My sons first kart

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Cautrell05

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I picked this one up for my 9 year old son last year. Came with a blown 5 horse(not he good blown either) and a crappy seat but it was complete.

Found a good cheap replacement motor("get it out of here and its yours" always works for me) and added the disk brake upgrade right off the bat along with the adjustable throttle stop. The old brake setup had a band brake on the right axle with a differential. Not the most effective.



That got it functional and he had a good time with it for a while and then between me running it full bore over rough ground and the really hard rear tires it broke 3 out of 4 bolts that hold the diff halves together. That was also when we found out that running the brake off of the jack shaft makes it work great but is hard on the idler pulley when not supported properly.


The idler should just be a matter of running a flat plate of 3/16 or so up from the bolt to the bottom of the frame to support the other side.
I decided early on that the kart would get a full cage on it for my own peace of mind. We have 7 acres out in the country to ride on so he has plenty of room to ride and he does get pretty wild with it. Although it is a tough call who will be the first to roll it me or him lol. Im a big kid sue me. A different seat is on the to do list and Im not completley sold on the handlebar setup. Im open to suggestions for a good source for a seat. Trust me it needs it.
This is what I was thinking for the cage. Nothing too drastic but complete enough to do the job.




Any suggestions are welcome. The tubing in mind is 1.25 .085 wall welded seam tubing. A friend of mine is pricing some out for me at work. When I built my stock car I could get it for under a buck a foot but that was 7 years ago too. I figure it is strong enough for no more that what this will weigh but only add about 30 pounds or so.

I was also planning on adding a simple suspension to the rear while it was being overhauled. I was going to go with a basic swingarm rear but wanted something that would pivot side to side too. I was at one of the farm supply stores the other day and noticed that their atv/utility cart had a swing arm rear with a single heim mounted pivot in the rear and a track bar that went front and back instead of the usual side to side. Cant get much more simple that that.
While digging through the garage I came across a few of these that I had saved a while ago.

Sometimes its good to be a packrat. Its an upper control arm bushing off of a honda. Basically the same thing as a heim just rubber. Heres what I had in mind. Keep in mine its almost midnight. Hopefully I didnt miss something obvious.

The green is the sections that will be removed, the blue is the new crossmember that holds the bushing(gray) in the middle. Then the trackbar at the top should keep it from side to side but still let it rotate.
This one shows where the shocks are going. The lower mounts are correct, the uppers will probably be mounted off a cross bar where the rear bars angle out.


Looking forward to any and all imput from you guys. Thanks
Nick
 

Cautrell05

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I forgot to mention that the same friend thats pricing the tubing also has a sandblaster attachment for his powerwasher. The plan is after everything is added, modified, molested, welded, etc. tear it apart, sandblast it and then paint it all the same color. It is kinda nasty right now.

Nick
 

theo

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I like it, any thought of a simple front suspension? The frame front is set perfect for it.

theo
 

dragracing1213

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:iagree: It would be better to make it live axle. I like the suspension idea...I don't know where to get a good seat but gokartgalaxy.com has some good deals. Check ebay and stuff like that or just build your own out of wood, foam, and vinyl. Looks good...
 

Cautrell05

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By live axle I assume you mean solid shaft, 2 wheel drive.

The differential works good on it when its dry. when its really muddy or deep snow its kind of worthless but other than that its kinda nice being able to make sharp low speed turns. I have it apart now on my bench and its the standard 1 inch with 3/4 threads on the end so changing it later doesnt seem too hard.

The rear is a defnate go for suspension. Not sure on the front. one step at a time.

Nick
 
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