kill! kill!
I just installed a kill switch on my 1953 Cushman model 62 . It's a safety thing. If the throttle sticks, and they usually stick in the wide open position, I will be able to kill the engine with a flip of my left thumb. I can do it with letting go of the grip.
Back in the Cushman era, 1936 to 1965, manufacturers were not required to put a kill switch on the handlebar. Cushman put a button on the engine's air shroud. You had to reach under the seat, find the button and hold it in until the engine stopped. It worked fine if the engine was at idle. But with an automatic clutch, and the throttle stuck on wide open, you aren't likely to get it stopped. Your best bet was to hit something soft and cheap.
This problem became obvious when a member of our club had a TSWO* incident. He was riding a Cushman Eagle with a Vanguard engine. The Vanguard is not the original engine. It has about twice the power of the most powerful Cushman engine. He hit a trailer. Fortunately he recovered and I suppose by now the scooter has been repaired. A kill switch would have saved him a lot of pain, money, and trouble.
Some of the stock kill buttons on the engine are easier to reach than others, but you still have to take your had off the handle bar to do it. Eagles and some Highlanders are easy because the engine sits out in the open. On a model 52, 54, 62, or 64 with the full body, they provide a slot that you can reach through, and you have a fair chance of finding the button, but on some Allstates and some Highlanders it is all but impossible to reach unless you get off the scooter. If you are sitting on the seat, it sinks down enough to block the opening in the body under the seat.
I won't know if my improvised kill switch will work until I get the gas leak in the carburetor fixed, but I am confident that it will. If it does, I still have some other scooters that need one. Even the ones with an ignition switch up front need a kill switch, because you might loose control of a runaway scooter if you take one hand off the handlebars.
Howard
*Throttle Stuck Wide Open
Back in the Cushman era, 1936 to 1965, manufacturers were not required to put a kill switch on the handlebar. Cushman put a button on the engine's air shroud. You had to reach under the seat, find the button and hold it in until the engine stopped. It worked fine if the engine was at idle. But with an automatic clutch, and the throttle stuck on wide open, you aren't likely to get it stopped. Your best bet was to hit something soft and cheap.
This problem became obvious when a member of our club had a TSWO* incident. He was riding a Cushman Eagle with a Vanguard engine. The Vanguard is not the original engine. It has about twice the power of the most powerful Cushman engine. He hit a trailer. Fortunately he recovered and I suppose by now the scooter has been repaired. A kill switch would have saved him a lot of pain, money, and trouble.
Some of the stock kill buttons on the engine are easier to reach than others, but you still have to take your had off the handle bar to do it. Eagles and some Highlanders are easy because the engine sits out in the open. On a model 52, 54, 62, or 64 with the full body, they provide a slot that you can reach through, and you have a fair chance of finding the button, but on some Allstates and some Highlanders it is all but impossible to reach unless you get off the scooter. If you are sitting on the seat, it sinks down enough to block the opening in the body under the seat.
I won't know if my improvised kill switch will work until I get the gas leak in the carburetor fixed, but I am confident that it will. If it does, I still have some other scooters that need one. Even the ones with an ignition switch up front need a kill switch, because you might loose control of a runaway scooter if you take one hand off the handlebars.
Howard
*Throttle Stuck Wide Open
posted by Howard at
7:21 PM
1 Comments:
Can you give details and pics as to the switch you used?
By
Anonymous, at 8:28 PM
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