Cart lunges/creeps when in gear. 16hp Vanguard,780 clutch, stock driven clutch,

[leichardti]

Converting my lifted electric EZGO to GAS
16HP Vanguard
Engine cradle from vegas carts
Newer style rear end with the passenger side clutch
780 low pro drive clutch from vegas carts
Stock driven clutch

Cart lunges/creeps forward or reverse when you put it in gear. I believe I have the correct size belt. I've tried adjusting the belt tension several times with no luck. Other than that, the cart drives great. Put many hours on it and hauled a few 1,000 lbs.

If its not belt tension or an incorrect clutch setup, I'm guessing it could be the clutch spring?

Distance from the center of the clutches is a range of 11 3/4" - 14"
1 3/16" wide belt+ 780 clutch + stock driven clutch + clutch center distance = Dayco HP3001

Thank you for your time.

20220420_101443 by Dennis F, on Flickr

20220315_185749 by Dennis F, on Flickr

20220330_090518 by Dennis F, on Flickr

20220419_170001 by Dennis F, on Flickr

[steve1200]

I Just did this myself, on an 01 workhorse, adjusting the belt is time consuming and has a learning curve. It may be an illusion, but the motor looks to be turned to one side in pic 2, preventing the pulleys from being parallel. Be sure the pulleys line up and are parallel to each other. I adjusted my motor to where the belt is centered in the clutch. Also belt may be a tad tight it should be loose enough it can slide over the center of the clutch when the engine is off, and just tight enough so there is very little tension pulling it at an idle. One other thing be sure your idle rpm is at or below 1200. Hope this helps, nice cart btw.

[leichardti]

Thank you for the information. These pictures are older, when I first built it. Everything was finalized and cleaned up after these pictures.

The idle was too high. I bent the governed idle tang a tiny bit, slowing the idle down to a good point. It goes into gear and does not lurch anymore. So far it is running great. I need to get a tachometer on it to verify the rpms at idle, I will add a tach eventually.

Thank you for your time.

[steve1200]

I had to remove the governor idle spring that came with the 23hp vanguard motor, it was a 1700 rpm spring. I replaced it with a lighter spring from a hardware store, idle is around 1200 now. It idles better/lower without the spring, but the two barrel carb doesn't like to start at an idle, even though the engine is brand new. The spring holds the throttle wide open, then quickly returns to idle once it starts. Looking at the idle circuit ports in the carb and it becomes apparent as to why this is (hard to start at idle). The 16hp carb does not suffer from this problem, from what I hear. My belt is tight enough that when shifting, the drag on the center shaft of the clutch spins the input shaft when changing from forward to reverse, this allows gears to align with the shift clutch and is in gear before accelerating, making for a smoother transition. Too tight and the clutches won't work right.