. I borrowed it from my parents as they are in AZ until April so they didn't need it. He will want it back shortly after returning. So I need to get my stuff done before he comes looking for it. It would be nice to have a loader to get these trees cleaned up and some other stuff moved around so I will hang onto it as long as I can. They don't plan on coming up with the 5th Wheel until May. So this will eat into my time to work on this project as well. I have to get my 1300 all sorted out for Moonshine if I am going to try and make it there. It is going to be a busy spring.

We are getting closer to warmer weather so I will be resuming work on this then.

 

[sennister]

Say, I just thought of something. Is there a chance the drive could be eliminated altogether and rigged to be a manual push/pull lever running the cable? It's about as poor man hokey but it would be a way to allow guys to still use the adjustable screen. Yes, I know there could be cases where the lever would stick way out if the screen is all the way up.

Sure it is possible. The problem will be that you would need one on each side. There isn't enough clearance to have something link the two sides with the way that the track moves.

Heck the more I think of it, you might not need to do anything but pull the gear out. There is enough resistance in the track with the cables there that I doubt it would move at all. You could open it up, pull the crappy gear and then just grab the windscreen and pull it up or push it down to the position you want. It would stay there even with the forces from the wind. I might do that. I still want to work on a fix for this with a new motor and drive but for someone that wanted to have some movement that would work.

When I get home, I will pop out the gear and toss on the windscreen to see how hard it is to move.

 

[STPaulK]

Yeah,,I guess that is my line of thought here, if all fails, how about a simple solution that allows a rider to easy change the windscreen height.

BTW, lest I forget, thanks for all the effort you have put into this. I followed Dennis Martin's effort prior with interest and now yours. I figure eventually, I will be snakebite too and hopefully there will be a reasonable solution by then. I just hate the thought of shelling out major $$$ for something that is going to have the same problem.

 

[kckbiker]

2. An easier way would be to run two motors. One for each side. Now if you spliced the second motor in, it should work but it would double the load on the circuit and most likely cause issues. So something would have to be done with relays to make this work. Impossible, no, but it would take some time to figure out. Plus we would have to find room for a second motor in there.

My concern about using two motors is guaranteeing that they both spin at the same speed. A small impedance mismatch or internal friction difference is all it would take for them to spin at different rates. If they are off just a bit, it'll bind up and cause grief.

 

[sennister]

My concern about using two motors is guaranteeing that they both spin at the same speed. A small impedance mismatch or internal friction difference is all it would take for them to spin at different rates. If they are off just a bit, it'll bind up and cause grief.

In my exploration I have also come to the same conclusion. The best option I have come up with is two threaded rods that run parallel to the tracks. Mount a single motor at the bottom that drives the two threaded rods via either a chain or timing belt. Chain would add more cost but not all that much. A toothed timing style belt would work fine.

 

[kckbiker]

Nice. I like. Sounds like that would work. I've been trying to think something up, but your idea is better than anything I've thought up.

 

[sennister]

Really the hardest part of this will be making the bracket that will hold the threaded rod. I was thinking of trying to make something out of sheet metal but the more I think of all the angles involved it may be too difficult. I have been thinking about this more and more. I might be able to make something out of epoxy, fiberglass or carbon fiber easier. It would be plenty strong as there really isn't going to be much for stresses on these parts. Then it is just a matter of making a follower to ride on the threaded rod and a bracket to interface with the existing slider for the windscreen.

 

[rossjeal]

Hi sennister, I read details of all your work on the windshield drive mechanism with great interest here in the UK. My 1300 A2 has the same problem with damage to the gear wheel, which in my case is made of plastic. I successfully managed to rotate the teleflex cables by reversing the bends they had assumed forceably by hand so that the unworn sides were presented to and meshed with the gear wheel. I also moved the shim arrangement so that cable meshed on an undamaged gear area and it worked okay. But I have to concede that within 100 miles the mechanism has again failed probably as you noted because the teleflex cable rotated back to engage its worn side. I am now about to replace the teleflex cables, which are widely available to the marine industry. If you are still interested in this common Pan problem, I would be keen to learn if you have yet found a cheap solution?

 

[Dave.David]

Great stuff, but now me and I assume others know we are likely headed to the same problem. What can we do to slow down the wear and tear? Obviously replace the grease, but can this be done without tearing the whole thing down? Can the cables be lubed? Ect.....
Truthfully I have the bigger shield and move it while at speed, even 4 to 6 times a ride, up on fwy, down on streets. I'd like preventative maintenance so I can keep using it. Thanks guys.

 

[ST Gui]

Truthfully I have the bigger shield and move it while at speed, even 4 to 6 times a ride, up on fwy, down on streets.

Well for one thing you can stop doing that. Somebody here posted a list of tips to minimize strain on the windshield drivetrain.

One tip was to not move the windshield at speed—above 35mph I think. At speed wind loads the surface of the screen putting a bigger strain on the motor. Obviously minimizing moving it at any amount should help. But then restricting movement to a small section of track might wear that prematurely. Huh.

I don't remember if it was mentioned but I wonder if the cables could be rotated on a regular basis before they take a set as noted in the post before yours. Like rotating tires on a regular basis.

By and large I suspect most of us don't clean and lube the tracks cables and dear often enough to reduce wear but just often enough to cure a sticking situation.

The assembly runs about $400 from Honda and who knows how long that'll be available. I didn't know the flex-stuff was readily available. Were those gears that were sourced successful as OEM replacements (given that the OEM gears themselves are available from Honda)?