"el Terror de Tejas"

[jamyers]

We added a "dash panel", an old electrical box cover of some sort screwed to the steeringwheel uprights. Moved the remote kill switch onto it, lots of room for more future stuff (my son wants a horn and lights, lots of lights - ::rolls eyes: We've since taken a hammer and rolled the edges of the panel around with the upright tubes - doh!

Ebay tach / hour meter mounted on the right, large "push to start" button on the left.

[jamyers]

Custom high-dollar exhaust brace, made of a piece of 1/2" EMT conduit, perfectly shaped with my favorite BFH. Drilled and bolted to the engine on one end and clamped to the pipe on the other.

The muffler threads onto a 1" pipe, my exhaust is a 3/4" pipe nipple epoxied into the block, with coupler, long pipe, and adapter up to 1". I got the muffler at Lowe's for 6 or 8 bucks, I forget. Here it is online.

[jamyers]

Completed engine with stock air cleaner, ready to run.

[jamyers]

Video of my son driving sedately around Camp...

It's got a TON of low-end torque...live axle with one knobby tire and one grooved slick (mismatched for now)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_5LJ_1EXTd8

[jamyers]

With no muffler, just the long 3/4" pipe header. REALLY snappy sound, but anything above an idle is beyond loud/sharp, and can be heard clear across camp (my iphone just doesn't pick up the sound, especially at a distance).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2iT6ePAigU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yUYY4jxHONk

I bet you're all jealous of that there '76 Granada, lol

[jamyers]

Muffler / Sound comparison...first is without muffler, second is same maneuver with muffler. The video sound doesn't quite show how much quieter the muffler makes it.

And as far as we can tell with our Butt-Dyno, the muffler makes no difference in performance (yay!)

Without muffler:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R4pEKXGkxYg

With muffler:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VnTSidUKl2s

[jamyers]

One last video. Before the rebuild, if you spun the kart out to a stop, the engine labored to get going again. Now you can pretty much steer with your right foot!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dm10BwCCMtw

[souperman000]

can you take a more detailed pic of your kill switch set up? i have basically the same engine and I am wondering how to hook it up. Thanks

[jamyers]

Originally Posted by souperman000

can you take a more detailed pic of your kill switch set up? i have basically the same engine and I am wondering how to hook it up. Thanks

Sure, glad to!

On this engine, there's that on/off "kill" rocker switch on the blower housing. If I recall, there are 2 grounding wires coming off the magneto, one going through that rocker switch and then to ground at the throttle assembly, and the other going straight to the throttle assembly to ground (kill) the ignition when the throttle lever is completely closed.

All I did was unhook that second "throttle-kill-switch" wire, splice a long wire onto the end of it, run that up front to a basic on/off toggle switch, and then connect the other switch lead to ground. Open the switch before starting the engine, and when the switch is closed, the magneto is grounded and engine dies.

Pic of the back of the "dashboard" showing the backside of the switch:


There's not much to see on the engine end except where the wire used to be hooked up, the magneto and its wiring is under the blower cover. If the above doesn't make sense, pull your cover off and post a picture of the magneto and I'll walk you through that end.

At a minimum all you need is a piece of wire connected to the magneto's grounding terminal, running to an on/off switch and then to ground - close the switch, the ignition is grounded and the engine dies.

[souperman000]

This is my engine:



Yea your engine is electric so the kill switch set up might be different? Any way, Sorry to ask so much but how did you hook up the throttle? Did you just attach the cable to the spring or to the arm directly?

Thanks

[jamyers]

Don't worry about asking questions, I've made a career of doing it, lol.

The electric starter is independent of the kill switches - except that you have to open the switches for the engine to run...
My engine started out without the electric starter, I shopped the motor from db electric, iirc it was $30 or so, then used a standard (inexpensive) starter relay and some wiring.



I really like the throttle / governor setup on this engine - it can be a fixed or remote throttle, has adjustable governor, and it's simple and reliable.

Throttle cable connects to an existing spot on the arm, as shown. I had to rob the cable clamp and screw off of a junked mower, and add the return spring, then loosened that friction-lock wingnut and it's ready for a remote kart throttle.

Up and to the left of the end of the throttle cable, just above the governor spring you can see the yellowish nylon part of the old throttle-controlled kill switch. That's where I unhooked and tied my remote kill switch in from.

I've currently got the governor spring in the #2 hole, which is the low end of the "Max RPM" settings and yield a max of 3100 rpm (by tach). With the current gears and tires, that calculates to just over 20mph, which believe me is plenty fast for the kids (and for me!) on gravel/dirt - especially with the gobs of torque these engines make. If I recall, my Briggs manual indicates that if I'd move the spring to the other end of the governor I'd get around 4400rpm, and supposedly I can bypass the governor and get up around 5000, but seriously I can't see doing that in the near future.

[souperman000]

This is awesome, I have scoured the internet and youtube and couldn't find anything like this

Thanks

[jamyers]

UPDATE: Dang fuel pump started leaking. Took it apart, saw nothing wrong, put it back together, it didn't leak for about 20 minutes, then started again (sigh).

MAJOR irritation! The Briggs parts manual shows the rectangular pump, and shows part number 692026. BUT they don't make this pump anymore, it's been replaced with p/n 799056, a round pump. Only it's NOT a direct replacement (not even close, imho).

The hose fittings point in different directions, and the ears for the bolts aren't correctly located to bolt it to the engine. The directions indicate mounting it with it's vent towards the engine, and NOT bolted down to anything - basically the hoses hold it in place.

The directions actually say to "tuck it up beside the carburetor and behind the air cleaner housing so that it won't interfere with the throttle lever". so you'll have a plastic fuel pump rattling around loose just above the throttle lever...BAD IDEA, BRIGGS...

Unfortunately, I couldn't find an actual direct replacement for the old pump, so I went with the round pump, mounted on the other side of the engine, out in the open (see leaks easier if nothing else). Bolted one ear to the crankcase, and made a mounting bracket out of plumbers strap.



So far it's working well, but I'm still cheesed at Briggs for thinking this was a replacement part.

[jamyers]

UPDATE 2: I got pretty used to motoring around with the governor set to 3100rpm, which gives around 20mph. This engine has tons of low-end torque, so donuts, spinouts, and wild oversteer are a piece of cake - pretty much steer it with your right foot. So I moved the gov spring from the lowest setting to the highest, which according to the book oughta give 4400rpm, which works out to right at 30mph. WOW, what a difference when the engine winds up, which is kinda hard to do on grass without spinning...

Then I made a long, wot pass from one end of Camp to the other. Lots of fun, especially where you can get airborne at the end of this sidewalk to the parking lot. Until I got to the house, stopped, and took a good look at the RF tire, which seemed a little odd....







Closeup - apparently when my nephew (I'm blaming him, lol) repaired the front end from when my daughter hit a tree (see the beginning of this thread), he welded in reinforcements everywhere EXCEPT the bottom, which finally let go.


No worries, off to the workshop for some heating, straightening, re-welding, and adding a brace to the underside. All is now well, and it's back in service.

Who is it on here with the signature: "wrench, race, wreck, repeat?" I'm thinking that's my new motto as well....

[jamyers]

Daughter Rachel cruising around last night:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QfkP5LfKjis

Learning to control oversteer...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iVfKC...ature=youtu.be

[landuse]

Originally Posted by jamyers

Who is it on here with the signature: "wrench, race, wreck, repeat?" I'm thinking that's my new motto as well....

Thats Toystory if I remember correctly

You have a great kart there. Good thing the wheel didn't snap off, and you could just bend it back

[jamyers]

Thanks for the kind words, you're right - I'm very glad it didn't come completely off, that would have been a "GAAAAAA!!!!" moment, and I'm too old for those.

Yup, it's Toystory. I'm adopting his sig as my motto...

[jamyers]

Update: Changed out the exhaust pipe and relocated the fuel tank.

I removed the heavy 3/4" iron exhaust pipe and muffler, it was so heavy it was trying to strip the threads out of the head. Cut the flange off of the old muffler pipe assy, and found that a piece of 1" EMT (metal conduit) fits over the flanged pipe perfectly, tight enough that I had to use a hammer (and wood block) to get the EMT all the way down to the actual flange. Bolted the flange to the engine, used the same exhaust braces on the pipe, and put a metal 1" LB box onto the end of the pipe with a conduit compression fitting (who knew that metal conduit was so handy?).

Right now it looks like some kind of muzzle brake on a gun barrel, but once I get to the hardware store I'll get a metal cover, drill holes in it, Plug the conduit outlet side, and turn the LB box into a muffler.

[kendelrk]

i havent read the thread because im feeling kind of lazy today, so i have no idea if you know this information, but its said to take a few decibels off of the exhaust sound if you point it downward

[jamyers]

Next project was to relocate the fuel tank. Bolted to the engine is ok, but it was *right* above the starter motor, and I'm not a fan of possible fuel leaks onto an electrical part - plus it was a pita to get at either mounting bolts!

So off came the fuel tank and its bracket (PIC 1).
Next I welded a bit of angle iron from the right-side frame rail to the center rail, tying into the end battery bracket as well. (PIC2)