Greetings from Central California

[macnmod]

Hello all, I'm a newb to this forum and the kart realm entirely. I would hardly consider myself to be a mechanic, however am pretty capable at understanding how things work.

I was recently given a Yerf Dog 3203 w/ a 6.5hp Tecsumseh that appears to be bone stock. They simply said "It doesn't run anymore". Pretty vague to say the least, so I questioned why. They said that it was very hard to steer and the pull string broke. My first inspection of the kart shows that the front, drivers side shock absorber is broken near the pre-load mechanism. The long tie rod is also bent pretty badly. This should explain the difficult turning. I asked them how long they've had it, they said between 5-8 years. I then asked when the last time they changed the oil. They looked very puzzled and replied "I'm not sure". Needless to say, this worried me. I think that I should consider the motor shot considering the manual says oil change every 25 hours. I've read a lot about folks dropping a HF Predator 6.5 hp 212cc engine in with little modification.

Sorry for the long intro, I'm sure I'll be here if I find myself 'stuck' with this project. I'll try my best to search around before asking Q's though.

Bye for now,

mike

 

[souperman000]

Sounds like you have agood plan of action for your project. I look forward to seeing it.

 

[OzFab]

Believe me, that's not a long intro & there's no problem at all with that; long posts usually mean more info/detail which is always a good thing

Now, before you go changing engines (possibly needlessly), why not spend a little time & just a few dollars examining the existing engine: Change the oil, fix the starter rope & see what happens.

Get yourself a can of carb cleaner too, just to be sure; if it's been sitting for a while, it will have collected dust. Remove the air filter assembly & give the whole carb (inside & out) a generous spray. Also, empty the fuel tank & carb bowl & refill with fresh fuel.

Doing this will only cost you a few dollars & maybe an hour or two of your time & may turn out to be fruitless but, the experience you gain will be priceless

 

[Doc Sprocket]

Welcome to the forum. Don't write that engine off just yet. You'd be amazed how incredibly durable they can be. Yes, it is good practise to change the oil regularly (interval depends on conditions), but I swear these engines are built with idiots in mind, knowing full well that the oil's never gonna be changed. Kinda makes my head hurt...

At any rate have an honest go at repairing the engine first.

 

[macnmod]

Hey guys, sorry for the lag in reply. Hard finding time sometimes.... It's been a week or two since I spent some time on the rig and I wanted to update ya's. I did just as you guys had suggested and viola! Drilled the rivets that held the housing. I had to to really fidget with the recoil a bit to make it actually 'catch', strung it up and re-riveted it into place. Replaced the front shocks with some eBay hydraulic absorbers. Took the air box apart sprayed the snot out of it w/ carb cleaner. After about 5-7 pumps with the primer it started strong on the 5-7th pull! I drove a few laps around the old horse track. Man it sure was a blast! Now for the next.. I want to go faster.

Besides changing the oil. The torque converter looks like its got some crud on it wonder if cleaning it would help it grip better? I've got some new rear shocks on order from a raptor 600 (I believe). I think they'll smooth out the ride a bit. They're about 2.5" longer than stock, but that should even out the fact that I'm 6' 215lb with some more travel. I was wondering what I could do to the carburetor?

 

[landuse]

I am glad you got it sorted out. For your TC, there is a cleaning and maintenance theread here. Give it a good clean and it should perform better

As for your carb, there is not too much you can do to that to give you more power