Making a mousetrap work on a electric start shovel

devon.john

devon.john

Club Member
keeping my beady eye on Ebay payed off ,managed to pick ups a mousetrap for £120
the were first fitted in 1952 to lessen the effort needed to pull the clutch leaver by hand
they had just gone over to hand clutch ,as a option ,
they were not fitted on the electra glides ,
now the problem comes from the primary case with the solenoid its high on the case .
so looking at my PAN with foot clutch i decided that i would make a new clutch release arm ,
move the oil tank up 1/2"giving me clearance for it to work ,
made the arm refitted the oil tank and yes it worked

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Well done John, I have been following your project with interest, you can’t beat a bit of ingenuity.
 
Mousetrap, or hand clutch booster as the factory called it, was from 1952 to 1967.
 
Well done John, where there's a will there's a way. Or in this case where there's a D J there's a way.(y)
 
John, i'm sure you are aware, but if you fit the rod to the lower, you'll get a smidge more clutch throw.
when i did mine, i modified the bell-crank-arm extending the arm and adding a further lower-hole to gain even a little more clutch throw.
it's the longest it can be, any longer it fouls with the lower mount-arm.
The amount the clutch movement you get with the trap is more than a cable setup, but it's still pretty minimal. every bit helps.

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jayzedkay said:
John, i'm sure you are aware, but if you fit the rod to the lower, you'll get a smidge more clutch throw.
when i did mine, i modified the bell-crank-arm extending the arm and adding a further lower-hole to gain even a little more clutch throw.
it's the longest it can be, any longer it fouls with the lower mount-arm.
The amount the clutch movement you get with the trap is more than a cable setup, but it's still pretty minimal. every bit helps.

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View attachment 1197835
Click to expand...
it seems tobe working fine if i go to the lower fix point it will foul the solenoid as is it just misses ,,
 
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There is a police-model clutch release arm which takes care of the solenoid/clearance issue, was used on police Shovel Electra Glides with foot clutch and hand shift until around 1978/79 I believe. I bought one when converting my FXEF to jockey shift and foot clutch just over 20yrs ago.

V-Twin catalogue part #18-3606 / OEM 37052-65

Not as cool and satisfying as making your own, but just in case anyone wants to file that info.
 
that is a cool part, did not know about it. worth knowing about for sure. (y)

but i think that arm is fine for ratchet-boxes only.
with turrette/cow-pie boxes i don't think it'd work without modifying anyway?
there simply isn't enough room between solenoid and turret to get enough clutch?
travel needs to extend beyond the turrett to get enough pull, or start further away,
which is easy with no starter/solenoid. thats what FK's cow-pie extended arm does.
 
its more the clearance above the solenoid,, moving the oil tank up 1/2" made all the difference ,
the arm is easy to fabricate
but as you say someone would be intrested in knowing that there is a part out there to buy if they wanted ,,
good one Dave
 
jayzedkay said:
that is a cool part, did not know about it. worth knowing about for sure. (y)

but i think that arm is fine for ratchet-boxes only.
with turrette/cow-pie boxes i don't think it'd work without modifying anyway?
there simply isn't enough room between solenoid and turret to get enough clutch?
travel needs to extend beyond the turrett to get enough pull, or start further away,
which is easy with no starter/solenoid. thats what FK's cow-pie extended arm does.
Click to expand...
Yes, The higher arm is only for ratchet tops, and this arm (as John has found out) requires the later m/t bell crank with the ‘stud’ fixing. It also moved the rod end from inside to outside to get more clearance 👍
 
Another point, I couldn’t get one of the repro arms (the type that is thick right to the end) to work no matter what I did as the bend is all wrong and adding a bend meant that the rod from the m/t needed a sharp bend in it.

the slimmer chrome offerings are fine, so I ended up stripping one and parkerising it 😇

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