bajagokart
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calgary alberta canada
more albertans whooo hooo!!!!!
Arachnid Build in NOLA
- Thread starter Austin_40
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more albertans whooo hooo!!!!!
Austin_40
New member
road_thing
New member
Have you figured out your motor yet?
dad
dad
Austin_40
New member
Still undecided on the motor. If I go for a dirt bike motor, I know how to make the shift linkage work, and I think I have enough room at the front end to run a foot clutch. I still would need to figure out some sort of starter. I haven't had any luck with that so far, although I have to believe it can be done.
The industrial motor / torque converter looks like a simpler option, but I know I'd like the power of a dirt bike motor, plus I would like to have the gearbox. We'll see. I'm still on the fence.
The industrial motor / torque converter looks like a simpler option, but I know I'd like the power of a dirt bike motor, plus I would like to have the gearbox. We'll see. I'm still on the fence.
HellSpawn
New member
For a kick start setup, you could always fab a shaft with female splines on one end and male splines on the other.
Run this shaft from the kick start shaft on the engine, to the outside of the kart, add some bearings for support near the end and toss the kick lever on the male end of the shaft.
Austin_40
New member
That's an excellent idea. Does anyone make splined shafts like that? I know shafts are sized by diameter and number of splines. Are they manufacturer specific, or is there a standard? In other words, if I had a Honda engine, would I have to go to Honda for a shaft to fit the kick start shaft, or could I source it elsewhere?
Austin_40
New member
Progress!
A-Arms built today. Building the jig was more time consuming than actually tacking the parts together, but I think it was worth it. They came out pretty uniform.
A-Arms built today. Building the jig was more time consuming than actually tacking the parts together, but I think it was worth it. They came out pretty uniform.
bajagokart
New member
Got parts today. Waiting on bushings to come in for A-arms, and I'll start assembly on the front suspension, hopefully this weekend.
could you pm me with a list of where you got all these parts? looking at doing the same dual a-arm suspension setup and the same hydraulic brake
r97
Measure twice cut once
i can bet he got them all here,
www.bmikarts.com
www.bmikarts.com
Austin_40
New member
Yeah, all of those parts are from BMI Karts.
bajagokart
New member
could you pm a list of what you all needed? look at doing close to this same build
r97
Measure twice cut once
may i suggest getting parts from a scrap yad vs bmi. build is looking good, 
. those welds are making me wan't mig!(or at least a wire brush for the angle grinder to clean up my flux core welds.)
. those welds are making me wan't mig!(or at least a wire brush for the angle grinder to clean up my flux core welds.)HellSpawn
New member
I'm sure you could find some splined shaft stock and use a coupler of the same size to mate the shaft to the engine's splined shaft.
r97
Measure twice cut once
find out the size of the shaft and i'm sure we can locate one.
r97
Measure twice cut once
Austin_40
New member
Got the front suspension blocked tacked together today. Now it gets interesting
Austin_40
New member
A few issues that presented themselves today:
1. The suspension block itself appears to have twisted a little while tack welding. It's visually apparent, but when I took measurements with a digital micrometer, I'm finding outages in the .020 range, which I'm surprised I could actually see. I'm not too worried about it at the moment, but...
2. All assembled, the caster angle is obviously not consistent on both sides. The left side is visually steeper than the right. I think I can fix this by cutting one of the a-arms loose from it's bushings and re-welding it in the correct location. The question is though: what is the appropriate caster angle?
3. The nuts for the bolts fastening the upper a-arms to the block are going to foul the main frame. IIRC, this was discovered by SilverGrizz in his build. Should be easy enough to fix with shorter nuts.
4. Using the spindles from BMI, there is clearly no ackerman steering. I'm not sure if this is a big deal or not, just an observation.
5. I need to get cone washers/spacers for the spindles to make the spindle height match the spacing between the a-arm pivots at the suspension block. By my math, I need an additional 1/2" both above and below each spindle to make the geometry work.
On a positive note... I did increase the width of the suspension block to 6" as noted in BillCNC's build thread, and the steering rack I purchased from DesertKarts fits perfectly with the rod ends aligned between the a-arm pivots.
1. The suspension block itself appears to have twisted a little while tack welding. It's visually apparent, but when I took measurements with a digital micrometer, I'm finding outages in the .020 range, which I'm surprised I could actually see. I'm not too worried about it at the moment, but...
2. All assembled, the caster angle is obviously not consistent on both sides. The left side is visually steeper than the right. I think I can fix this by cutting one of the a-arms loose from it's bushings and re-welding it in the correct location. The question is though: what is the appropriate caster angle?
3. The nuts for the bolts fastening the upper a-arms to the block are going to foul the main frame. IIRC, this was discovered by SilverGrizz in his build. Should be easy enough to fix with shorter nuts.
4. Using the spindles from BMI, there is clearly no ackerman steering. I'm not sure if this is a big deal or not, just an observation.
5. I need to get cone washers/spacers for the spindles to make the spindle height match the spacing between the a-arm pivots at the suspension block. By my math, I need an additional 1/2" both above and below each spindle to make the geometry work.
On a positive note... I did increase the width of the suspension block to 6" as noted in BillCNC's build thread, and the steering rack I purchased from DesertKarts fits perfectly with the rod ends aligned between the a-arm pivots.
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