Ridin' Brakeless

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dave1701

dave1701

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I remember back in the day when my go-kart was new I had a band brake. It didn't stop worth a ****. Since then it has worn to a point where the brake does absolutely nothing. I've been ridin round brake less for a while. It's not that bad. Even when I had the band brake working, it doesn't stop my big, heavy go kart with that cheap, little dinkey band brake. Well, I re-tightened the band brake and as expected, it still barely does anything to slow me down. Looking at that other thread, I got to thinking what if I'm chuggin' along down the road and I need to stop for some reason. (I picture a mack truck taking up all of the road, barelling towards me at 40 mph, I'm doing 30) Brakes could be the difference between life and death. I will take the risk if it's gonna cost me an arm and a leg to get decent brakes. I think my kart's too heavy for band brakes, and I think band brakes are lame.

The only way I could make it do anything at all is to tigten it so that it would rub the drum so much that it it slows the kart down.

Anyone else ride brakeless?
 
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HellSpawn

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I have before and it was a mistake, My clutch happened to grenade itself & lock up, (I had no kill switch on this particular kart at the time. atleast nothing I could reach from the seat.)

Nothing like dumping a flat frame kart into the ditch at 45mph.
 
dave1701

dave1701

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Sounds nice, but there are very, few brake systems that will overpower the engine. And I have a killswitch. So I'll be ok
 
Doc Sprocket

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I wouldn't dare. I'm out there to have fun, not get killed. Kart weighs 310lbs (without me)and does 45mph. One simple thing goes wrong, I wanna reign those horses in fast.
Hydraulic disc all the way.
 
newrider3

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Brakeless is fun on a bike,
not so much on a kart. You can easily set up a hydraulic disc system using a rear master from a motorcycle, a motorcycle caliper, and a disc like these. Don't bother with those mechanical calipers.
 
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solomon

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I know on my old manco the brake setup was crap. Brake band fully engaged just slowly made the kart decrease speed, kart never came to a full stop. The brake linkage had a spring meet up two rods under the seat, so when fully braking the spring didn't give the band as much tension as i put on the pedal. I even drilled new holes on the linkage for more tension on the band and the pedal, but it made no difference. So I eventually cut the spring, and welded the 2 rods to make them a single rod. Then I added a return spring up front on the pedal, acknowledging that the spring I eliminated helped to return the brake pedal, I was now able to have 100% full effectiveness of the brakes! The brakes worked great! you could come to a complete stop from 35mph in under 5 seconds. If you have a kart with linkage like this I HIGHLY RECOMMEND you do this. Their was at least a minimum of a 30% increase in stopping Power!
 

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DK shredaaa

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is your band brake conected to a cable or that metal rod style

to me cable works cause those old yerfs had it like that and they stop
 
dave1701

dave1701

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You fellers are crazy, I just don't see how a band brake could over power a 5hp engine. Also, how much should I tighten the band brake? It's already rubbing on the drum, but it doesn't stop worth a dern.
 
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Kenny_McCormic

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I had a worn out 4" band on my manco dingo(big live axle one man kart, briggs 5hp, CVT) and it would lock up the 12" wide knobbies from 30mph without any complains. I had a solid linkage made out of 1/4" round bar.
 
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Linksep

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(Torque x RPM) / 5252 = HP

7.3 ft/lbs torque x 3600 RPM = 26280
26280 / 5252 = 5.0038 HP

For comparison the lugnuts on your car are torqued at 76 to 140 ft/lbs (depending on the car) and if you're not a hack they're torqued by hand (with a 12-18" long torque wrench); i.e. the torque applied by hand at 140 ft lbs is 19 times more than the torque put out by a 5hp engine.
 
Doc Sprocket

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solomon said:
I know on my old manco the brake setup was crap. Brake band fully engaged just slowly made the kart decrease speed, kart never came to a full stop. The brake linkage had a spring meet up two rods under the seat, so when fully braking the spring didn't give the band as much tension as i put on the pedal. I even drilled new holes on the linkage for more tension on the band and the pedal, but it made no difference. So I eventually cut the spring, and welded the 2 rods to make them a single rod. Then I added a return spring up front on the pedal, acknowledging that the spring I eliminated helped to return the brake pedal, I was now able to have 100% full effectiveness of the brakes! The brakes worked great! you could come to a complete stop from 35mph in under 5 seconds. If you have a kart with linkage like this I HIGHLY RECOMMEND you do this. Their was at least a minimum of a 30% increase in stopping Power!
Click to expand...

Nice work! Now why the he// would they do that from the factory?!?!
 
dave1701

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now way I could lock my wheel with my northern tool band brake, but I'm not spending any money on it
 
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