Our first kart

[Jet Provost]

So it is 1968. Summer time. I'm 11. Me and my buddies lived to get old lawn mower engines. I had 4 or 5 at that age. We spent everyday on engines. We were learning all kinds of stuff. Taking engines apart and getting them going again. Learning that cams turn 1/2 crank speed. Timing marks and on and on. By 16 I was building small block chevys and VW's. Now I even work on jet engines in my military trainers. All started by neighbors tossing out lawn mowers. At first we put motors on tricycles. Cut the peddles off. No brakes or throttle. Direct chain drive and the throttle rigged to full. Man pants time after push start. 30 mph on a tricycle is scary as ****. No supposed to happen. Very dangerous. 2 of my buddies went to the hospital. Then in 1968, we built a go kart. This is it before we finished it. Galvanized pipe frame. Jacked up for that cool 60's hot rod look. And our axle was too narrow ha ha. But we rode it for months before the frame snapped. Life before video games. Natural selection was in full force. Dying was a possibility.

 

[JTSpeedDemon]

What's that engine? Itty bitty 1-3 HP Briggs?
Looks totally sketch.

 

[Jet Provost]

2 1/2 Hp as I recall. She was not quick. But a two seater with a console. Had a battery in there to power lights that were added. Stole the pipes from my dad's sprinkler project he was doing. We did pay for the wheels spindles and axle. We were broke at 11 years old.

 

[JTSpeedDemon]

Cool, nowadays it's hard to find anything other than the 5 hp and the 3 and 3.5 hp flatties.
If it was galvanized, how did you hold it together?

 

[Jet Provost]

All threaded. The kart size was dictated by my dad's irrigation pipe sizes. He was not happy. We built it in my neighbors garage so my dad did not discover the pipe loss till too late. It was pretty **** heavy for 2 1/2 hp.

---------- Post added at 01:11 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:01 PM ----------

I just remembered a fun game we had. Take a briggs and hold her wide open with a lose fitting wheel slipped over the crank. Eventually the wheel wanders off and turn into a missile. Funny as crap. You can't believe the energy in the wheel. When it fell off it would spin in place maybe a second. Then dig in taking big hops as it gains speed up. We had one shot across the street and go through the neighbors front door. And the door was closed. Like I said, lots of energy. Another fun trick was to hold the engine wide open with no air cleaner. Then pour oil down the carb with it floored. The engine would pour smoke out in crazy amounts. We could smoke out the whole street. We even had the fire dept called. What kids did before video games.

 

[JTSpeedDemon]

Sounds awesome.
I'm sure your neighbors looooved you guys.

 

[Jet Provost]

We were a problem.