2016 - Junk build the hard way

[pRoFiT]

Off topic:
Well Saturday sucked. Had the whole day free to work on the kart. Wake up and my dog is favoring his ear. Try to see what is wrong and he wont let me look inside. so off to the vet. He had fox tail in his ear all the way to the drum. $200! 170 for all the crap, 25 to remove fox tail... and that was with $44 off of basic visit! That would have been good axle and wheel money . Mostly my wifes dog so she paid half

Go Kart build:
So Sunday night i had time again to work on kart.

Finished the other two side pieces of chair cushions and brackets.

Found a good use for HF wheel bearings! poboy might like this to add to his 101 uses of hf wheels.

I used 1.5" square stock and HF bearings with some barstock, from the motorcycle front end i found, to create a steering column. It came out okay i guess. should work great for the 90 degrees of rotation it is going to go through on a normal basis. should be less then the rated 5mph speed on the bearings.

Seat is not attached only sitting there for reference. still need to figure out sliding mech for chair? of maybe several mounting locations for different size people.

I always seem to take pictures at night. Using LED flashlight to help lighten it up.

Oh yah the steering wheel. I added tubing to the center to add support. The metal i had was kind of flimsy there. Now its supper solid! It is also just hanging there right now. no bracket made for mounting it yet.

 

[chancer]

I like your thinking on the steering wheel Bearings. Many karts are just "steel on steel" I hate that.
Even if the HF bearings fail, they can be replaced with better ones!

---------- Post added at 06:13 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:11 PM ----------

Here is another use for bearings. Good bearings though.
I know you already made yours but, thought I would share, That is why I made this thread. lol
http://www.diygokarts.com/vb/showthread.php?t=28597

 

[pRoFiT]

@chancer, nice yah i wish i read more forum threads before i started building. maybe next spindles i will put bearings inside. Although springs and bearings...hmm.would need to think about that a little bit.

So its going to be a pain to pull out the HF bearings if things go wrong on the steering. since i welded everything in place. Was thinking i would make it so it could be removed but i was worried about having a threaded end that could come undone and loose steering!

That said, the steering is awesome sauce!!! i know i only need turn a little but this things is smooth and spins nicely.

I also felt i needed more support from the previous posted image. so i added another section near the steering wheel, with a bearing i pulled from the wheelchair. much nicer then hf bearings. and also added another square bar from the front all the way up to the steering wheel. should give more support and possibly a place to mount things like a drink holder Or at least the kill switch!

ill post pics tomorrow, or i guess later today Maybe a short video of it spinning

 

[pRoFiT]

A couple more images of updated steering column. And a quick video just showing the movement.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2JoDkHrP9G8

 

[chancer]

That is cool. That is how we learn. I was thinking of sharing that How To sooner but then I saw your Springs. The spring micro suspension is a cool trick of its own!
I had an idea of using Bronze bushings in the steering of my last build and then forgot! It is metal on metal and welded too.
On my current build I am also using bearings and lock collars and a bolt on system. we'll seei guess???

 

[pRoFiT]

Should have seen what i was going to do or attempt to do. I had a couple pipes laying around I think one was an old yellow thin metal broom handle. Dont think i could of welded on it it was so thin.

Then i looked over at the bearings from the hf wheels came out better than expected.

Is there a thread of do's and dont's for got kart building? like don't use hf wheels. Dont use hf wire. etc...

 

[chancer]

No Thread but there is an entire Forum

 

[pRoFiT]

@chancer, you no what i meant. like the top link has how to build basic go karts. But maybe if that had a section on common misconceptions of building go karts? Because if you read it now the HF tires are okay if you replace the bearings.

 

[Poboy kartman]

Ok...well it's all here....(you just have to know where to look.)

I have made a comment to the powers that be about the HF snafu....but so far...it remains.

Now...the header was a just an appitizer....check this out: scroll up to nearly the top....but where you see open folders and click right after the first one....where it says : diykogarts and clikck on diygokarts....and it will pull up the whole breakdown of the forum section. Click on FAQ and articles. Then click on 'Helpful links from the forum.'

If you have a question about almost ANYTHING gokart...you can find it there.

 

[pRoFiT]

Okay sealed bearings came in Friday! Time to attempt to make the HF wheels better. Or last an hour at least.

First remove old bearings. (use for steering instead )

Grind on the wheels as much as possible where you want to weld! this was a pain. Ended up using dremel (small rotary tool for those non us members) ( i guess dremel makes other tools as well...)

So for more strength and to keep the wheels from falling apart i reinforced the joints. Welding inside around the main post.

i noticed some wiggle after i welded. so i flipped over and welded on the other side as well. looks like they press fit them in? Also i wasn't sure about the assembly to the outer part of the wheel so i also welded a couple locations inside the wheel hub.

 

[pRoFiT]

Then i painted the wheels black to hide my bad welding

Okay so Warning! in order to get bearing on the inside i had to grind like heck!!!! on the inside to make them fit. Almost damaged my first bearing trying to pound it in. So with small rotary tool i ground down the inside until the bearing could be pushed in tightly.

Metal must of shrunk during the welding process

You can see before and after HF wheels

If they last more then an hour i may put all these images onto a new thread. "How to make HF wheels work!"

p.s. $1.87 a bearing. I got 8 for all 4 wheels. I can haz backups when the first two pop!

 

[Poboy kartman]

That should help...but I'm talking it to the next level....

 

[pRoFiT]

So i finished...well 99% completed the steering.

I broke down and purchased actual metal! I was going to build forge and melt my square tube done to flat metal!!! but i didn't.

Tried to go to valley iron, local metal supply, on Saturday but they closed at noon and i just missed them. So i ended up doing what i didn't want to do, go to home depot for metal.

But it wasn't really bad. picked up two threaded rods, bolts, and steel flat bar (~1"x1/8"x36") i think 1" wide? could be wrong. Was $9 talked the girl at register down to $5.95. Because I had seen threaded rod with ends for $6 and told her i was going to get that since it was cheaper. so she lowered the price? saved $3.

(funny side note: second time a thing like this happened to me this month. Was at Chipotle and they asked if i wanted to sign up for there card. i told them this was the second time i've been in 10 years and i don't think i will need a card. They gave me a free meal. was $15 ended up only $8. guess they want me to come back?)

Okay so build log: cut metal down and bent into u shapes (this is not easy with small HF vise) i know i've had that hf vise for years for small projects. Could use a big vise next! ill keep my eyes open for one.

Ended up banging the bar around a piece of square stock until it made a good u shape.

Welded bolt to inside and then welded up everything into place. im not 100% sure on my placement of the pitman arm to the steering rods?

maybe someone can suggest something better? Not sure if you can see in pictures. i made a small T at the end of the pitman arm and put holes on each side to connect steering rods. but maybe it should be exact center for each?

I can cut off and try again if it steers bad. maybe i keep for now unless someone has big concerns? Thanks in advance.

 

[pRoFiT]

That should help...but I'm talking it to the next level....

I really want to see what your plans are for your hf tires! We should make bet on who will wreck first.

 

[Poboy kartman]

I really want to see what your plans are for your hf tires! We should make bet on who will wreck first.

You don't want any part of that....you will lose for sure.

But....it might be interesting to have a HF tire build-off...with certain parameters involved...to see if someone could actually make them work!

 

[pRoFiT]

Okay slow week. Daughters truck (my old truck) is in shop and needs some money ripped from my hands! Selling some crap on ebay to pay for it. But while i wait for extra income i cant spend any money on the kart! Maybe for a couple weeks. Plus i will be in Austin Texas first week of august! Here i come 6th street!!


So what i did do this week is cut up the wheelchair i have and made spacers for the front go kart wheels.

Question to everyone: Fastening a wheel to the spindle with what?

when i made the spindles i picked up a 3/8" bolt and nut i also got a split washer so the nut wont back out. But when i use it the washer presses on the bearing, outside the center part and if i tighten hard it drags down the bearings spin.

So should i put spacer on outside as well at bearing inner diameter? and then tighten to that part?

so spindle bolt -> spacer -> wheel -> spacer -> split washer -> nut

Or should i use nylon nut so it doesn't back out, and loose the washer?

I saw some have crown nuts with cotter pins or hitch pin? I could drill hole in nut...

....any thoughts?


Also thinking maybe i should cut some spacers for the HF wheels between bearings to add some brace? (poboy don't steal my idea)

 

[Poboy kartman]

Okay slow week. Daughters truck (my old truck) is in shop and needs some money ripped from my hands! Selling some crap on ebay to pay for it. But while i wait for extra income i cant spend any money on the kart! Maybe for a couple weeks. Plus i will be in Austin Texas first week of august! Here i come 6th street!!


So what i did do this week is cut up the wheelchair i have and made spacers for the front go kart wheels.

Question to everyone: Fastening a wheel to the spindle with what?

when i made the spindles i picked up a 3/8" bolt and nut i also got a split washer so the nut wont back out. But when i use it the washer presses on the bearing, outside the center part and if i tighten hard it drags down the bearings spin.

So should i put spacer on outside as well at bearing inner diameter? and then tighten to that part?

so spindle bolt -> spacer -> wheel -> spacer -> split washer -> nut

Or should i use nylon nut so it doesn't back out, and loose the washer?

I saw some have crown nuts with cotter pins or hitch pin? I could drill hole in nut...

....any thoughts?


Also thinking maybe i should cut some spacers for the HF wheels between bearings to add some brace? (poboy don't steal my idea)

Don't worry....you wont believe or stand a chance of seeing whats coming....

 

[chancer]

Look at the thread I shared about spindle bearings, There is spacer between the bearings. I also do this on the wheels. You can tighten the nut and not stop the wheel from spinning.

also a cool idea is to just get the nut snug, then drill it and add cotter pins.

I also just use a nylock and the wheels stay on fine.
Enough force to squash a split lock washer is probably to much on the bearings

 

[pRoFiT]

Well poboy I'm in Texas next week. Coming by to spy on your progress. I'll just say I'm county official looking into your front yard clean up.

Yah maybe I'll use nylock. Great idea on drilling through the nut. May need to mark location first and take tire off since it would be in way

 

[chancer]

Great idea on drilling through the nut. May need to mark location first and take tire off since it would be in way

Yeah for me that was always the hard part. Getting the nut on just the right tightness after removing the wheel. lol Just gotta mark it carefully, Like everything measure twice cut once hope for the best.