Hooking a 1979 Vetter Terraplane to a 1984 Voyager

I kinda skipped over a stock Voyager part that had to be modified before installing the upper rear strut. The strut mounting point on top of the right saddlebag crash bar has already been seen in previous pics, but that one is the second version. The first version didn't allow much clearance between the head of the mounting bolt and the front of the saddlebag. I didn't want to take any chances that the movement of the saddlebag would cause rubbing and damage to the finish. The first pic shows the first version with a full-width bushing.
This crash bar is mounted with one 10mm bolt at the top and one under the bike where the lower rear strut mounting plate is bolted (remember that one?). It also ties into the rear accessory framework, but that framework doesn't add much strength to the crash bar the way they are tied together. Also, that crash bar roughly forms a paralellogram, so it's rigidity isn't very good in stock form. I added a stiffener tube (red arrow in the first pic) to tie the weakest section along the lower part to a point just under the upper bolt. That still didn't triangulate it like I would like, but it did remove most of the noticeable flexing. I can't really triangulate the system without interfering with the folding function of the footrest. That's one of the reasons I cut up the original footrest earlier, to allow it to fold up! I didn't like that! You can see the difference in where that stiffener bar was added in the first version in the first pic, and where it ended up in the final version in the second pic. That final version was also much stiffer since the top end of that stiffener was closer to the upper bolt point.
I WANTED to place the attachment bracket on the top of the crash bar closer to the bike for better rigidity, but the strut then would have blocked being able to open that front saddlebag top latch! I could have run the strut tube straight out from the sidecar attachment point and over that latch, then down into the bushing on top of the crash bar and right next to the mounting bolt, but that would have interfered with the bike passenger's leg placement just slightly. Oh, the compromises we have to make!
This whole crash bar will be completely re-chromed.
Yes, I did scrap out a perfectly good Voyager crash bar as well as one perfectly good footrest in all of my mistakes!

This part is especially for Caddypat. Although your pics gave me lots of ideas for making up the mounts, I couldn't find the correct forged, flat-top u-bolts that I needed to make up the same kind of mounts you have on your Voyager. My Terraplane also has different mounting requirements than your Formula II. But the frame section that I chose to mount to was because of your pics.
I needed to go as high on the bike's frame as possible to get the best rigidity from triangulation. That meant going inside the fairing lower section to grab the frame right behind the radiator and in front of a couple of the exhaust pipes right off the cylinder head! Not much room for clearance, and because of all the heat in this area, I couldn't use one of the polyurethane bushings in this area. So, a hard steel clevis and tab system had to be made up. I bought the clevis from another speed shop, Speedway Motors. They were the only place that had a large, heavy duty clevis with a 3/4" long-threaded shank and at least a 3/8" cross-hole. I had to fabricate the eyebolt-type of tab to hook the clevis to at each end.
This upper end mounting point was built-up from a chunk of aluminum block and a piece of 3/8" steel bar stock, plus a few nuts and bolts and lots of machine work and some welding and grinding.
The two blocks were cut and clamped together and match-drilled, then punch marked to keep correct orientation to each other. One block was tapped for 1/4-20 threads in all six holes while the other block was drilled out to .254" to clear 1/4" bolts (pics 1 and 2). Once the two blocks were bolted together, I located where the hole should be that will go around the frame tube of the bike (pic 3). The bike's frame tube measured at 1.497" exactly, so I bored the hole in the blocks to 1.500" exactly. Sure, that won't let them clamp down at all, but after all boring was done I then cut .040" off the face of each block to give a theoretical .080" clamping fit (pic 4). It worked perfectly! WOW, something went absolutely right this time! No scrapped parts! Now to check for clearance to the radiator and the exhaust pipes.
This project was started right after Thanksgiving, but it's taking so long because most of the early work had to be done outside at the bike and car. It was damn cold and I couldn't spend much tame out there each day laying on cold, snow-covered ground. So, besides this project, I did some more work on the Hondasaki drive project.
The new clamp blocks fit perfectly with about 1/2" clearance behind the radiator and in front of the pipes. I gave the back side a healthy bevel on the corners for better clearance, so it even had room to rotate around the frame tube to give me more choices in how to run my strut tube through the vent slots in the fairing-lower. It was still pretty cramped and I had to make up a special tool just to hold the back block in place while I positioned the front block and started the bolts into the threads.
Now the 3/8" face block and "eye-bolt" had to be made. The steel block was easy to transfer-punch the drill points from the aluminum blocks and drill out. Then a 1/2" hole was also drilled in the center for the eye-bolt. After this block was made up, the aluminum blocks were drilled for clearance for the nut holding this eye-bolt to the steel face block. Several other holes were also drilled to lighten things up a bit on the aluminum clamping blocks. Well, and to add just a bit of bling, too! Hey,....I was in a drilling mood that day and it was too cold to go outside to do any work!
I used a grade-8 fine-thread bolt to weld a 3/8" thick tab to to make up the special eyebolt. I couldn't find any aircraft AN eye-bolts that had all of the specs I needed. My clevises called for a 3/8" thick tab with a 3/8" bolt hole.
OK, now I can hear a lot of "But, you destroyed the grading integrity of that grade-8 bolt by welding it." NOPE! I use a sort of slow-stitch welding technique that Lincoln teaches to keep heat to a minimum. I use high settings on my Mig machine so I can keep my arc duration extremely short but still get deep penetration. After each "spot", I wait almost a minute to allow it to completely cool. I can actually touch the spot right after making it with my bare finger and not get burned! By doing this, there is no heat affected zone around the actual weld bead, or row of overlapping spots. I use this method of welding a lot since I am never in a hurry for my welded projects! Using much lower settings on the machine, it's also the best way to weld sheet metal body panels on a car with absolutely no warpage. BUT, on beads that long, it takes forever!
Anyway, after welding up the eyebolt I ground down the weld to smooth it all out, mostly for appearance. I made up two of these, one for each end of the strut. The final eyebolt, face plate and clamping blocks are shown in pic 5, 6 and 7.

And now the last part of fabricating the mounts. The upper front strut.
The difficulty in making up this strut and it's mounting points on the bike and sidecar was getting everything to work together to allow the actual strut to go through the existing heat vent holes in the fairing lower without having to cut any bodywork. It also had to be set at an angle that gave a better triangulation for stiffness in the front section of the sidecar to the bike as well as allowing for a little bit of adjustment for toe-in and lean angle. The actual strut also needed to be as straight as possible. Not too many requirements, right? With all of the cold weather, this strut and it's lower mounting point took me almost two weeks to complete. But, it fits perfectly, just like the upper frame clamp. I'm VERY happy with the way it turned out.
I already had a second fabricated eyebolt from when I made up the upper mount clamp. The hard part was figuring out exactly where to place the base plate to attach this eyebolt to. It had to work well with the placement of the upper mounting point to allow the strut to clear the bodywork on the fairing lower. It ended up being a short piece of angle iron welded to the corner of the lower strut's sidecar mounting base plate, then being drilled to accept the eyebolt. Actually it was a very simple, but strong, solution! I also ground the weld bead along the outside of the base plate where the angle iron was welded to it. Nice and clean! Since this piece of angle iron also surrounds (on two sides!) one of the mounting bolts for the base plate to the sidecar frame, it is at an extremely strong, rigid point point, with no flexing possible. This mounting point and end of finished strut can be seen in the first and second pics.
The actual strut was not hard to make at all. I welded 3/4" threaded bungs into the ends of two pieces of tubing to start, and finished them off in the lathe as I described earlier. I placed both pieces of tubing on the bike and set them at the correct angles to clear the fairing lower, then I roughly marked the angles they needed to be cut to join them together at the correct angle. After cutting them I did another trial fit before welding. It took three fittings and cuts to get just the right angles and lengths before welding. Once welded it took almost two hours to slowly grind down the weld bead to give a totally smooth look to the "bent' tube. But, I think it looks great, and it fits perfectly, giving me 3/8" clearance from each side of the strut tube to the fairing bodywork! See pics 3, 4, 5 and 6.
Pic 7 shows the whole finished mounting system ready for a test run around the back yard! Until I add a 10' wide gate along the side of the house, I can't get this rig out of the back yard without taking it apart and moving each part separately! It's too wide for my 6' gate! I did take it about 10 laps around the yard, though, and was quite happy with how stiff the mounts are. Couldn't feel any flexing at all. My '83 Voyager and Motorvation Spyder sidecar from the mid '80's always felt just a bit "soft", and after several years of riding that rig, it DID have bowed lower struts!!! Hence, the seemingly over-built appearance of this rig's mounts. Motorvation used 1-1/8" OD tubing with .092" wall thickness. I used 1-1/4" OD tubing with .157" wall thickness. The OD increase alone would have been good enough, but I'm just OCD about such things! The whole mounting system added close to 35lbs to the whole rig.
I will give a complete ride report and fine tuning report after I get some things sorted out on the bike and get my new gate installed. I need to replace the clutch, and I don't think the bike is charging the battery. I also have all new tires for the bike and sidecar to mount, plus all new wheel bearings. I also need to check the adjustment on the bearings in the steering head and swingarm. These are both quite critical for sidecar use to prevent any shimmy in the front end. I never had any shimmy in my '83 Voyager/Spyder rig, so I am hoping for the same from this rig so I don't have to mount a steering damper shock.
Most of the basic pics of this build can be found in my member gallery here. Several of the pics I used here are from my FaceBook collection. I have a LOT more on my computer!

Any questions???

looks like it should work well. lot of fine hand work.pat

Beautiful work Bruce! Thanks for taking the time to document your build.
Bill

I REALLY like the way you've accommodated adjustment ability in the mounts for toe in/out and camber of the Terraplane. nicely thought out and executed