Kart Rods

[machinist@large]

Decisions, decisions....

 

[Kelly Wood]

Ah, Saturday.

Yard work... or spend all **** day on the semi o' Death?

Hm....

Update:

The semi o' death has been renamed...

it's now called "The Wrecker"

Yup.

Body is mounted, front bumper was reworked and mounted, brake rod fabbed up, tank mount, throttle linkage on the way... seat mounted....

The side bar/pad thingies were once a steering wheel, the front clip is mounted on an old lawn aerator tool, cut & upside down and welded on the frame

The boom is made from various go kart side nerf bars from race karts not used now, and an honest-golly-hook... from a boat trailer winch.

Just gotta mount the brake pedal and whip together a bit more on the throttle linkage.

Then we'll smooth out all the crappy welding, etc.

And it runs!

yea...



Meet "The Wrecker"

Thanks for watching.

 

[itsid]

Ah.. and again...
as I said the mock up of the boom was okay..
I wasn't quite convinced but I KNEW you'll going to make it work...

And as suspected it looks great in real life

the BSOPS (butt slide out protection system),
hmmmm *shrugs* it looks alien to the frame somehow;
cannot put my finger on it, if it's the mounting or the bend or both,
but it looks like it doesn't belong to this kart...
I'm sorry

In the end it still a great kart once again,
and yes I am jealous

'sid

 

[Kelly Wood]

Update:

Yard work done, on to something else.

As if... I was on a mission.

Up today, I whipped up a nifty exhaust thingy for the Semi (know known as Wrecker) so it resembles something I've seen before on a semi. My lawn mower committed suicide today when it encountered a long hidden tree stump so I stole it's muffler for this. (That stump bent the shaft on the mower... bye bye mower)

With that done, on to Unit 51 / Moving Violation... YEA!

I had to steal the wheels from Bonneville spirit... why? Just because Unit 51 REALLY looks right with them.

Off with the old back end and whip up the fins!

Seen here, it's all just sitting in place / test fitting, etc.

Being it's like an old car, I went with a briggs for it because of that klunky big steel motor look. It looks a bit weird... but I really don't care. Things will change of course, but....

I had a super weekend...

2 more... together.

Soon up... Bonneville Spirit and... The Baroness.



Thanks for lookin.

 

[itsid]

Love the new rear of Unit 51 !
Looks awesome

'sid

 

[Kelly Wood]

Love the new rear of Unit 51 !
Looks awesome

'sid

Thanks man.

 

[Kelly Wood]

Update:

Anyone that's been following along closely may remember an ad I showcased that was local. I never bought the thing but it's popped back up for less now.

Even though I'm not buying it, I got to thinking about the braking system it had.

See Pic 1. It was a pulley with a fan belt on it.

I really wonder if it would work.

So tonight, I'm picking up two 7" dia pulley's with 1" bores. I'm gonna bolt them together and run 2 belts to it, to the brake rod and try it.

Will report soon.

If it works, this would be a rather cheap braking system and you'd never ever run out of parts... ever.

Thanks for looking.

 

[Kelly Wood]

Update:

Back from work and a stop at a local heating & Ac store, I figured I'd do some exploring to see just what you can find to use at a place like this.

10 bucks for each pulley and like 3 bucks for some locking collars... and we're into a make-shift braking system for not much money.

I got 2 because I'm pretty sure one won't handle the job. Something tells me that we'll need both. Might as well build it right if we're gonna.

So, sandwich them together and we'll see where we get. Lookee, the pulleys have keyways too!

More on this one as it unfolds. If it works like I think it's going to, they will become the brakes for the Wrecker... cause they're clunky lookin... and I bet they work pretty well if you get the belts to engage just right.

Thanks for watching.

 

[machinist@large]

The only time you would have to worry about them not working would be in a torrential down pour, running thru standing water deeper than the bottom of you sheaves, or trying to panic stop on a dime with one of the other karts in tow from full throttle.

As far as stopping control is concerned, I would consider using the cloth rapped heavy duty mower drive belts over the standard unwrapped V belts. They don't have as much initial "grab", which will lend a little more control. The downside is that when you start to wear thru the rapping, they'll start grabbing all or nothing like a standard V belt.

I strongly commend you for going for dual sheaves right out of the box; it not only gives you more surface area (helping with brake tuning), but it also adds a layer of redundancy for safety. The odds of losing both belts is a much less than a problem with just one.

I know this system can be made to work; it's just that since I've never done it myself, I can only offer general guidelines on how it could be set up.

One of the first thoughts that occurs is that you'll need an equalizer bar where your loose ends are on the belts, both to cover independent wear as well as compensating for any difference in the mounting hole spacing when you drill/ clamp/ anchor the belt ends. You would also probably have a positive travel hard stop fur when they are released to make sure you don't have a belt escape. I would also make the return spring mounting point at the equalizer bar (or just ahead of it) to help keep the belts from dragging.

Hope this helps. Pat

 

[landuse]

That is a neat idea Kelly

 

[Kelly Wood]

Onward... Lunchtime sketching time!

I swear, I sat & thought about this all night and how to make it work.

The plan is to make this brake system functional, yet easy to change belts... and have them not spin around too.

I didn't want to use a clunky clamp to hold them together to keep them from spinning and I want it to look kind of cool too.

So...

Here's what I came up with. (2nd pic)

A lobe type of thing... I'll explain soon. Gotta run, lunch over.

 

[Kelly Wood]

Moving along...

Home from work, make dinner, do the norm... then I'm itching to find out if this can work.

Off with the band brake from the semi, a few spacers later and it would appear to be a nice fit.

I decided to put it outboard (that's outside of the frame) so we can quickly change belts, etc. if I have to.

I'm going to just go with a basic brake rod with a straight edge hook, then clamp the belts together, side by side as I saw in that pic for now. Need proof of concept first before we go any further.

Pics, enjoy, thanks for watching.

 

[Desertduler]

Hey Kelly,
What kind of tires are those?
They might work real good on the lakebed.

 

[Kelly Wood]

Hey Kelly,
What kind of tires are those?
They might work real good on the lakebed.

I dunno. They just came on a pile-o-____ that I found. They weren't weather checked and they seemed to fit with the Wrecker project so I used them.

 

[landuse]

Those pulleys look like they were meant to be there

 

[Kelly Wood]

Update:

Scored an old one from the classifieds today. Pretty sure it's early 70's or late 60's.

The frame is 1 1/4" tubing and beefy.

Anyway, parts is parts. 75 bucks scored it... and in the end, we have the frame for the last of the Kart Rods (#8) and a small pile off usable stuff.

... and some nifty mystery front hubs... wonder what they fit?

Rear tread is older but no cracks and usable so we've got enough crap to finish them all up. Now it's just time to build... then design the last one.

Here's some pics.

 

[machinist@large]

Looking good!!!

Onward... Lunchtime sketching time!

I swear, I sat & thought about this all night and how to make it work.

The plan is to make this brake system functional, yet easy to change belts... and have them not spin around too.

I didn't want to use a clunky clamp to hold them together to keep them from spinning and I want it to look kind of cool too.

So...

Here's what I came up with. (2nd pic)

A lobe type of thing... I'll explain soon. Gotta run, lunch over.

That should work; you'll just need some form of bar clamp right behind the leading belt pull point to keep the belts from skidding under load. I also like your sketch because it lets you use the maximum amount of surface area on the sheaves, as well as being able to rotate the working sections of the belts as they wear.

Moving along...

Home from work, make dinner, do the norm... then I'm itching to find out if this can work.

Off with the band brake from the semi, a few spacers later and it would appear to be a nice fit.

I decided to put it outboard (that's outside of the frame) so we can quickly change belts, etc. if I have to.

I'm going to just go with a basic brake rod with a straight edge hook, then clamp the belts together, side by side as I saw in that pic for now. Need proof of concept first before we go any further.

Pics, enjoy, thanks for watching.

Outboard will work fine; if you look at photo's of large trucks from the late 'teens, '20's, and '30's, many of them had a frame mounted differential/ drive assembly with the final drive to each rear wheel by large outboard chains to floating hubs on a dead axle. Mack's reputation for being the toughest around was founded by such a design layout.

Pat

 

[Kelly Wood]

Well holy crap and sho-nuff! That's interesting about the drive systems.

Inadvertently, it looks like I've copied this old setup... I now have something to mimic & model after.

Thanks man.

To anyone watching, what Machinist has done here has helped me in my journey. Never in a million years would I have EVER known about the old semi drive systems... because that's not what I was going for. My Semi is modeled after something newer but with this info, I can now put a special touch to what I've got going which gives it a special "old style" flair that these rides have... and that's the point.

I mention it is because things seem very dead lately around here. Without input, no matter what it is...forums don't work, and people leave due to lack of interest or response. So what if you type the same thing and the same answer to newbies, so what if you say "great job" a thousand times, to keep your audience coming back, the ball must keep rolling.

The reason I continue on here is because every now & then... like RIGHT NOW, something said... by just one person... sparked my imagination allowing me to further this crazy quest I'm on. It doesn't bother me too much when there's no responses but it is nice to see them every now & then.

It may look like I know what I'm doing, (and mechanically I do) but the truth is... a lot of the style & design I make up as I go along but just the act of responding with something keeps it moving along.

... so, thanks a ton Machinist. Keep quoting all that stuff you know.

You never know where inspiration will come from.


So jokingly I say "Thanks for watching. This concludes our visit to the history channel, we now return you to your regularly scheduled message board... now in progress."

Kelly

 

[machinist@large]

Umm, wasn't expecting that...

Thanks Kelly.

It's not that I'm an expert on history; what I am is a bibliophile with way to many interests/ potential hobbies. The drive train layout came from an on/off/on interest in antique large trucks.

Will I ever be an expert? Most likely not. And that doesn't worry me. The fact that my basic level of knowledge was helpful has made my day, but it doesn't change the fact that I'm just a tyro on that subject.

One idea that comes to mind for the semi is this; brakes outboard on one side, the chain final drive outboard on the other. Kind of a modified tribute in miniature to the past.....

Pat

 

[Desertduler]

I think you are pretty smart Pat.
You do have a wide range of knowledge and savvy about a lot of things.