Gary's Low Budget Kart Build

[Garified]

Look guys... I understand the math behind the sprocket ratios and tire sizes. It may not look like an ideal setup from the pictures/videos but it's fine. I've seen much worse last a good while. If I was THAT worried about burning my clutch out (Trust me, I've done my research), I would have gotten another sprocket already. With that said, I would greatly appreciate it if everyone stop criticizing my sprocket sizes. Our current setup will work FINE.

Don't get me wrong I appreciate the advice, but I think I've made it abundantly clear that I am happy with the setup and I don't intend on changing it right now.


ANYWHO...


We're making a rollbar that's going behind the driver's seat, not necessarily an entire roll cage, since we don't have the steel for that.

 

[Garified]

Yeah but that would help a ****load in this cold. And as for the sprocket, for the last time the kart runs fine people, its not straining the clutch that hard at all. A new sprocket is out of the question for now. If our clutch burns up anytime soon, then ill invest in the sprocket, I appreciate everyones concerns but it fine for now.

Helmet + goggles = No wind in face.

These are the kind of goggles I have:

Not the exact kind but a general idea. I really don't want to weld up the extra steel + extra weight besides the roll bar. We really don't need a windshield.

 

[LiveDarkness]

Yeah that'll do lol. As for the roll bars......we'll figure it out lol

 

[HellSpawn]

I'd really keep a roll cage off of the thing until you do invest in a better gear ratio. The added weight will no doubt roast that clutch with that steep of a ratio.

 

[fowler]

it might roast the clutch it might not but we can all agree the price of a new clutch is better than a snapped neck

 

[Garified]

it might roast the clutch it might not but we can all agree the price of a new clutch is better than a snapped neck

Agreed. We may have to make some changes when we add the roll bar, depending on the weight, but right now, it's fine. The kart isn't even heavy as it is, which I think is the main contributing factor of the kart not struggling to move.

I'd really keep a roll cage off of the thing until you do invest in a better gear ratio. The added weight will no doubt roast that clutch with that steep of a ratio.

I agree with you there. But right now without the roll cage, the clutch is a-ok.


I'm going to hook up the throttle cable today.

 

[LiveDarkness]

Hey gary, Im about to head to work, stop by tonight if you can and let me know how the throttle works.

 

[r97]

looks like it came out nice

i will mention i am surprised the clutch is holding up, either its perfectly fine, its destroying itself without anyone noticing, or if it gets a bit more load it will fry. but if your happy with it and don't want to change the ratio, you don't have to, but i would suggest it for two resons, one for the reason mentioned above, and two, i think its a lot more fun to do donuts in a kart than it is to go 50mph in a home made thing on mower tires. i'm not looking to argue with you, if you want go ahead and ignore me, but i would suggest a ratio change.

also, as redsox said, no cage, no seat belt, with cage, with seat belt. and both of those always have a helmet!

how did you guys measure he speed? does it have a speedometer on it? i'm interested in making a cheep speedometer for my kart and i'm looking for ideas.

p.s. it would have bean nice to see the extra bit of money invested into a longer brake line, or a system hooked up so you can keep both hands on the wheel while braking (loosing control, at high speed, and locking up the tires is a pretty bad scenario).

 

[Garified]

I had no 100% surefire way to measure the speed, but I made a guess from experience. I want to use a car to test the speed of it (Driving behind the kart as its going) but I'm 100% positive I was going at LEAST 45.

I drove it for about 2 hours today. No sign of damage on the clutch. I inspected it and everything looked fine.

And yes we use a helmet when riding. I'm crazy but not that crazy!

 

[honda-gx-power]

If you loose 2 or 4 teeth of back you will thank us all i promise.Gary like you said you have not drove a kart in 10 years.
Top build and in few month hopefully you will have it right.

 

[r97]

loose 2 or 4 teeth? don't you mean gain 2 or 4 teeth? also i think more than 2 or 4 teeth would be wanted.

 

[LiveDarkness]

The long ride

Well as for loosing teeth......that just makes stuff worse, but for the last time we are not considering a new sprocket. We appreciate everyones concern and we are not morons we understand our ratio is not ideal, but what we are saying is that it runs perfectly fine. We just ran the go kart over 10 miles from my job to my house and it ran great. Absolutely no problems but the cold *** weather. Hopefully this weekend we'll have the throttle installed. And again we appreciate your advice on the sprocket ratio, but we have it situated for now.

 

[Garified]

Our sprocket setup is FINE with the clutch we have. I understand the concern, but it runs fine and I would like to drop it at that before this turns into an argument.


Anyway, we did a pretty good driving test to it tonight. We installed a small spotlight on the front. I drove it from my house to Patrick's job (on backroads of course), which was a 3 mile drive. Besides the freezing weather, it was fun. Then I drove it from Patrick's job to his house, which was a 7 mile drive.

We got the main throttle spring loaded now, and I hooked a cable up to it that I had to pull by hand (Just temporary until I get the throttle installed). It was kind of difficult to hold steadily by hand, and it was at that point I decided that a foot pedal would be great versus the thumb throttle. (I'm taking yall's advice on that one).

The spring tension made me unable to open the throttle all the way with my hand (Yeah it's a little stiff, but it'll be good like that. The throttle will definitely return to idle position when we let off the gas.). Patrick was tailing me in his car, and he clocked my fastest speed during the drive at 40 MPH. (This was with the spring loaded throttle, couldn't open it up all the way by hand in driving position).


I'm inside warming up now! Even with a face shroud, helmet, goggles, gloves, a hoodie and 2 t-shirts, my hands and feet still got pretty cold. But I'm okay!


Overall, the go kart performed way beyond expectation. I can't wait to get the pedal installed and what not so I can see how fast I CAN go.

Clutch is still in A-OK condition. So far the kart's been driven a little over 11 miles, and everything works just as well as it did during the 1st drive.

 

[Bluethunder3320]

great. video!

 

[bighead]

Could you add a bar or bars going from your motor mount/plate to the bar under your seat? You have lots of stress and 2 breaking points on the angled bars going to the motor mount area. I would add two cross bars going from the motor plate corners to the crossbar under your seat.

Not trying to knock you at all. But I can see the stress from the motor flex. And the stress from off road riding breaking the weld at the motor plate corners.

Also keep an eye on the welds of your exhuast flange and pipe. With a pipe tip like that it can viberate pretty bad and crack the welds.

Looks good friend. I enjoyed the thread so far.

 

[Garified]

Could you add a bar or bars going from your motor mount/plate to the bar under your seat? You have lots of stress and 2 breaking points on the angled bars going to the motor mount area. I would add two cross bars going from the motor plate corners to the crossbar under your seat.

Not trying to knock you at all. But I can see the stress from the motor flex. And the stress from off road riding breaking the weld at the motor plate corners.

Also keep an eye on the welds of your exhuast flange and pipe. With a pipe tip like that it can viberate pretty bad and crack the welds.

Looks good friend. I enjoyed the thread so far.

I probably will end up doing some kind of reinforcing to the frame. As for the engine mount plate, it's welded at all 4 corners, as well as being welded completely on the back side (Except a little spot so you can get to the oil drain plug, which I'll be cutting a small slot there so the oil can drain right out). The welds are extremely solid. If they do break, I can just re-weld them and re-enforce them. Heck I might just go ahead and do the re-enforcements next time we bring it back to the school.


I was kinda worried about the exhaust breaking right at the muffler, but it seems to be holding up alright. A couple weeks ago some kids flipped the motor over by accident and broke the pipe where it goes into the muffler, and I had to braze weld it back.

@Bluethunder - We're going to try to get a fly-by video when the weather gets a bit warmer outside. It says the high today is going to be 55 degrees, so I might try to do it today. Patrick also said he wants to do a first person view video.

EDIT: And to solve any potential clutch issue, when we get the money, we're getting a torque converter for it. I know there's going to be problems when we get the roll bar and engine guard because of the weight, so yeah.

We did manage to get another engine just like ours (Except it isn't electric start) that we're going to use for parts. Say if the exhaust breaks, we have parts to replace it with.

I'm also shocked about how well we were able to restore the chain... When we took it off the donated ATV, it was completely covered in rust and we were sure we would have to get a new chain. Well... Needless to say, it's amazing what a 1 week bath in WD-40 and Engine Degreaser can do. lol

 

[Garified]

Here's a video of us road-testing.


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

Fly By:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTRfHZpOpAc

43 MPH, with the governor. I might attach a cable to the actual governor lever to make it go faster.

 

[Doc Sprocket]

Right on! A POV would be cool, but how about a walk-around? Maybe after paint?

 

[Garified]

Picture of our throttle assembly:

-

I'll have a video up of how the throttle is setup when I get home, because I have to convert the videos before I can upload them.

 

[Garified]

Right on! A POV would be cool, but how about a walk-around? Maybe after paint?

I have the POV/walk around videos on my camera, which I don't have the USB for and this computer doesn't have an SD card reader, so I have to wait until I get home to upload those. They're coming though!