Hoot rebuild testers!

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I am aware that most don't think the hoot is worth er.. well.. a hoot. But I think that there are a lot of people sort of stuck w/ them unless they want to junk their kit and start over.

I don't anticipate buying any more hoot kits unless they prove to be reliable w/ my rebuild. I honestly have no idea how many people have these gb's.

I rebuilt mine and it is now very quiet and I'm going to ride it and check it to see how it is doing regularly.

So if anyone is interested, I will rebuild for free (you pay shipping) 4 hoots for the 1st 4 people who respond. This way I can get a better idea if reworking the clearances will make enough difference.

Also if anyone has working hoots that they don't want I will pay shipping to get them. I would like to try heat treating the gears and testing that as well.

PM me or reply to this thread, Thanks! The bike pic'd has a hoot just in case you don't know if yours is one.
 

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Are you in the USA or Australia?

Any exact details/photos of what you did in that gear box would be much appreciated.
 
I'm in the U.S.A. I didn't take pics but it's not difficult. Most everyone can shim up what they got. I'm thinking I can turn a new reduction gearshaft on my lathe that doesn't need as much shimming.
But if you want to do it yourself:
take the gb and clutch off of the motor
pull the reduction gear off and shaft out of the 1:1 gear behind
put a shim (a washer shim .010"-.020" thick) behind the 1:1
There is a step on the shaft inbetween the 1:1 and the larger red. gear
put enough shims on the outside of the step so that when the reduction gear is on it doesn't rub on the housing of the output gear
you will probably now need to make your key slot longer now that you've moved your gear out further (this is where a mill comes in handy). If your careful you can do this w/ a dremel.
put the reuction gear on and add shims till the cover won't seat tightly and then remove one and it should seat tightly w/o pressure.
Mount the gb back on the motor and leave off the cover
make new key for your clutch if yours is like mine and they just smashed it in there.
Then shim your clutch out till the gear on your bell is even w/ the reduction gear, be sure to put a shim in between clutch friction wheel and bell
also your keeper washer should take up the slop of the bell w/o locking it down to the crank output shaft
Grease the gears, mount the cover and viola!

My reduction gearshaft literally had a 1/4" of sideplay and the reduction gear was rubbing on the output gear housing my gears are spiral toothed so sideplay is detrimental. I think the gears could use a better heat treat as well so when/if I get some extras I'm gonna experiment w/ that too. Goodluck!
 
Firebelly, this is all admirable advice but it seems a tad pointless when for about Aus $110 you can buy a Grubee gearbox & clutch and save yourself the pain of completely re-engineering a gearbox that should never have been allowed into the market place. The measures you take still don't address the brittle, poorly hardened gears themselves or the fact that the bell housing has a propensity to break away from the first gearwheel and fly around the gearbox although the shimming probably stops the friction heat on the bell housing.
If I'd bought a container load of these junk kits I'd spend my money on a lawyer to get the supplier to reimburse me for the full cost of them with compensation for damage to my reputation. The manufacturers must be laughing when they read the above remedies but I doubt very much if the Hoot engineers can read.
There is also a problem with some of the HS engines in both the Grubee and Hoot kits. Suppliers who ordered small amounts seemed to have had dud motors dumped on them. One of the HS Grubee engines had the pin missing from the gudgeon pin\con rod with the result of immediate engine seizure. Other engines wouldn't fire up at all. It was about 10% of the order that was defective with the result that we can only buy the Honda kit and no HS engines. The only thing the Chinese understand is damage to their pocketbook and the only effective remedy for all the quality problems will only come through legal action to recover the cost of their deliberate dishonesty.
 
Thanks IJ,
I'm well aware of how you feel reguarding all of this, much more aware than how much $110 Aus is. I've read all that you have posted concerning these kits. Personally, I think they all suck! (Grubee, JL, and the myriad of generic knockoffs)
I'm playing around w/ these as an experiment to see what I can accomplish for "my purposes and those who are interested".
I can tell you are very passionate about your views and that can be very admirable but I'm not oblivious to the practices of the Chinese or what I'm doing as a result of they're poor workmanship.
Sometimes I just do things for the fun and learning of it all. Sometimes one learns more from their mistakes.
I am working on my own drive system as well and I think that I can decide whether what I'm doing is pointless or not.
 
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Fair enough FireBelly. I take your point and you're spot on about my strong prejudice against chinese quality control (not to mention my pathological hatred of coaster brakes and 3 piece cranks). I suppose I just feel that trying to fix the Hoot's problems is like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic Your own drive system project is indeed employing your skills elsewhere and I'm sure it will be a great improvement on what we currently have. Motoredbike Mike is also working on his own drive project and that too will probably be a big improvement on what's available.
I am wodering what this new belt driven Grubee GB will be like. The bike is chain driven it seems but the GB itself is belt driven and I fear that it might be forced on the market by withdrawing the existing GB which is at leat reliable.
I like the belt drive mechanism on some of the little scooters where the drive pulley expands as you accellerate thus giving a higher gearing ratio and I wonder if this Grubee employs that principle.
 

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I'm no expert here, but I have high hopes for the yet to be marketed Grubee belt drive. It's hard to get a good perspective on the sizing of the components but they look to be pretty substantial.

This is a simple timing belt setup, and it is not a variable ratio drive of the type used on some scooters and on snowmobiles.

How well it will actually work out is yet to be seen of course.
The devil is in the details they say, and the Chinese are infamous for rushing products to market without paying sufficient attention to the details...
 
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The Hoot and it's copies aren't worth trying to rebuild, I have one that kept shearing off the gear keys inside. and taking it apart every other day to put in a new key was getting tiring so I have it sitting in my shed not being used. I should have not been such a cheapskate and gone for the grubee kit.
Problem is the engine that fits the hoot won't fit the grubee gearbox.. different shaft sizes so I'd be stuck having to buy a whole new kit.
 
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Chuck you sort of shot down your own point. A key is like a fuse for mechanical parts; if you shear a key you don't just replace it, you find out why it sheared, fix that, then replace the key.
It seems that some reply to threads w/o reading all the posts 'cause I've addressed the "worth" of what I'm doing since I originally posted.
Would it be "worth" a few hours of your time to save that kit if you could.
I personally have had no problems w/ my gearbox except noise and I fixed that. But I can see that the gear teeth will wear out prematurely if they are not hardened better. So if I successfully harden them in my back yard have I wasted my time?
 
I agree- the Hoot is not great as delivered, but if FBC can get them that way- more power to him. They are compact, and that is a good thing. Some of the newer drive systems may be more reliable out of the box...but if they look like the drive of a cement mixer- count me out. I understand that looks don't matter to all, but if it were not for style, I wouldn't be in this hobby at all.
 
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