Race Kart Refurb | New Project!

[JTSpeedDemon]

All right I did it again! This time my friends gave me their Predator 212 race kart FOR FREE as a late Christmas gift!!
If you think you recognize it, you're right! I raced my friends with this kart awhile back! I completely DUSTED them with the Hothead when they brought this kart over to race! So the story is that after they went home that day they tried to remove the governor, but ahhh, they kinda got stuck. And so the race kart and 212 sat out in their backyard for about a year disassembled (under the eve of the house thank heavens). Then a few weeks ago, they contacted me and asked if I wanted it, and uhhh, you know I can't turn it down!
Luckily I just recently cleared out some projects, so my dad allowed me to keep this and work on it (well that, and I used the element of surprise, and uhh, kinda didn't tell him until I had it ).
So yeah this thing is quite literally a basket case! It literally came with most of the parts in a bucket! My intention is to eventually make this thing track worthy and take it racing at North Texas Karters in nearby Dallas! North Texas Karters Website
So yeah I spent that Saturday night staying up until literally 11:30 PM in the very close to freezing garage reassembling this Predator 212! While I was at it I went ahead and tore out the governor and low oil sensor, so this thing is gonna RIP when I get it all put back together.

Also! I made a Kartssource video on the beginning of this project and engine reassembly! I'll keep posting videos and updates as they come!

 

[KMEFA]

''That's some awesome friends you have'' !!

I live in ''Ice box'' east central Iowa,, & ''thank God'' I have a well insulated attached garage .
Was out in it all day today working on my frame,, & have an elect. / oil radiator heater & 2 book shelf heaters cranked up.
It still only got up to 60*f ''in the garage'' this afternoon.
We are ''real lucky '' -''so far'',, that our Jan. temps have been averaging around 20*f .
- 20*f is not unusual around these parts in Jan & feb.

You will get that Kart spiffed up.

You probably seen the pics of mine before I stripped it.
Yours looks like a cream puff, next to the way mine looked when I brought it home,, & you don't have to cut off roll cage mounting base frame tubes either.


Looks like it's just about got the same bumpers as my Coyote Bullet.
Are they solid steel ??
Am selling my bumpers, as they are ''boat anchors'',, & getting re -pop ''tubular'' - light weight - ones from Coyote racing, that they remade for their ''re - pop'' - ''Free roller''.

My front one weighs 9.3 lbs !

Ian

 

[Dingocat]

Cold garages suck lol. Just made a wood stove for ours. Good project. Cool gift though. Can agree with the staying up late to work on something new. Sounds like this will be a fun project, Good luck

 

[JTSpeedDemon]

Yeah for some reason I barely felt the cold, I was wearing light cotton pants, my DIYGK shirt and my light garage jacket plus a ball cap. Barely felt cold even when I could see my breath. I have however gotten well acclimated to cold weather a few years back spending a lot of time in the backyard with my dogs in the evening, so it hardly bothers me. I should note though that it DID snow like 1/2 and inch the next morning! So it was really very cold!

 

[KMEFA]

Here's a bit of snow snow for ya.

 

[Dingocat]

Yeah for some reason I barely felt the cold, I was wearing light cotton pants, my DIYGK shirt and my light garage jacket plus a ball cap. Barely felt cold even when I could see my breath. I have however gotten well acclimated to cold weather a few years back spending a lot of time in the backyard with my dogs in the evening, so it hardly bothers me. I should note though that it DID snow like 1/2 and inch the next morning! So it was really very cold!

Your "southern" is showing lol

Here was the beginning of December. Been a long time since we got that much snow. No fun for go karts and stuff like that though because even if you could get to the road there was 6in of snow on it lol.

 

[Karts of Kaos]

here in southern WI we have like 6" of snow, but thankfully our neighbor has a skid steer and does our driveway for us. also JT that is super cool, I have been looking for a race kart for a while now but haven't gotten one yet, they are just way out of my price range. I in my shop use a small propane heater to keep warm.

 

[Budget GoKart]

We got a couple inches if snow. Twice wasnt much indiana is weird. Also i saw the video JT im happy for ya i might end up BUILDING a RACETRACK IN MY TOWN!! My parents have some money and said they would buy 4 acres and said i can build a go kart track on it which is a heck yea ill build everything for it needed from scratch ill make some wooden bleachers some picknick tables we will build a shed overthere and im gonna have to find a water crate thing and make a wetter thing for summer because the dirt here is real powedery when it dries out i dont think it will be an offical track till i take cars around it but eh it will be fun

 

[JTSpeedDemon]

Sounds like fun! If I ever head out in that direction I’ll try to find an excuse to stop by!

 

[Karts of Kaos]

sounds super cool. I was thinking you could make a waterer downer with a 50gal drum and some other pieces to make it spray. the drums aare cheap/free and a trailer to modify could also be cheap. then run a pressure washer to a tube with lots of holes amed at the ground and feed it from the drum with like a trash pump. or skip the pressure washer and just use the trash mump.

 

[Budget GoKart]

Well jim white a retired racer/frame builder started a back yard track and runs built hemi karts stage 3 to 5. He uses a water crate and a pickup truck and some pvc pipe and a valve that goes to tubes with holes in them id have to get a picture of it this summer

 

[landuse]

What is this thing called "SNOW"?

 

[KMEFA]

What is this thing called "SNOW"?

It's mostly white fluffy stuff that is cold & wet . ''LOL''!!!!!!

 

[JTSpeedDemon]

Looks like it's just about got the same bumpers as my Coyote Bullet.
Are they solid steel ??
Am selling my bumpers, as they are ''boat anchors'',, & getting re -pop ''tubular'' - light weight - ones from Coyote racing, that they remade for their ''re - pop'' - ''Free roller''.

My front one weighs 9.3 lbs !

Ian

I got around to checking today, they're made of hollow steel tubing, which I presume is to function as a crumple zone in a crash.

 

[KMEFA]

I got around to checking today, they're made of hollow steel tubing, which I presume is to function as a crumple zone in a crash.

Wish mine were tubular .

The ones on my Buddies Margay are,, & they weigh next to nothing.

Found another source for bumpers on mine,, as Coyote wants 70 ea., +80 bucks ''just for shipping''. ''F - that'' !

The other place they are 15 ea., & only 9 bucks ship.

Got to modify them a bit though, but that's cool,, for the price of them.

I

 

[JTSpeedDemon]

All right I finally got it all back together! After going to GoPowerSports to pick up some parts, I reassembled it, cut off the custom muffler, and it fired on the second pull! Somehow the hose clamp I was missing was in the blower housing, so it got a bit mangled, but oh well. After pulling it out it sounds SO GOOD.
Seat mounting isn't perfect, I had to zip-tie the seat struts down since I never got the clamps for them, but it's still pretty good. Also! I noticed that it says EMMICK right down the seat! Assuming it's not a seat off another kart, I think this is an Emmick race kart!
This thing is SO FAST although I have to manage the choke with one hand while I drive, it's calculated to hit right around 35 MPH, but it accelerates so hard! Unfortunately I found out this is the annoying EPA/CARB Predator 212, so I'll be putting a normal carburetor on it in the near future.

I also made a video of it!

 

[KMEFA]

Cool !

That seat frame is probably worth some coin.

Got to get rid of those zip ties A.S.A.P. though !


I

 

[KMEFA]

''News flash'' !!

I found alum. mount caps w/ hardware @ Comet kart sales, for 4.80 ea. !
Caps are threaded also.

Their shipping is cheap too.

That's the way I would go.

 

[KMEFA]

Added,,

The hole spacing on these caps are 7/8 & 2 1/2.
If the hole spacing on your base mounts are a bit narrower,, you can always drill out & tap new holes on the mount caps, or long gate them.
Long gating them,, you would have to get new hardware though ,, as would need a longer bolts, plus nuts.

Threads are 1/4 -28

Looks like there is plenty of meat on the caps to do it either way ..

The 7/8 spacing part should be fine though, as that's what mine are,, for that part of it.

 

[JTSpeedDemon]

Cool !

That seat frame is probably worth some coin.

Got to get rid of those zip ties A.S.A.P. though !


I

Yeah, thanks for listing those! Good to know that's what they're called! Eventually I'm probably gonna take this thing all the way apart to refurbish it properly, there's extra stuff from where the nerf bars used to be mounted, gotta cut that off and clean up a little rust that's developed in some areas. Not much though. Whenever I do that I'm also gonna go crazy with the wire wheels, get rid of the frankly bad paintjob it currently has, it's just bad in general, and I've got some cool paint scheme ideas.
As far as the seat having value.....I highly doubt it, it's had a lot of excess holes drilled in it for whatever reason.