Old Manco restoration project for the summer!

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mr.all dat

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i have a old red mango krats the brake .you push the brake down and it stay down go krat won"t stop how can i fix it. anybody thank you.
 

Orange Krate

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What is a go krat anyway???:biggrin5:
It's a kid's wildlife show mash up! LOL!
 

MidLife

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First Road Test Update!! :D

We fashioned a "cosmetic" front end extension from copper pipe, just to give the front end a more finished look! (part of it is visible on the far left of the picture). On the left pedal you may be able to spot the brake light switch. My son wanted brake lights and headlights, so we mounted an intermittent switch on the brake pedal! Gotta LOVE the OEM brand new seat!!!! Well, here it is right before the first road test for alignment and proof of concept, et al;



There was an issue with the first test, Chain fell off. There was an alignment issue as the engine is not stock. The engine mount holes would not allow proper chain alingment. So, we added some shaft spacers and tapped a retaining bolt on the crankshaft as can be seen in the next photos:

The clutch seem to be pretty nice quality Hilliard, I think, and locks up good and tight and has very little wear. Here are the spacers:



Retaining Bolt custom tapped as well as the brake pedal return spring detail we custom fashioned:



You can see the new muffler and air filter. We need quiet as gokarts are illegal here! My son wanted lights, so we added a 12 volt battery and brake light, still need to fashion a battery cover to clean things up and tidy up some wiring. The wiring on the left is the kill switch. Also can be seen here is how the spacers help to align the sprockets better and how the retaining crankshaft bolt worked out for us.



The cart accelerated quite well on the first attempt before the chain fell off. We need to chisel off some welding slag to properly aligin the engine and get the proper chain aligment and tension. That will be for another day. Good first trial, though. The engine is sound. Did an oil change and spark plug gap and cleaning and installed a brand new throttle cable.
Life is good. Need a chain gaurd next...
 

MidLife

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Cleaned up the engine mounting plate of welding slag and was able to align the engine properly with the drive sprockets. After some initial chain stretch and realigning of the engine to remove the chain stretch we took the cart out for about an hour on the engine! Ran great! :drool5:
Even my 195 lb mass achieved helmet worthy speeds. Will have to take the GPS out next time.
The cart has brand new bearings and tires on all four corners which I believe helped the performance tremendously.
Was an enjoyable afternoon!
More pictures coming soon.
 

MidLife

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Still have a lot of work to do.
Firstly, need a chain guard. Found out the hard way what a brand new chain will do to the back of the rider's shirt without a chain guard! Also, we are going to need brotection in the event of a chain break.
Also need to get the throttle working properly.
We did sucessfully fashioned a properly operating kill switch.
Also need to redrill the steering shaft hole and the steering wheel for the next larger bolt as there is a lot of slop in the steering wheel.
Good times.
 

MidLife

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Time trials today!! ;)

Here she is in final form:



We managed a top speed of 24 mph (fast enough to get hurt and require a helmet) and that's with a 170 lb driver!!!. I was pleaseantly surprised.

I'll have a video shortly.

We were really surprised we could get that kind of performance from a 4 hp engine!!!! Totally pleased! :D

We were not looking for crazy speeds, just fun karting around the track at the local school field!
 

MidLife

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We are fortunate to have a 1/3 mile two lane race track at our local school. In the middle of the video we demonstrate the brake light my son wanted to add, so, we have a 12 volt battery on board, and I am looking for a way to add a batterey charger to top it off when riding.
The Kart really does do well and the real tires help the ride feel.



What a fun project!

I am 52 and I rode this tonight! It got my heavy butt up to around 24 mph as well. Joy!

Just a little bit of memories to share with my son.

It's the GoKart I never had as a kid.

It will be gifted to the neighbors, probably, as my son enters high school and we are just too big for this little Kart.
It was fun and we both learned alot in the restoration.
 

MidLife

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We were going to purchase a Honda clone from Harbor Freight if we couldn't get the lil 4hp Honda running, but, we got the Honda running quite well and it get going 28 mph with a smaller rider which is plenty fast for our purposes. I think if we went with a 6.5hp like we thought we were going to do, the Kart may run a little too fast and the wheel would spin too much.
Definately feel like a kid riding this thing! :D
Had to put PLENTY of oil in it to keep it from cutting out in turns!
Got some LED headlights, for dusk driving!
Still need a Chain Guard. Anyone know a generic chain guard for a Honda GX120 ?
 

Nodroz

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Awesome that you have such a nice track at your school. I'd would love to have something similar here in my school. :D

You did a very nice job on that old manco, congratulations!
 
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