Weldangrind,
The biggest obstacle that I can see with the frame is making sure the steering head and swingarm are at a perfect 90 degrees from one another. The build table for my Lotus is flat dead level. I'll probably take the car frame off the table and use it to level, mock up, and then tack up the frame. I may even do the finish welding on the table just to make sure everything is straight and in the proper place. The square tubing will make fabbing everything for the frame much easier now!
Another issue is the CVT jackshaft mount. The jackshaft that powers the final drive chain needs to be the the same plane as the swingarm. Bare with me for a moment! Most of these type bikes use an adjustable engine mount. The idea is so that the CVT belt can be adjusted as it wears. I'd rather bolt the engine into the frame in a fixed position and make the jackshaft adjustable. I think I've worked that out. The jackshaft bearing mounts will not be bolted solidly to the frame. Instead, they will mount on a large bracket that will pivot on the stock unused lower gasoline engine mount. If you look at the picture below, you'll see a bolt through mount located on the bottom portion of the frame under the swingarm. It may need to be beefed up a little though. When the CVT belt needs to be tensioned the bracket will rotate on this bolt to provide the belt adjustment. The complete jackshaft assembly will move backwards or forwards and then bolt solidly to the frame using tabs that will bolt-on using the swingarm mounting bolt. Just like an alternator on a Chevy V-8. The final chain drive will then adjust the chain in it's normal fashion to make sure it is tensioned properly. This way I can keep the engine as far forward as I can get it, making more room for the jackshaft itself. The side benefit is that I get a solidly mounted engine sitting on rubber isolators. Moving the engine back and forth seems like a really bad idea to me.
The cushdrive that I bought is just a stock KLR650 cushdrive. It's located in the rear wheel. I still need to order the rubber isolator for that and a few rear axle parts but it will all have to wait for my return from South America, on the 20th. I also need to order the rear shock link bolts and to remove the Cogent Dynamics shock from my other KLR. A new Ricor IAS complete suspension is going onto that bike.
The one last BIG issue on the diesel KLR may be the 2007 KLR rear brake caliper mount. Since the bike needs to be switched to a rightside final drive, I need to have a mirror image caliper mount fabricated for it. A local machineshop will get that job. I hope they can handle it.
SamM
