Riding mower to kart?

[zmz]

I have an old Craftsman riding mower with an 17HP engine but it has a vertical drive shaft that has 2 pulleys to drive the belts. without flipping the engine on the side what would be the best way to hook up the engine to a chain driven axle? I really dont need anything other than forward. My friend who works on lawn mowers said a centrifugal clutch but im having a difficuly time finding one. It has a 1 3/8 drive shaft. Any help or ideas would be great

 

[Gokartbill]

As i recall, i dont believe you can hook a chain drivin go kart axle to a vertical shaft. I have heard of 90 degree shafts but i dont think it would work in your case. Racing lawn mowers usually have motorcycle engines in them

 

[redlinemotorsportts]

Their is a verity of racing mowers, from lightly modded to tube frames, ect. The engine crank shaft is usually 1" 95% of the time. The pulleys on the engine slide off and expose the keyway. You can set up a peerless 700 witch is keeping the stock engine, and running a belt and clutch to a mid chassis gearbox, witch has 3-5 speeds depending on the model, and the output is horizontal, that is chain drivin to a kart axle or whatever your choosing is.

Heres a few pictures of my "racing" mower setup with what i explained. Belts and pulleys in the first picture, and gearbox to the rear axle.

 

[OzFab]

...or, if you don't want multiple gears, source an MTD F-N-R gearbox; they work the same way as the peerless, pulley on the bottom, sprocket on the side...

 

[joeyg]

Just

No advice from me I'm new here and new to go cart , but I'd sure like to see your progress and finished project , sounds like fun with what your working with, I found that with genuine interest comes great inguinity

 

[redlinemotorsportts]

...or, if you don't want multiple gears, source an MTD F-N-R gearbox; they work the same way as the peerless, pulley on the bottom, sprocket on the side...

While along the same lines, that's a foote gearbox, I have the same one as a pto winch on my offroad mower. They really arnt strong, just bushings and thin case. The 700 can stand up to more abuse, and parts are a lot more avalible. Hence why it's probably the most popular gearbox in racing. All depends on what you can get your hands on really. I set my speed (45mph) through sprocket gearing, and not pulleys, so I'm not overspeeding the inners of my gearbox.