Another Carter Bros Go Kart Rebuild (Model 2506)

[Texan]

I enjoyed rebuilding my 1st ever go kart so much, I went out and brought another one last night. I guess like most of you guys on here, I got bite by the kart bug.

My 1st kart I just finished rebuilding is/was for my 9 year old daughter. She loves it as much as I do. It is kind of aggressive but she has gotten a hang of it and wants to ride it every day!

I have been searching CL for something on the cheap and found this one for $80. When I went to check it out, I knew from the cast aluminum hubs it was a Carter Brothers. Did some researching and it is a 2506 model.

So here is the good about it, frame is solid and no cracked welds and not bent. No RUST! The steering feels nice and smooth. Nice fat cushioned seat (apparently the PO dog used it as a bed). All hubs and bearings are good, it rolls smooth. All four tires are good, and they are Carlisle 15x6x6 Turf Savers(really the reason I thought is was worth the $80).

The bad, has a half taken apart 212 Predator, no clutch, no chain and missing jackshaft. And the engine was moved to drive the sprocket directly, in doing so, they cut off the rear bumper for the engine to fit. Also not a live axle.

Overall, not too bad. I think I will make my 1st Carter mine and fix this one up for my daughter, since it is not as heavy duty.

So here we go again.

 

[Texan]

Stripped it down last night after work. It came apart quick! Nothing was seized up. Now I need to figure out what to do about the missing bumper, and what to do about the engine position. If I put it back to the original location, I will need a whole new jackshaft setup. If I leave it where the PO rigged it up, I will need to clean up the 8 holes he drilled and make 4 of them slotted for adjustment and make an extended bumper.

 

[peejster]

Looking forward to seeing it progress. Thanks for taking the time to post.

 

[Hellion]

Good find. I like this one as much as you--it's a good looking kart with a nice design to it. I've never seen a go kart engine that was disassembled in situ. What the heck? A person is gonna take the side cover off and just leave it that way?

I wonder what was wrong with the engine? It still has some parts or scrap value, might even be rebuild-able. Let us know what you find out...maybe they disconnected the governor but left it inside the block (KA-BOOM!)?

Is that metallic blue paint on it? (questions, questions, questions)

Show us those distinctive aluminum hubbed wheels again.

Those particular turf saver tires with the chevron design are one of the best all-around tires for pavement and off-road.

Again, nice find. All you guys finding the decent karts for well under a Benjamin have my envy.

 

[Texan]

Hellion, I'm not sure what was wrong with the engine, but there are still good parts on it and I will definitely keep it for spares. I've never been inside one so it will be good to tinker with and learn some things when y'all guys on here are talking about engine mods.

Here is a pic of the aluminum cast hubs. They have a 3-1/8" bolt pattern.

And I know you said you like Rustoleum spray paint, so do I. Here is the color scheme Me and my daughter picked out and the inspiration behind it.

 

[Texan]

Finally had some good weather here to do some work on the kart. Here are some before photos of some of the parts. Got the frame all cleaned up too, the blue metallic color was not original, under it was a darker blue color.

 

[Texan]

Some more pics of work the work in progress. Used the playing card tip somebody put on here recently to paint the rims, it works really good. Got the first coat on the frame. More sunshine today, so I should get painting done this afternoon.

 

[Texan]

I have never done any mods to a Predator 212, so I was curious to what was inside this half taken apart engine that came with this kart. Eventually I would like to start doing some of the mods some of you guy on here do, so I thought I might as well take apart what was left of this engine to get familiar with it. Here are some pics of what I found.

And like they say "Curiosity killed the cat", well curiosity almost got me in a bad situation. See the last pic of what was alive and living underneath the flywheel. I only found it once I was already half way thru disassembling and had been handling it bare handed. Be careful everybody who come across Craigslist finds that have been sitting for awhile.

 

[Flyinhillbilly]

Man, that thing was FULL of water at some point.

 

[chancer]

Meh, Just a little black widow spider, It can only kill you once!

 

[Flyinhillbilly]

The black widow is rarely fatal to humans. Snakes will straight cause me to have a runaway, but I ain't scared of spiders.

 

[Hellion]

Ah yes. Let this be a lesson to us all. Black Widows love dark places so, no surprise she was found in there really.

Yeah, the nimrod PO (Previous Owner) left a decent engine block to rot and it was indeed full of water--you can see the rings left in the bore and on the piston by the different levels of water. Almost like a rain gauge.

The bright orange rust is new rust, newly formed, and not the darker more scaly variety of advanced rust (pitting). It is not inconceivable to have the bore cleaned out or honed and have this engine (what's left of it) running again.

Looks like it's a Hemi too.

 

[chancer]

From what I have heard the Treatment is:
Your in the hospital and it is just miserable...
There is an antidote
But you can only get it once in your life time.
So they ask you to try to tolerate the first case,
in case the second time you are bitten it is more severe!

Now a "Brown recluse" will mess you up! It kills pounds of Flesh FAST!

 

[Whitetrashrocker]

That valve look wretched.

 

[Hellion]

That valve look wretched.

It sure does. Luckily both valves were closed as the engine stopped on the compression or power stroke. All you need is decent valve faces and seats. Would be neat to see if any of it is indeed worth refurbishing.

 

[Texan]

Did some work over the holiday break. Cleaned and painted the tie rods and front spindles. I had most of the new hardware on hand, only had to buy the two kingpins and a few washers and two locknuts, only cost like $4 at Tractor Supply.
The PO had painted the tie rods and spindles black, but the paint was flaking off. I sprayed them really good with Brake Cleaner to remove all the grease and grit. Then wire brushed them, then hand sanded them so the new paint could "stick".

 

[Texan]

Since I plan on putting in a Predator 212 on this cart, I figured I would use some the parts from the half taken apart engine that came with the kart. The Recoil Starter was still in working condition, so I started with that. I took it completely apart, gave a good cleaning and light sanding, 2 coats of paint, re-lubed and reassembled.

 

[ezcome-ezgo]

Nice. Please tell us you will have some kind of tribute to the spider somewhere in the paint job.

 

[Texan]

Been working on the seat. The seat slider is messed up, thought I could repair it, but a piece of bent up metal part was jammed up in there and it looks like some of the ball bearings have gone missing. I might buy a new set, saw some on ebay with the same mounting BHC for $25 bucks. I recently saw on here that these seat sliders are cheaply made and eventually seize up or rust out. I might just mount it directly to the frame, I'll need some spacers to clear the throttle and brake rods though.

The PO cut off one the seat side rails, not sure why, maybe it was a tight squeeze for him. He also made the cushions. I told my daughter we can just clean off these off and reuse them. She wasn't having it, as they were covered in dog hair.

The seat wasn't in too bad of shape. I wire wheeled the entire thing and ground off the nubs that were left from the cut off side rail. Then a few coats of paint.

The PO used small pillows for the seat cushions. I've been accused of being a tight wad, but I like to call it economical. I decided to reuse the plywood and two of the small pillows. I gave the plywood a quick paint job just give it a little moisture protection. So all I needed was some material to recover them. I went to Jo-Ann's Fabric store (first time ever there) and picked up some black vinyl. I got 2 yards for $4.50 a yard, pretty good deal!!

I basically followed the PO way of recovering the cushions. Except, I used a old foam floor pad (kind used under weight sets) to put over the bottom pillows to make it nice and flat, and instead of pillows on the top cushion, I just put a piece of the foam floor pad. I think they came out ok, being my first time doing upholstery and for less than $10.

 

[Texan]