The half moon key is called a woodruff key and idk much about how electrical karts are built but I've worked on industrial electric ac/dc motors for 17 years now and that key is just fine. And the above post was spot on. Except I would personally not use a pm (perm magnet) motor. There is to much vibration and movement on a kart. The mags could easily bust and your motor would be locked up and turn into a boat anchor. Def use golf kart and fork truck parts. I've built two gas karts now and working on my first two seater after thatim gonna build a massive electric kart that my company is gonna pay for lol. Maybe it's because I'm in the bussniess but I'm hitting up the fork truck company's I rebuild their motors for to get my controlls I would advise everyone who reads this to get online find your local fork truck service company's and call them up and ask them about getting control parts and pedals and whatever u might need they have these parts just laying around as I do the dc motors yes they mightn't used but as long as they tell u they r E OK then it's a now brainer. These parts aren't cheap online u just need to get creative and figure out who to call. Fork truck repair centers, golf coarse maintanence shops( normally located at the coarse) places like my shop which is an electric motor repair shop. They sometimes like myself have used or rebuilt dc motors and contacters. I'm just trying to help. Soundalike I'm just rambling now lol good luck guys. Any ?'s about dc motors u have don't hesitate to ask theirs not one I haven't seen lol.
Electric motors in karts: a simple guide
- Thread starter nedfunnell
- Start date
jman231994
New member
I'm thinking the sticky might need some modifying, no offence to the OP, its a good guide but it is certainly flawed and miss's some important considerations. Maybe we should just change it to reflect the nature of electric power more correctly. I'll see what I can contribute next week after I get heaps of school stuff out of the way.
Maybe you can draft something that we can look at? I am all for updating sticky threads
jman231994
New member
Yep, If I remember I'll make something next week using the current sticky but expanding on it and changing some things around. It would be good to include basic formulas as well so beginners can maybe understand what were going on about hahaha
smack911
New member
controllers are the key.
Have you ever watched "White Zombie" a little Datsun on you tube vids kicking but in high 9. second 1/4 mile runs.... great little car gives specs motors etc... high hp motors and TQ comes from Electric fork lifts. Starter motors make great motors for DC, as does golf cart/ etc. good batteries and fast charging caps are the weakness now but getting better Brushless motors in these RC toys are the bomb especially their Nipo and liPo,batterys.. I guess what i'm saying its all getting better every year....
Have you ever watched "White Zombie" a little Datsun on you tube vids kicking but in high 9. second 1/4 mile runs.... great little car gives specs motors etc... high hp motors and TQ comes from Electric fork lifts. Starter motors make great motors for DC, as does golf cart/ etc. good batteries and fast charging caps are the weakness now but getting better Brushless motors in these RC toys are the bomb especially their Nipo and liPo,batterys.. I guess what i'm saying its all getting better every year....
New member here, just joined 5 min ago so I could thank first poster for excellent write-up. Wished I'd read it before I started putzing around 5 years ago.
I've been experimenting with 1-2 hp DC motors to "convert" misc vehicles to cordless power, eg, bicycles, lawn tractors, etc. As I'm 70+ years old, my doctors would probably not recommend my building/driving an electric go-kart, so I'm looking around for some other applications for a bunch of DC motors I still have lying around. Any ideas?
Also, for those of you looking for a DC motor, one good source that I've been exploiting in my local area is 24vdc motors that are commonly found in used B&D cordless lawnmowers. I've had an ad running in my local Craigslist for a couple of months now ("Non-working cordless lawnmowers wanted") and I've been successful in obtaining 8 of them so far, at prices ranging from $0 to $20. The secret that no one seems to know or want to admit is that there are only three things that can go bad with a cordless mower:
(1) the electronic circuit board (75% of the time),
(2) the batteries (24.9% of the time), and
(3) the motor (0.1% of the time).
I've never figured out why B&D felt they needed an electronic circuit board (except to jack up the price and insure some repair business), so I always throw it away - thus, 75% of the time I get a perfectly good motor and two usable 17-22Ah AGM batteries for $20 or less. When the batteries are bad, it's usually because they haven't been charged or maintained properly, and I can usually rejuvenate them with my smart battery charger. And lastly, I've yet to buy a non-working cordless mower where the motor was bad - I'm batting 8 for 8 as far as good motors in non-working mowers.
PS: Homelite cordless mowers also have good motors but a bit smaller, around 1 HP.
I've been experimenting with 1-2 hp DC motors to "convert" misc vehicles to cordless power, eg, bicycles, lawn tractors, etc. As I'm 70+ years old, my doctors would probably not recommend my building/driving an electric go-kart, so I'm looking around for some other applications for a bunch of DC motors I still have lying around. Any ideas?
Also, for those of you looking for a DC motor, one good source that I've been exploiting in my local area is 24vdc motors that are commonly found in used B&D cordless lawnmowers. I've had an ad running in my local Craigslist for a couple of months now ("Non-working cordless lawnmowers wanted") and I've been successful in obtaining 8 of them so far, at prices ranging from $0 to $20. The secret that no one seems to know or want to admit is that there are only three things that can go bad with a cordless mower:
(1) the electronic circuit board (75% of the time),
(2) the batteries (24.9% of the time), and
(3) the motor (0.1% of the time).
I've never figured out why B&D felt they needed an electronic circuit board (except to jack up the price and insure some repair business), so I always throw it away - thus, 75% of the time I get a perfectly good motor and two usable 17-22Ah AGM batteries for $20 or less. When the batteries are bad, it's usually because they haven't been charged or maintained properly, and I can usually rejuvenate them with my smart battery charger. And lastly, I've yet to buy a non-working cordless mower where the motor was bad - I'm batting 8 for 8 as far as good motors in non-working mowers.
PS: Homelite cordless mowers also have good motors but a bit smaller, around 1 HP.
kieranruffell
New member
Wow this is Great!!!!!!!
builder bob
New member
I don't know if anybody already posted this but you can easily control a brushless r/c motor without a remote by attaching the speed controller to a servo tester and then hooking a foot pedal on a spring to the nob on the servo tester.
rocketkart
Active member
Wow.... this thead is old. 
Jim-L-L
New member
Yes this works, It was done by some people at my work, I supplied the 150 brushless ESc and the little plastic Toddler electric quad bike, some one else supplied the 4068 big brushless motor and and some Nimh Batteries . The esc had trouble remembering the zero point of the servo tester, but it did work ok, later the plastic gears were all totally stripped when hooked up to 4s Lipo
builder bob
New member
Changing the programming of the ESC or switching the servo tester out for a higher quality one most likely will fix it.
redneck engineer
New member
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motor selection
Would a trolling motor and foot control work as an throttle for a small kart?
Would a trolling motor and foot control work as an throttle for a small kart?
Krash
New member
Its 2014 now and things have changed in the battery world. There is a much smaller price difference now between lithium and lead. When you consider cost per charge, lithium is actually cheaper now as it does a lot more charge cycles. Other benefits are much lighter weight so makes a big difference in kart handling and assists range and lithium batteries deliver nearly full current until they are discharged compared to lead batteries which slowly reduce in voltage (hence motor speed reduces) as they discharge.
In terms of motors, there are now heaps of cheap brushless DC motors built for bike kits out there. Most of them are under 500w and are too small for a serious kart (ok for kiddy karts) but a few suppliers such as cyclone motor (taiwan) do kits up to 5kW. I recently bought a 2kW motor from cyclone for $159USD excluding postage and controller. They are much lighter than forklift motors and the price is affordable. Other bike kit suppliers with higher power motors are golden motor (china) and Kelly Controls.
If you are after serious gokart power, try a motenery in the 8kw to 20kW range. There is a motenergy motor available from empower in Australia for about $600, but note that this doesn't include the controller.
In terms of motors, there are now heaps of cheap brushless DC motors built for bike kits out there. Most of them are under 500w and are too small for a serious kart (ok for kiddy karts) but a few suppliers such as cyclone motor (taiwan) do kits up to 5kW. I recently bought a 2kW motor from cyclone for $159USD excluding postage and controller. They are much lighter than forklift motors and the price is affordable. Other bike kit suppliers with higher power motors are golden motor (china) and Kelly Controls.
If you are after serious gokart power, try a motenery in the 8kw to 20kW range. There is a motenergy motor available from empower in Australia for about $600, but note that this doesn't include the controller.
Good lord..
yes lithium cells are great....
and compared to lead acid utterly expensive still!
seven to nine times as expensive for the same voltage and capacity as a lead acid car battery.
that's not really an option for most of us!
can be recharged more often... I'm not too sure about that;
lithium batteries do not like to be "uncharged" at all
and reviving them is difficult, expensive or if done at home extremely dangerous.
put your batpack in the shed the next winter and check back in spring...
it'll be most likely dead.
And in case of a failure (shortage or simple overheat...)
...
I'll let Jim explain what a lithium fire means for you,
or what happens when you try to pour water or sand on it
'sid
yes lithium cells are great....
and compared to lead acid utterly expensive still!
seven to nine times as expensive for the same voltage and capacity as a lead acid car battery.
that's not really an option for most of us!
can be recharged more often... I'm not too sure about that;
lithium batteries do not like to be "uncharged" at all
and reviving them is difficult, expensive or if done at home extremely dangerous.
put your batpack in the shed the next winter and check back in spring...
it'll be most likely dead.
And in case of a failure (shortage or simple overheat...)
...
I'll let Jim explain what a lithium fire means for you,
or what happens when you try to pour water or sand on it
'sid
Circuitman240
New member
I found this post in perfect timing. I'm planning on doing a bike to trike conversion using a starter motor. The trike will have a small cargo bin, and be used to move about in a large steel fabrication plant. I walk miles throughout the course of the day.any help would be great! Regards!
Simple Question
Hi there,
I am a beginner in this kind of thing, so this might be a really simple question.
Does the voltage of the batteries need to match the voltage of the motor?
For example, could I use 2 12 volt batteries connected in series with a 36 volt 750 watt motor?
Thanks
Hi there,
I am a beginner in this kind of thing, so this might be a really simple question.
Does the voltage of the batteries need to match the voltage of the motor?
For example, could I use 2 12 volt batteries connected in series with a 36 volt 750 watt motor?
Thanks
BirdFanatic
New member
i have a 1 hp lawn mower electric start dc motor 12 v tecumseh if anyone wants it
This is more suited for the "For sale" section