gokartdaddy
New member
Hey Guys and others:
I wish I had pictures to post, and I promise I will put them up ASAP. I need batteries for my camera.
Here is the story. When my friends had those Rupp mini-bikes in the early seventies, wow ! I came from a big family so there was no money for a go cart. I was lucky to have a used Schwinn Typhoon and my brother's bb gun to play with. Anyway, I never stopped wanting...
This November I saw a add - guess where - Craigslist of course. It was for $100 and it was 30 miles away ! I left 7am the next morning (Saturday) went to get it in Frederick County, MD.
The kart was a basket case. with the parts being in a grocery store apple box. It included two motors. One was a 140gx 5 hp with a 2:1 gear reduction unit and the other was a 3hp Tecumseh. Both were free (as in had compression) but had been put in the shed with gas in the carbs. My plain was to sponsor a kid, but that didn't happen. I came home and knocked on the neighbors door to show Sean the go kart. I told him to come over. His immigrant Indian mother never lets him out of the house so why would she let him ride a go kart ? Okay I'll do it myself. It was easy putting the cart together. I had a rolling chasis by 10am that morning. I was hoping Sean would come over, but he never showed. To bad he loves cars and I have taken him for rides in my son's mustang.
I went to harbor freight after watching you tube. I bought a Predator.
It wasn't easy rigging brakes and a throttle and I had a couple of incidents when the throttle stuck. In fact I had to take the spindles off, heat them up and straighten them after on incident. I bought all the stage one parts soon after and then I removed the governor one rainy day when I had nothing else to do.
Two weeks later, one of my friends and long time customer took a ride around my suburban neighborhood and decided to get one for himself. I had to promise to let him keep it at my place because his wife said no. It costs $250 and came with a nice 5 horse briggs flathead and had jack shaft. A larger two person kart rigged for one person. I will post a picture later. He was short $26 and I wouldn't let him dicker with the guy because the kart ran great and seemed real solid (this was a great day for me). I said now you have a partner. This was a month ago and I haven't seem him ! And this guy owes me money.
So I am now 59.8 years old and two go karts. So now i have two go karts. The first one, the one I put back together is running great and is real fast . It is tiny. I don't think it weighs more than 70 or eighty pounds and has a cc. The band brake was on the right side and I had a hard time rigging it so I bought one of the mini bike clutch brakes from OMB. (by the way, I took the 5 hp honda apart, removed the governor, put in a spark plug and a $13 ebay carburetor and it started right up). If anyone wants the tecumseh 3hp you can have it !
Being who I am, I love to fix and fabricate. I can't weld and probably won't try to learn. Avid bass fisherman for years. Just keeping a boat and trailer and a home and cars together taught me a lot.
So I will be posting pics of both karts real soon and I will be picking your brains. Goal this coming year is to put real brakes an a tc on the karts. Also I got a hemi predator on ebay for $77 in December.
Thanks for reading my story. Pictures are coming.
Pat Smith
I wish I had pictures to post, and I promise I will put them up ASAP. I need batteries for my camera.
Here is the story. When my friends had those Rupp mini-bikes in the early seventies, wow ! I came from a big family so there was no money for a go cart. I was lucky to have a used Schwinn Typhoon and my brother's bb gun to play with. Anyway, I never stopped wanting...
This November I saw a add - guess where - Craigslist of course. It was for $100 and it was 30 miles away ! I left 7am the next morning (Saturday) went to get it in Frederick County, MD.
The kart was a basket case. with the parts being in a grocery store apple box. It included two motors. One was a 140gx 5 hp with a 2:1 gear reduction unit and the other was a 3hp Tecumseh. Both were free (as in had compression) but had been put in the shed with gas in the carbs. My plain was to sponsor a kid, but that didn't happen. I came home and knocked on the neighbors door to show Sean the go kart. I told him to come over. His immigrant Indian mother never lets him out of the house so why would she let him ride a go kart ? Okay I'll do it myself. It was easy putting the cart together. I had a rolling chasis by 10am that morning. I was hoping Sean would come over, but he never showed. To bad he loves cars and I have taken him for rides in my son's mustang.
I went to harbor freight after watching you tube. I bought a Predator.
It wasn't easy rigging brakes and a throttle and I had a couple of incidents when the throttle stuck. In fact I had to take the spindles off, heat them up and straighten them after on incident. I bought all the stage one parts soon after and then I removed the governor one rainy day when I had nothing else to do.
Two weeks later, one of my friends and long time customer took a ride around my suburban neighborhood and decided to get one for himself. I had to promise to let him keep it at my place because his wife said no. It costs $250 and came with a nice 5 horse briggs flathead and had jack shaft. A larger two person kart rigged for one person. I will post a picture later. He was short $26 and I wouldn't let him dicker with the guy because the kart ran great and seemed real solid (this was a great day for me). I said now you have a partner. This was a month ago and I haven't seem him ! And this guy owes me money.
So I am now 59.8 years old and two go karts. So now i have two go karts. The first one, the one I put back together is running great and is real fast . It is tiny. I don't think it weighs more than 70 or eighty pounds and has a cc. The band brake was on the right side and I had a hard time rigging it so I bought one of the mini bike clutch brakes from OMB. (by the way, I took the 5 hp honda apart, removed the governor, put in a spark plug and a $13 ebay carburetor and it started right up). If anyone wants the tecumseh 3hp you can have it !
Being who I am, I love to fix and fabricate. I can't weld and probably won't try to learn. Avid bass fisherman for years. Just keeping a boat and trailer and a home and cars together taught me a lot.
So I will be posting pics of both karts real soon and I will be picking your brains. Goal this coming year is to put real brakes an a tc on the karts. Also I got a hemi predator on ebay for $77 in December.
Thanks for reading my story. Pictures are coming.
Pat Smith
