Steering and Pod

Next job is to move to the front of the trike. This entails building up the front suspension, mounting the pod and then the completed front wheel assemble to the keel.

Before building the front forks up check them in the keel stub first. There is a plastic bearing in the stub that they fit into and on mine this was VERY tight. So much so that there was no way that it was going in. Again I put this down to the protective coat on it so smoothed it off, and used a coating of grease and voila! DO NOT TAKE TOO MUCH OFF AS IT NEEDS TO BE A TIGHT FIT, but not excessive as in my case!. Next check the steering arm fits the top of the forks. I found again that there was no way that this was going to fit, and had to remove some material from the location key, (welded metal), to get a good friction fit. Mainair recommends drilling the steering bar to forks when insitu. After consultation they saw no reason now I had offered it up to drill this hole on the bench first.

The front wheel assembly has no surprises, and you should be getting well into things by now. The correct tightness as before is just nipped for all the bolts that go through the shocks. Remember to make sure that the shocks are fully done up, or they will be differentially loaded. I ran out of split pins at this time. Thanks for the packet of new ones Jim! Also missing at this point was the 12mm washers used to space the front axle, and I found that I needed a couple extra ones as well to get the correct thread reveal for the castellated nut/split pin. Remember that the drum break which is blanked off with a yellow cap is on the left. The manual is miss-leading at this point.

Offer the complete forks up to the keel stub and into the front of the keel. Beginning to look good now!

The next stage is also a one way trip and that is to araldite, (not supplied even if the manual says it is!), the keel stub to the keel. Use the horizontal bolt to locate and fasten the stub to the keel, then drill the vertical holes for the bolt, using the pilot holes thoughtfully put in by Mainair. Check before this that the wheel/forks are indeed vertical as you don't want them slewed to one side do you! Once happy, pull the stub out, degrease it and araldite it in place.

Once the stub is securely fastened and glues in place we can mount the pod. Remove the forks from the stub before offering up the pod. Unless you have a lot of height you will probable have to fold the mast down to do this. I seem to have got some marks in the garage ceiling at this point!

The pod is fitted using a vertical bolt that passes through the keel stub and located in the steering well, and the long bolt that fixes the rear of the front of the seat frame to the keel. This will probably take you some time to complete, and it certainly helps with two, but is possible with one as I know. Don't forget the saddle washers etc.

This is the front wheel viewed from the rear.

This is the front of the pod showing the steering arm to forks mounting and the front stub to keel stub mounting. The vertical bolt that mounts the pod is also visible. Note the bead of araldite that can be seen between the keel stub and the keel tube. This could be cleaned up, but I prefer to see it! Break lever on left with parking break assemble on foot throttle on the right. The welded tag just to the right of the center of the steering arm is used with the rear steering option which I didn't require

This is the passenger footrest fitting. I covered both sides in heatshrink to give added protection. The location of the holes in the end of the cross tube can be difficult to work out when drilling blind from outside of the pod.