Here is what the original problem was: last week before I drove the vehicle about 100' the chain originally was tight. I started driving up a slight incline covered by some grass and after about 5' heard a bang coming from the back. When I stopped to look I noticed that the chain had suddenly developed a fair amount of slack in it, not seeing any issue I got back into the vehicle and continued up the incline.

Near the top of the incline I again heard the bang sound, and rolled the vehicle back into my pole barn. I again looked at the drive section and saw that the chain had even more slack than before, but there was no damage to anything! I scratched my head and walked away

I thought a long time about the sound and what happened, that is when I decided to try the torque strap. I now believe that I know what happened: as I depressed the gas pedal and the vehicle started to accelerate the engine 'rotated' slightly in the two engine mounts, this caused the slack in the chain. As I started to accelerate the tire lost traction and spun, when it spun it immediately took up the slack and made the bang sound that I heard. At the top of the incline the tire again lost traction, spun, and took up the slack with a bang.

The Vortex plans state that this torque strap should be used whenever high output engines are used. While I don't really consider a 100hp engine high horse power it certainly appears to warrant using the torque strap. I believe that it is a design issue, in the motorcycle frame the engine is attached to the frame at typically at least four points, in the Vortex engine subframe the engine is attached really at two points, each horizontal mount. I feel that probably every one that eventually makes a Vortex would need to apply this torque strap to keep the engine from doing the same thing as mine did.

It seemed to be a big hit, lots of people were looking it over, taking pictures and asking a lot of questions. Overall it was quite pleasing to see that the work was appreciated and well received by others. At one point during the day a quick thunderstorm blew through the area, I ended up with about 1" of water inside the front trunk. A friend of mine Chip Mefford loaned me a cordless drill with a 1/4" bit so that I could put two drain holes into the trunk.

For me it was also a time of reflection and to step back from the vehicle and actually see it from a distance, and to take a big breath of relief that the toughest work is behind me. Soon within a couple of weeks I will have it legal and on the road for some short test drives, then I can really start to appreciate the fruits of my labors. Now when I drive down the road at least some of the local general public will know what that strange vehicle is going down the road...

In WV you have to bring what they refer to as an 'assembled vehicle' to the State Police, they look the vehicle over to ensure that it does not already have a VIN number assigned to it and they give you form DMV-1B.

You next have to bring this form along with 2 pictures of it showing one side and the front of the vehicle (color or b/w), form DMV-62-TR (builders affidavit), and DMV-1-TR (title application) to the DMV to acquire a VIN number and title. Even though the title application says that you have to have insurance to submit the form - it is incorrect, to get a title you do not need insurance. You need insurance when you go to register the vehicle and get plates.

A couple of people helped me diagnose my drive line issue that I was having, the major problem turned out to be that my gearing is too tall, I have to get a larger sprocket for the jack shaft, will be looking into it and reporting back.

One other issue was that my side windows were only held in by the 3M adhesive tape, up until now it was fine - but having the vehicle out in the sun for a couple of days caused the tape to fail and the acrylic was pulling away from the doors! Shep had put in a couple of small screws around the windows perimeter and this solved his problem, I had been putting off doing this, but now this has a high priority.

At one time Doug Starwalt and Todd Wright (RQT/Lotek guy) got out a ladder and climbed up onto the garage roof to take some pictures of Shep's and my vehicles, a very nice and interesting perspective! Click on them for a larger image:

Here was a nice side profile shots showing some of the differences:

A couple of other vehicles that also were there:

I have not been able to find a suitable chain sprocket to get my gearing in line so the next alternative was to go with a smaller flat belt pulley that goes onto the intermediate jack-shaft.

In addition before they will issue a VIN or Title, there is another form DMV-202-TR (Certificate of Inspection) that needs to be completed, so I will have to do another trip to the DMV soon.

I had to reduce the diameter of the flat pulley hub as the 26T pulley has a smaller ID. This took a while as I also had to use a die grinder on the inside diameter of the pulley as well, so that the hub would slide through it.

So I bought a box of #6 x 5/8" long and #4 x 1/2" long screws.

I was careful to predrill all the holes to provide a pilot hole for the screws, in addition I drilled out the lexan to the diameter of the screw shank. I was also careful to put the holes as close to the edge as possible and in a couple of spots barely made it into the door frame.

One side note: I wished that I put these screws in when I first mounted the lexan windows, rather than waiting till the windows 'popped'.

I may go back at some later point and replace them with wood screws, or touch up the heads with black paint, but for now I am happy with them. In addition I probably will go around the outside perimeter with some silicone calk to seal up the small gap between the window and frame, this will keep any moisture from dripping inside the window.

In the picture below you can see that I put four screws along the top/front/bottom edges, while the back I put in three and two in the bottom leading edge of the window. The lower window I put a screw into all four corners as well as two in the middle as they also were starting to 'pop' a little bit.

I bought the Grizzly 4016 metal lathe and it has a capacity of 13-1/2" diameter and 40" long, it has a removable bed underneath the chuck and if I remove it I can turn parts up to19"! Now between it and the knee mill I should be able to do most everything that I need. Along the way I will also need to purchase tooling, but I have a pretty good start already.

The lathe was delivered today and after a couple of hours I got it put into place in my shop. Hindsight being what it is I kinda wish now that I purchased the mill and lathe at the start of my project as the money spent would have helped offset the investment, but who would know at that time that I would go in this direction...

Here is a picture of the lathe:

I am now in a position to offer my services as a welding and machine shop to others, I think that with my experience in building my Vortex/Genesis can be a benefit to others that want to undertake this or similar projects. Rates will be very reasonable!

I found a local source for the 7" diameter steel stock that I need for the end plates. This stuff is heavy a 36" long piece of it weighs in at about 400lbs! I will be using my large capacity horizontal band saw to cut off rough plates to go onto the lathe.