Boy Scout kart build - dubbed "The Hot Rod"

[Bugzuki]

So we started working a couple months ago, but are making slow progress. We started by taking apart an 89 Yamaha Warrior 350 to use as a donor. The plan was to use the front suspension motor and brakes.

After thinking the engine would not be big enough those plans are changing.

Lets get started with some pictures.

Here is the gutted Quad:

The originally planned engine:

Starting the frame layout on a 4' x 8' talble:

Doing some notching on the Rear Roll Hoop:

Lots of grinding to be done:

RRH and some more grinding:

Pretty exciting progress for a couple weeks worth of work, one nice a week. Got the rear hoop up and partially straight:

My computer is acting up so that is all for tonight. Gotta keep you in suspense.

 

[Gillgamesh64]

Nice work! I see a set of plans there, just wondering what type of kart is it!

 

[Bugzuki]

I am designing the kart myself. So, I printed the plans from Pro/Engineer. I did by a set of plans from UbuilditPlans for the SII kart, but did not like the design, so I started from scratch.

Here is a picture of the Pro/E frame design. I make changes to the design as I find things that work better. Once I finish this kart and get some testing on it, I will probably start revising the design and design a front suspension.

Here is some more of the progress. Test fitting the front roll bars:

First test drive:

Heres me getting things held in place for welding:

Got to the nose cone, for some reason the pictures always make the nose look bigger than it is:

Seat fit check - I have a friend that might give me some plastic buggy seats, so that will save a lot of weight over the Miata seats:

In this picture you can see some of the measuring bobos and not paying attention to the directions mishaps:

But, it is good enough for a first run prototype made for dirt, mud and hopefully sand.

More to come later, got to go to work.

 

[theo]

Looks good, did you design your front end around a rack and pinion width? If you do it will save you a lot of time and problems.

 

[Bugzuki]

I did design it to make the lower control arm pivots the same distance appart as the inner ball joints on the rack.

But, the other day I realized that the rack I got went forward of the axles and the front knuckles are for the rack to be behind the axle. So the rack works backwards from what I need. So, I have to go find a different rack. The Ford Feista rack is looking promising.

 

[Bugzuki]

More pictures from previous work

Here is a mockup of the Yamaha 350cc motor and axle.

Here is what the seating might look like. These are hopefully just temporary seat as they are very heavy.

Here is the frame at this stage.

 

[Bugzuki]

Work done Yesterday

Here is what I got done Yesterday. The boys were all busy, but we needed to get things done to hopefully have the Hot Rod done by summer.

Here is the rear triangulation brace in place. It is nice that it ended up not crossing right through the center at the back, this will give me more engine/exhaust choices.

The front suspension tubes are in place. Turns out the rear support bar is a little low on the passenger side, so the bar is a little low. I probably should not point out all the mistakes and just let you think it is coming together perfect.

Side view: shows the center floor cross beam.

Straight on front shot.

Here is a shot to show the welding for all those that are wondering. I use a Miller Dynasty 200DX TIG welder. In this picture I welded the right side with my right hand and the left side with my left hand.

Of course not all the welds look like that but I am not going to show the bad ones on purpose.

Some front suspension pictures coming.

 

[Bluethunder3320]

wow! awesome thread! great work!

 

[Gillgamesh64]

My eye's are starting to hurt trying to find that low bar your talking about! It looks excellent, at this rate you will be driving the thing soon!!

 

[Bugzuki]

Front Suspension

Here is the front tacked together:

I still have to add some to stiffen the bracketry.
Closeup of Driverside

Passengerside closeup

Here is a mockup with the rear wheels and seats

One more shot for good measure.

The front seems to be able to hold 2 kids in the seats and me bouncing on the front ok. If the wheels do drop all the way the front tires hit the upper side bar when turned. I will have to figure out if that will be a problem.

 

[Gillgamesh64]

That looks awesome! Pitty about the tyr rub thing, But on the other hand I am sure it will not take that much to cut a small section out and bend a new section or move the bars at the front up a bit? But anyway looks like a little dune buggy im sure it will go anywhere

 

[Risen]

Nice build looks to be coming along good. I do like your motor choice I have a 2-3 seat frame that I am designing in CAD right now And I was specing it out to use the warrior motor because they are a good trail motor and also they have reverse built in.
That is to bad on the front tires. What is your wheelbase right now? From what I can see what you have in the pics. is instead of chopping up your frame for clearance you might be able to just move your whole front suspension section forward enough to clear which adding to your overall wheelbase will make it handle the rough stuff better. but that is just my 2 cents.
What axle components are you thinking about using to build your rear axle?
Again nice build.

 

[gokart14]

with the suspension pivot points what do you have in there for bushings???
right now on my kart i just have a bolt running through some circle tubing with grease in there... so i was wondering what you used???

but REALLY NICE BUILD

 

[bighead]

I also think the buggy seats will be much better. Lighter and smaller letting more air over your engine head for cooling.

 

[T-man]

WHAT THE ?!? you are so lucky ... you got a whole crew of people helping you.

 

[Bugzuki]

That looks awesome! Pitty about the tyr rub thing, But on the other hand I am sure it will not take that much to cut a small section out and bend a new section or move the bars at the front up a bit? But anyway looks like a little dune buggy im sure it will go anywhere

Thanks, I am hoping I can modify the upper bars to get more clearance. Eventhough I can't get it to rub now, I am sure it would the first time out for a drive. I am hoping it will go anywhere.

Nice build looks to be coming along good. I do like your motor choice I have a 2-3 seat frame that I am designing in CAD right now And I was specing it out to use the warrior motor because they are a good trail motor and also they have reverse built in.
That is to bad on the front tires. What is your wheelbase right now? From what I can see what you have in the pics. is instead of chopping up your frame for clearance you might be able to just move your whole front suspension section forward enough to clear which adding to your overall wheelbase will make it handle the rough stuff better. but that is just my 2 cents.
What axle components are you thinking about using to build your rear axle?
Again nice build.

Thanks. The Warrior was pretty fun, but I got a cheap snowmobile with a larger engine. I will be using that instead. It will be harder to arange all the pieces, but I think it will be faster in the end. And I want me kids to have fun with this, where they didn't have much fun with the manual tranny.

Let me know if you need a 350cc engine.

with the suspension pivot points what do you have in there for bushings???
right now on my kart i just have a bolt running through some circle tubing with grease in there... so i was wondering what you used???

but REALLY NICE BUILD

The front control arms are from the quad. I did not really look at them closely yet. I was planning on cleaning them up and relubing them. Just have not gotten there yet. The seem to be pretty simple, maybe one tube inside another. The inner a little longer so end caps tighten against it. Then the bolt goes through the end caps. Then, greased up.

I also think the buggy seats will be much better. Lighter and smaller letting more air over your engine head for cooling.

With the snowmobile engine there is a fan for the air cooling, but the more I think about it and move the miata seats around the buggy seats are looking better.

WHAT THE ?!? you are so lucky ... you got a whole crew of people helping you.

I don't want to complain about having help, but I can only seem to get them to come over on Tuesdays for about an hour of work time, 3 weeks a month. But help is help. If they want to use it they better help. Things seem to get done quicker with more people working - even if it is only for an hour, strang how that works.

 

[B man]

i need one.(350cc)

 

[Risen]

What condition is the 350 motor in? How much are you asking for it?

The snowmobile motors are a good choice. Are you going to be adding a gear box to your finale drive system now?

 

[Bugzuki]

The warrior ran when we disassembled it. It had some carb issues but the engine seemed strong. I was able to get it up to full speed on the sand dunes last summer, as long as I did not hold it full throttle since it would sputter.

I don't know how much I am asking for it. I hadn't really thought about a price yet. If someone were to buy it what would they need with it?

The snowmobile came with reverse so it has the reverse gearbox. I have not figured out what I am going to do with the rear suspension now. Looks like I need to put the engine at the back and run the CVT forward, but that makes getting power to the wheels with arms difficult. That brings me to dual chain drives to the wheels from a shaft behind the seats.

I should look around for pics of what others did to get ideas.

 

[Bugzuki]

Just found this link for notching in the Karasaki 500cc thread: http://metalgeek.com/static/cope.pcgi

That should come in handy since my notcher doesn't due not 90 degree cuts very well.