how to make a wire drive?
 

ive seen these lately and would like to make one for a 540 size motor (Reedy spec 19t quad mag)on a predator outrigger. i would love to make all the hardware if i could so if that is possible then please help me. any tips are welcome, thank you
mike

RE: how to make a wire drive?
 

Mike,
Check out this http://www.rumrunnerracing.com/fefor...ead.php?t=9517 . I have made up a couple now, it is very easy and only costs a couple bucks.


Cheers,
Jim

RE: how to make a wire drive?
 

good stuff thank you for that information.

RE: how to make a wire drive?
 

thank you for the quik reply!!!

RE: how to make a wire drive?
 

Wire drive is what I always use. I make it 1,5mm thick wire for 380 and 540 size motors. Don't solder the wire to the strut , use Locktite 638 , way better and ultra fast. it only needs 15minutes to dry and you're ready to go.

If you descide to put the wire away from the strut just heat up the wire and the Locktite melts again.

RE: how to make a wire drive?
 

sweet thanks. you use a brass stuffing tube right? does it travel the whole distance from the coupler to the strut? i thought it did but im am not sure.

RE: how to make a wire drive?
 

Yes , you should put the wire in a bras tubing that the wire just fits in. Make the bras tubing as long as possible in the boat and about 3 to 5" on the outside going towards the strut and prop.

Make sure not to bend the bras tubing in any way or your wire will be stuck in the tube and cause drag.

Here in Europe wire drive is being used in 90% of Speed Electric boats for competiton and it works great and cheap.

RE: how to make a wire drive?
 

what is the preffered method or bending tubing? Heat? salt inside it? just bend it around somthing? im assuming what ever will have no kinks at all

RE: how to make a wire drive?
 

Good Question

On my mock up I bent the tube with the wire inside. Once the bend was completed I removed the wire and inserted a new straight one.

Alternatives welcome.

RE: how to make a wire drive?
 

thats a good idea thanks

RE: how to make a wire drive?
 

Could you use 1/8" (3.175mm) wire? This way you would not need to make a stub shaft. Just a simple wire that goes from collet to prop. The wire would also not need to be threaded as there are other ways to hold the prop on.

Ryan

RE: how to make a wire drive?
 

it wouldnt bend tho. that would be like the same as a strait shaft

RE: how to make a wire drive?
 

That would be a problem.

Ryan

RE: how to make a wire drive?
 

It's recomended that the bras tubing doesn't get bend. But if you do want to bend it you'll have to use heat. Always bend the tube with the wire inside and heat it up. Don't make the bending to short or you'll never get the wire out of the tubing.

RE: how to make a wire drive?
 

I'm a bit confused all of a sudden ....

If I'm running 1/16" wire what should the ID of my stuffing tube be?

RE: how to make a wire drive?
 

I thought the stuffing tube was a close fit to the wire; but I just saw a pic of a 1/16" wire runnining in what looked like a 1/8" tube.

RE: how to make a wire drive?
 

Use the tube that fits as close to the wire as possible. My wire is 1,5mm thick and the inner diam. of my tube is exactly 1,5mm aswell. This way there isn't a single drop of water that gets into the boat because the wire fits the tube just so no water can pass into the boat. A water molecule is bigger than the amount of "play" between the wire and the tube.

RE: how to make a wire drive?
 

Picture :

RE: how to make a wire drive?
 

Wow, many thanks Easy

I've been reading about these things for a couple of days and still didn't understand!

I made a mock-up where the stuffing tube actually bent with the wire. Surprisingly that didn't bind that much .. just about slightly more than my solid shaft.

I see the light.

Now I have to decide if I want to do my bend in the hull or after the transom. If I do it internally my drive angle will be fixed at 0 degrees. If I go external I'll need to strengthen my rudder stand-off to act as a strut bracket.

Do Mono's really need positive strut angle (prop face pointing to the sky)? I'd initially planned on a fixed set up.

Actually an external bend might not be possible on a 15" mono without setting the prop way back .....

Conversley an internal set up might leak a sieve.

RE: how to make a wire drive?
 

I don't understand why you want to bend it ? I don't bend the tube at all. The tube in the boat is in straight line with the motor shaft. And the tube part that exits the hull is also straight. The wire will bend good enough outside of the tube. There is no need to use a very long tube. If the tube exits the hull for about 3" it's good.

I see , you probably mounted the motor horizontally right ? You should mount the motor facing down in a straight line with the bras prop tube. This causes no drag whatsoever. The prop turns like a Swiss watch.

RE: how to make a wire drive?
 

No I don't want to bend the stuffing tube .. now that I know better

My motor was set up for solid shaft so it points directly to the keel at the transom

The problem I face is that if I exit at the transom, run 3'' of exposed wire then connect to a shaft, my prop is now 4+ " aft of the hull ... that’s way far back on a 15" boat .. or is it?

If I do the bend internally, I'd expose the wire for @2" before meeting the drive shaft at the transom ... problem there is even I telescope to some thin tubing where the wire enters the shaft, there won't be a lot of thin tubing to stop the water entering.

RE: how to make a wire drive?
 

Hi - i'd like to change to wire drive- water up my stuffing/liner tube has fried ESC again!
can i ask what people use to hook up to the motor end?
i've seen some pics of what looks like double clamps but have never seen them for sale
or are they easy to make??

thanks
Graham

RE: how to make a wire drive?
 

I'm no expert but this is what I did:


http://s183.photobucket.com/albums/x...urrent=key.jpg

http://s183.photobucket.com/albums/x...rent=angle.jpg

http://s183.photobucket.com/albums/x...rent=drive.jpg

RE: how to make a wire drive?
 

its the bit in your first pic that joins the motor to the wire drive im after
how did you do that bit or are they available to buy?
is it just a tube with 2 set screws in it? can you make that up with telescoped brass tubing or is it better to buy one?

RE: how to make a wire drive?
 

Hi the wire attaches to the motor using this aluminum device that has a 3,17mm hole on one side ( motor ) and 1,5mm or 2mm at the other end ( wire )
http://www.hopf-modelltechnik.de/pro...7ba3aa3e3f5f8b