just got my first kart!

[thechief86]

just WRECKED my first kart!

what's goin on fellas? i just got a kart for free that has lawnmower "turfsaver" tires on it, no fiberglass, no cage or anything. i do know it has the "raptor 3" briggs 5hp motor on it, and it still has the governor and whatnot on it.
i'm a grown man(24), and i weigh a little over 200 lbs, and the kart will do 25 with me on it, and then kinda sputters.
i just got a motor off ebay that was described as a 'rebuilt raptor 3 bearing engine, ported, polished, copper gaskets, bored .025 over, dyno cam and crank, governor removed' i'm just wondering if this bad boy will make my kart any faster, or if i'm pissing in the wind. i planned on using my same carb and gas tank for a while, because the new motor won't come with those. i planned on getting a new clutch from northern tool, and just rock and roll till i get hurt or tired of it, whichever comes first
tell me whatcha think! (be gentle please)

 

[1992suburban]

should go near 40 with a non governed engine..

welcome to the board

 

[jmadden91]

Nice mate, post some pics up. See how it goes with the new engine and if you think it still needs some balls, slap a bike engine on it

 

[thechief86]

as soon as i get some batteries for the camera, i'll slap up a pic or two!
is there anything i can do to the carb to make it better? or am i kinda stuck with that without spending much money? i got a chrome muffler for the new motor, but i doubt it will do much aside from looking cool. i've been driving it in this school parking lot down the street from me after hours, and it's a ton of fun! it kinda likes to slide if the lot is wet, but that's fun too! reminds me of my lawbreaker days when i had fast cars

 

[thechief86]

oh yeah, i also have a kawasaki kdx 220r that my friend blew the motor on. i can't afford to fix it, but i was thinking that those hydraulic brakes would be kick arse on a go kart. the kart already has a single disc brake in the rear, but it works off steel linkage and kinda sucks. i'm gonna fab up a bracket to mount the hydraulic caliper and pads, and try to rig it up to the already existing rotor and pedal, so i can actually stop this thing, instead of slowing down for a long distance and then coasting to a stop.

 

[mike75925]

did he blow the top or bottom end? if all it needs is rings, they are normally less than $50.

 

[thechief86]

it's a 2 stroke, and what happened is somehow the piston got jammed sideways, and broke the skirt off the bottom of it. the little chunks of piston jammed the crankcase to where it won't move, and when i pulled the cylinder off of it, it was pretty boogered up as well. so to fix it, i'd have to:
split the crankcase and remove the pieces of piston
get a new jug/cylinder or bore this one out quite a bit
get a new piston/rings/ rod/ bearing
the shop that looked at it was gonna charge about $700. i was gonna do it myself, but i'm scared to split the case because the transmission is part of it. at this point, i'm ready to just give up on that one, and get an even better bike when i get out of college. i also have 2 lifted jeeps, so i have plenty of places for my tiny income to go

 

[mike75925]

understood on the money aspect. i once bought a cr80 for $20. i found a complete topend on ebay for $24.95 plus shipping. that or i go to bike salvage yards or scrapyards. i know how to work a budget

 

[BriggsTwins]

research is everything

 

[thechief86]

just adjusted the stock linkage brakes on my kart. they still suck. looks like the hydraulic kawi brakes are a go

 

[thechief86]

any carb ideas?? mine seems to have a problem after letting a friend's kid ride it.

 

[thechief86]

ok, so right now, my throttle cable is directly attached to the governor, and from there the governor controls how my carby opens/closes/delivers fuel. i'm not too worried about it now, but when i install the new (race built) engine that doesn't have a governor on it, can i just rig my cable to directly open the carby? will i know by the sound of the engine if i'm about to kerplode it? can somebody post a pic of how they have their throttle cable mounted to the engine with a briggs raptor?

 

[Doc Sprocket]

Oh you DEFINATELY wanna go hydraulic. I stab the brakes at speed, I leave twin rubber strips! I don't know anything about the Raptor, but there are plenty of people here running without a governor. You should have no problem figuring out a linkage.

 

[Doc Sprocket]

What's not relevant? Do Briggs flattys not have governors? Or do people never remove them?

 

[thechief86]

^^ Not relevant, that is for a clone, not a flathead.

yeah, what are ya talkin about? not that i know better, but i just need the antecedant for the demonstrative pronoun 'that'. then i could prolly figure out what you mean....

 

[newrider3]

Someone posted a link for a throttle kit for a blue clone (then subsequently deleted). Not relevant to a Briggs flatty.

 

[Doc Sprocket]

Oh.

 

[thechief86]

ha, ok then.... do they make one for the briggs? i'm pretty sure i can make what i need, i just wanted to look at other people's ideas. i'm sure it wouldn't take more than half an hour or so to figger out the kind of bracket i'd wanna make, and slap it on. i'll get around to removing all the little linkage junk for the governor when i swap the gas tank onto the new motor. i had the throttle hooked up directly for a few minutes and i think the little weights on the governor gear deelybopper just about got thrown off, so i just hooked it back up the way it was for now.

 

[thechief86]

All righty then.... so i messed around with the kart a bit, and took my gps with me on the kart and found out that the top speed was a whopping 27 mph! i was pretty impressed with this, considering it was all stock. well, i took it out to the school parking lot about a hundred yards from my house, and started scootin around. it's been raining here all day, and just quit a couple hours ago. the parking lot was still pretty wet, so i was having some fun sliding around the corners for the little carpool lane deal the have set up. well, my guess is that somebody came to get their rugrat with a car that leaks oil pretty bad, and i found the evidence with my crappy lawnmower tires. anyway, i slid into a concrete ledge about 8" high, and flipped the kart. i didn't get hurt, except my pride, but it did make a hole in my left rear tire big enough to put your fist through, and bent the rear axle pretty bad. on the right side, all is well, but on the left the shaft is bent bad enough to cause the kart to bounce up and down on that side, and causing the chain to tighten and bind at interval. also, the bend binds the rotor in the caliper enough to make it hard to push every half turn of the wheel.
so here's what i need to know:
A: can i straighten out the axle?
B: if not, can a new one be bought?

any help is appreciated fellas! i'll try to get some pictures up as soon as i have daylight!

 

[freakboy]

if its a 1 inch axle it can be replaced easy. not sure about the unbending part. and that sucks man oh well thats part of drivin these things tho.