"Sir" Keith Benitez is an experienced PPG pilot.
In the presentation below, he shares his experience in how to convert a hand start Cors-Air Black Devil into a hybrid one )
Thank you Keith for your contribution to The Inventions Page. This material can be used as a reference to other engines than the Black Devil as well.
Alex Varv
Dear Friends,
Below I describe all the operations step by step. They are not complicated and actually are fun to do.
Unplug spark plug boot from spark plug (safety first). Remove propeller from unit. Take a marker and mark the direction of rotation on your belt.
This will allow you to reinstall the belt with the same rotation upon completion.
Take an allen wrench and loosen/remove the allen bolt that is directly behind the belt.
Using a 13mm socket remove the bolt and washer that is on the back of the large pulley.
Now turn the eccentric shaft to get the largest amount of slack on the belt.
Remove the belt and examine it for pits, cracks, missing section of grooves. If you see any of that then now is the time to replace it.
If it looks good put it aside for now. Remove the large reduction pulley. I had to use a piece of metal rod with a hammer and firmly but gently tap the back of the pulley to get it to come out.
Have someone available to catch the pulley when it comes out. You can also insert a big flat screwdriver in the top slot of the jaws that hold the pulley and tap on the screwdriver handle.
You don't want it slamming on the floor. Your unit may or may not have one or more spacers that go between the eccentric shaft and the engine frame.
Do not lose these as they are used to align the large pulley grooves with the small pulley. Once you have the large pulley free examine the grooves.
Are the walls of the grooves black? If so, that is caked on belt waste and it needs to come off. If you have only spots of it then spray on some carb cleaner and use a soft wire brush to take it off.
If you are like me then you have it all around. Do yourself a favor and go to your local auto parts store and pick up a gallon of carb cleaner.
Remove the basket that comes with the gallon container. COVER THE HOLE ON THE FRONT OF THE LARGE PULLEY, I used a rubber stopper that I picked up at Lowes.
I had to cut it down a little with a razor knife. Fashion some method to suspend the pulley into the carb cleaner. I used some threaded rod with a washer, a wingnut
and a piece of yardstick with a hole drilled in it. I rested the whole thing on top of the gallon container.
NOTE: DO NOT ALLOW THE CARB CLEANER TO SPILL OVER ONTO THE BEARING. If you do you will dissolve the grease and the bearings will need to be replaced.
That is why I used the threaded rod, just tighten or loosen the wingnut till you have it where you want it. Let it sit there overnight. It will slowly loosen up the caked on belt waste.
Then remove it, use a soft wire brush to clean off as much as you can, and repeat if necessary. I had to do this around 3 times before I got it all off.
Time to remove the small reduction pulley:
The following is a cut and paste from Ron Hogans article "Removing the small reduction pulley on a Black Devil engine". This is printed here with permission from Mr. Ron Hogan himself.
"Remove the spark plug. Bring the piston to TDC, and then lower it about one inch. Insert a rope, that is about the size of the spark plug hole, 1 to 2 inches inside.
Move the piston up towards the spark plug hole by turning the shaft until the rope prevents it from moving. This will keep the drive shaft from moving as you remove the nut from it.
Note: JPX Italia does NOT recommend this method because as they state, it may stress the needle bearings. However the 'rope' method is used by mechanics in the U.S."
End quote from Ron Hogan's article article
You may need to give the ratchet a quick tug to get that nut to start loosening (ignore allen wrench in slot of cooling disk)
Be careful with your knuckles since they are close to the cooling fins. It was a small cut but it was fairly deep.
Next you will need to rent or buy a 3 jaw puller. I got mine at Autozone.
You will also want to pick up a heat gun. I got mine at Walmart in the paint department.
Attach a piece of wire to one of the grooves in the small reduction pulley and wire it to the engine. Attach the gear puller to the cooling disks.
Tighten gear puller till cooling disk just starts to bow ever so slightly. Attach wire to gear puller as you did the small reduction pulley.
Picture was taken before the wire to the puller was attached.
Apply heat from heat gun. This can take several minutes but the small reduction pulley will pop off the shaft and will be hanging from the wire
you installed earlier along with the gear puller. Give it several minutes to cool off before handling. The small reduction pulley will not be used again.
Clean shaft with either very fine sand paper or a green scouring pad.
You will now need to remove the four 4mm allen bolts that hold the plate with the oil seal to the engine.
Do not attempt to remove these with an allen wrench as you will strip the heads. You will need to use an impact driver or manual impact wrench to do the job.
After you get the bolts out you will now need to get a heavy duty knife with a fine point to remove the plate. Tap the back of the knife with a hammer.
The plate will not be used again so have no fear in marring it.
After you remove the plate clean all the old sealer and use fine sand paper to remove any burrs from the knife scrapping the engine block.
Time to start installing the hybrid kit. Here are the contents:
Lets start off with mounting the starter bracket first.
Look into your engine and find the oil orifice that supplies lubrication to the bearings.
Find the new starter plate from the kit and find the groove that will match up with the oil orifice.
Note the white lithium grease around the rubber O ring. Do not clean that off, it's supposed to be there.
Mount the starter motor to the plate with the supplied allen bolts. Make sure the teeth of the starter gear is facing the crankshaft.
Now apply a thin coat of Hondabond to the matting surfaces of the new plate and the engine block.
Mount new plate with starter motor attached. I used medium blue locktite on all the bolts.
Clean off any excess hondabond that may squeeze out. Mark all bolts with paint for easier preflight check.
Attach the remaining piece of the starter bracket that secures the starter to the previously attached mount.
Getting the nut and bolt in the hole will not be fun but it is doable. Have patience.
Add some blue locktite to the crankshaft and install the new small reduction pulley with the starter gear.
Use the rope trick to keep the piston still while you tighten up the nut.
Reinstall the large reduction pulley. Don't forget the spacers. You may or may not need all of them now that you have a new small pulley.
Reinstall your old belt or new one if the old one was bad. Don't forget to look at your arrows.
Viewing from behind the engine turns counter clockwise. Do not connect the spark plug boot yet.
What is left now is to wire everything and figure out where you are going to mount the relay, starter button, master switch, battery
and to figure out what battery you are going to use.
Here is a schematic diagram on how it should be wired:
1. Run 10 gauge wire from motor (ground) to Negative terminal on battery
2. Run 10 gauge wire from either ground or negative terminal to black spade connector on starter motor.
3. Run 10 gauge wire from positive side of starter to terminal 87 of 70amp relay.
4. Run 10 gauge wire from positive terminal of battery to terminal 30 of relay.
5. Run 16 gauge wire from terminal 30 on relay to single pole single throw rocker switch (master switch)
6. Run 16 gauge wire from other side of master switch to to terminal 86 of relay.
7. Run 16 gauge wire from terminal 85 on relay to momentary push button (normally open).
8. Run 16 gauge wire from other side of momentary push button to ground or negative terminal on battery.
I picked up Hi-Temp/Hi-Strength Velcro from RadioShack (part # 64-2360) and velcroed the relay to the frame of my Skybolt V2.
The Skybolt V2 uses square aluminum tubing for the frame so it was a snap.
For the master switch I used RadioShack part # 275-0693. I cut a piece of extra square tubing I had and mounted it to that.
I then Velcroed the whole thing to the frame by the pull handle.
I chose to use a Lithium Polymer battery. I went with a 14.8v 5amp 40C rated battery. I cut off the battery terminal and soldered some Deans ultra plugs.
I mounted the whole thing in a RadioShack project enclosure (Part # 270-1805). I then cut a notch and using Gorilla Glue precision glue pen (picked up at RadioShack too)
I glued the Deans connector to the project box making sure not to get any in the electrical connections. Update 2.17.2011 The glue did not hold.
The back of the Gorilla Glue precision pen clearly states not to be used on Polyethylene.
So I just have the deans connector hanging out of the hole for now.
The battery assembly gets Velcroed to the frame as well.
For the pushbutton I used a go-kart kill switch. I bought it on e-bay. I mounted that to my throttle at a slight angle.
Make sure you test everything carefully before you attempt to go flying with it.
NOTE: with the spark plug boot still disconnected
1. Make sure that the starter does not turn over with the master switch in the off position while pressing the starter button.
2. Make sure the starter does not turn over with the master switch on and not pressing the starter button.
When you are convinced that everything is wired right and working the way it is supposed to then go ahead and re-attach the spark plug boot.
There are several people that I want to thank for their help.
First, Jim Neubert for all the private e-mails and photos that he shared with me. He truly was the inspiring force that convinced me to do the install on my unit.
Also, thank you to Mike Bennett for his help and his great website (MBppg.com).
Alex Varv for his unmatched customer service and making the kit available. Also to all the fine folks in the Corsairengines group for all of their feedback.
Sir Keith Benitez
MOTTO: That people may know that you, whose name is Jehovah, You alone are the Most High over all the earth. - Psalms 83:18
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