Lawn Mower conversion?

[Fast Doggu]

Being a young and cheapy person I wanna build one of these motorized Bikes but I have limited Resources So the cheapest route for me would be Converting a Lawn Mower into Horizontal, If anyone has done this is it worth it? Does it work fine?

 

[butre]

yeah it works, so long as you can find a motor that'll fit in your frame. a lot of lawnmower engines are pretty big. even cheaper route would be to pick up a flathead briggs from the flea market or a swap meet. should only be a few bucks

 

[Old Bob]

Converting a vertical shaft into a horizontal shaft can be tricky, You need to make a new intake manifold to rotate carb and modify crankcase breather, plus fabricate a mount, its not worth it,get a horizontal shaft.

 

[JunkyardDog]

A vertical shaft engine cannot be converted to a horizontal shaft. At least not a 4 stroke. 4 strokes have crankcases, and they are completely different in design between a vertical shaft engine and a horizontal shaft engine.

 

[bakaneko]

I think you can probably attempt a weed wacker build instead of lawnmower for the reason listed above if you have an old weed wacker laying around. Look up "weed wacker motorized bike" on YouTube. It seems rear mounted into a friction drive is the easiest conversion.

 

[butre]

A vertical shaft engine cannot be converted to a horizontal shaft. At least not a 4 stroke. 4 strokes have crankcases, and they are completely different in design between a vertical shaft engine and a horizontal shaft engine.

all you have to do is rotate the carb and add an oil flinger to the connecting rod. it's dead simple, a child could do it. in fact, I did it at least a dozen times as a child.

the bigger issue with conversions is mounting.

 

[HeadSmess]

A vertical shaft engine cannot be converted to a horizontal shaft. At least not a 4 stroke. 4 strokes have crankcases, and they are completely different in design between a vertical shaft engine and a horizontal shaft engine.

even the vanguard and similar v-twins can be modified to horizontal and they have oil pumps and filters to contend with.

the only difference between the horizontal and vertical shaft engines on little push mowers is the cases and, as butre said...the oil flinger. and yeah, the carb manifold.