So the solution to my ride height problem is essentially solved... learn to weld and adjust the front "suspension" mount points and put some kind of spacer between the frame and the rear axle mount points. And possibly bigger tires, but also possibly not.
Now on to that 350L gearbox! Where has that thing been half my life! Since I first got this kart back in 2002 or something, it was immediately apparently that it needed reverse. But those forward/reverse golfkart gearboxes were too expensive so I never got one. Also back in those early days, I was cutting trail in some pretty extreme terrain. The machine was really lacking power, so I replaced my driven pulley with a larger one, got a larger belt, and that gave this thing a much lower gear ratio that made it a lot easier to do extreme hill climbing with. But it also greatly limited the top speed because the drive pulley could longer "max out" the driven pulley.
Then years later, I bought my own house. I keep the kart around but I never use it except once in a while screwing around on streets in the snow. But I'd like to use it more. It became apparently me that what I really needed was a hi/lo/reverse transmission, but I could never find one. But this is it!!! This is more important that the lift
I was actually thinking about getting one of those 5 speed transaxles from a riding mower, and running the torque converter into that. So I could have a super low range, low range, 1:1, and an "overdrive", and reverse. But that would be very complicated and expensive and a simple hi/lo/reverse unit like this is sooooooo much of a simpler install for almost the same amount of usefulness.
So the newest ones I'm seeing are 1993, nobody makes any gearbox like this anymore? Or even, somewhat recently? This would be absolutely perfect on a Dingo. I probably wouldn't even bother to upgrade the 169cc motor. Who needs it when you have that gearbox plus a torque converter. And I love that it has lower gear ratios so I could run a much smaller axle gear, thats another huge benefit. Can you still get parts for these gearboxes? So one might rebuild it and hopefully have it last another 30 years?
