Cincinnati - Dayton Could Use Some Help

[PLance1]

I'm new here. I had a go cart when I was a kid. I bought this thing for $200 bucks last night but I don't know much about it and neither did the guy from whom I bought it. I haven't ridden it. I can't even tell what kind of engine it is or what size. I don't know anything about the brand either, Go Pro stickers are posted on the engine and frame, but those are stickers for the Gopro camera that the Previous Owner must have liked enough to want to put the stickers on his go cart lol. Ignore the car seat that was just placed on it. Frankly, this thing needs a lot of work, it needs new everything. For example it has disk brakes but its missing a caliper. The axle looks bent to me. I've been watching a lot of cool youtube videos and if I could I'd like to find someone interested in helping me. I'd like to do a few things to this such as cut the frame to allow the rear to pivot so I can put a suspension on it. I'd like to explore the possibility of putting a motorcycle engine on it, or something with a lot of power that would be interesting, even if it needed to have a shifter. Thanks.

 

[itsid]

Tough.. reminds me of a ken bar (S465)..
but that'd have a high front bumper.. so
maybe cut off, not the model I had in mind, or no Ken-Bar at all
[BigWes has what I had in mind]
http://www.diygokarts.com/vb/showthread.php?t=41279
see the bumper?
maybe your's was cut off by PO? since the rest seems to match pretty well.

Engine appears to be some 6.5hp 200cc OHV bred..
Hard to tell by just looking at the shroud..
maybe chinese maybe Kohler, Subaru or even Briggs...

with better pics we can provide a better guess..
in case it's shot.. a 212 predator makes for a cheap and easy to find replacement if you have a Harbor freight near you.

high power engine?
FOR SURE NOT!
ask BigWes how stable that thing is in corners, and if he'd say you should try at 50mph


cutting and homebrewing a rear suspension?
Not if you do not know what you are doing.
you can easily make a swingarm mount that looks like it's working,
but will make for a bumpy and unsafe ride.

IMHO if you want rear or full suspension,
buy a kart that had such from the factory.

BTW those rear tyres are so called "low pressure" tyres, for good reason,
they work best if not fully inflated, they not only cushion the ride considerably,
they also compensate for some sideways momentum in corners

certainly not wing some lousy backend just for the sake of suspension and then install some overpowered engine, that will get you in a hospital (or worse) in very short order.

'sid

 

[PLance1]

Thanks. yes I can see that there were some front end tubes but they were cut off. I didn't understand exactly the rest of your post. No, I don't know what I'm doing, which is why I would not attempt creating a suspension without help which is what I stated in my original post. I see pull start engines as high as 16 and 18 hp which seem interesting.

 

[KartFab]

I probably have the same one

 

[Hellion]

I probably have the same one

What model is that? Are the decals intact?

Ken-Bar made some of the best but least documented go karts.

 

[KartFab]

What model is that? Are the decals intact?

Ken-Bar made some of the best but least documented go karts.