Some progress over the last couple of days...
First I printed up a new set of pulleys and a new belt tensioner with some revised dimensions and they came out looking pretty good.
The main difference in this version of the pulleys is that I was playing with the idea that since the front pulley was closer to the centerline than the rear pulley (making the belt "bend" around the center tensioner), it might be possible to move the rear pulley even further away from the centerline so that the front pulley, belt tensioner and rear pulley are all aligned but slightly canted.
But after installation my theory didn't pan out in reality... due to the way the belts wrapped around the pulleys they just didn't run well in such a configuration.
So it was on to version 3 of the pulleys. This time the idea was to offset the front another millimeter outwards and the rear pulley closer inline to try to line everything up. I also designed a guide pulley in the center to ensure the belt stays where it's supposed to be as it routes around the tensioner. Everything fit great and things were looking good.
A quick test on the road and everything worked great! The car ran smooth and the belt never skipped a beat. It'll have to hit the track for a more thorough testing but I'm so glad so far the conversion was working better than I had ever expected. lol!
The car was looking very different from what I had started with. Here's how she stands now.
Earlier in the day, while I was driving I had an idea for a design for an easy way to mount 2.2" JCRACING wheels on my 834B while getting the right width I wanted... I booted up the CAD software and shortly after a pair of these were done! Introducing my version of the Yokomo vintage wheel widener!
I had previously used carbon plates cut to the shape of the "square" to widen the wheel and they had worked fine but there were some limitations - namely I was limited to the width of the carbon plates and secondly when they extended past a few millimeters the wheel was no longer engaged to the original metal hub so the only thing driving the wheels would be the 2 screws holding the assembly together. I doubt that was an issue, but this design actually keys over the drive hub and into the wheel to better transfer the power.
Had a big smile when everything fit snugly together with no slop and when I powered it up everything ran true.
Now I can easily adjust my width by printing them up according to what I want to achieve. Getting the car to fit easily available 2.2" wheels nicely has always been something I could not easily fix but if this holds up then I would've solved another concern that stood in the way of regular running of this car.
Here's the width of the car with JCRACING wheels I bought a long long time ago.
As I type the second pair is printing on the printer for me to mount onto my front wheels.
More pics and mods to follow!