Rigid GX160 > GX390 Clone Off-Road Resto-Mod

[Sleepy122CID]

Yeah that sounds like it.

That isn't actually welded to the frame. It is welded perpendicularly to a slotted piece which is bolted to the piece below it. This is what it looks like on the other side:

 

[modelengineer]

Ahhh, so sorry, my mistake. I see it now. Thanks for taking time to get a pic of it.

I did wonder why all the welds looked so perfect and that one looked like it barely connected the pieces together. It all makes sense now.

 

[Sleepy122CID]

Ahhh, so sorry, my mistake. I see it now. Thanks for taking time to get a pic of it.

I did wonder why all the welds looked so perfect and that one looked like it barely connected the pieces together. It all makes sense now.

Oh yeah, I see what you are seeing now heh. Stop trying to make me blush, all the welds are far from perfect. I don't know if you read the whole thread, but before this project I only had an hour or two on this welder - and I had never welded at all before I bought it. I still need a lot of practice - especially on tubing. We'll see how the exhaust comes out. It will be my first time welding stainless!

 

[Sleepy122CID]

Well I finally made it to the welding supply store down the road before they closed (they aren't open on weekends), and they don't have the trimix I need to weld stainless properly in anything but huge rental tanks, so unless I find a supplier tomorrow or over the weekend I won't actually be building the exhaust this weekend. I did make some fair progress on the exhaust flange while we were slow at work today though. Perhaps I'll get some pictures later.

 

[Sleepy122CID]

Yesterday I started working on the exhaust. I don't have the proper shielding gas for the stainless yet, so I'm just fabricating and tacking everything up. Also, before this, I drilled the main jet all the way to a #120 before starting to see something other than super lean on the plug. I imagine after finishing the exhaust I'll have to open up that main jet a little more still. I ordered some super small drill bits to start working with the pilot jet a little bit as well.

Started with the flange - 1/4" stainless. I cut a rough shape from the outline of the old exhaust, then scribed the stud holes through the old exhaust flange to make sure I got them lined up perfectly. In this picture I had made the outline for the exhaust hole off the gasket:

Then I cut the hole very slowly with the closest hole saw I had (without going too big) - 7/8"

I had to grind the rest of the shaded area out to get it as close to perfect as possible by hand:

Started tacking on the exhaust:

This is where I finished for the day:

I tacked the remaining 2' or so on top of that and started it up just to see what would happen. I made a video but accidentally deleted it =/.

 

[Sleepy122CID]

Got the exhaust done - with the wrong gas =/. It looks like crap. I didn't realize it would be so hard to find a small bottle of stainless trimix locally. I'll get some pictures up ASAP though anyway. I got some mini drill bits to start working with the pilot jet. I got it all the way up to about a #60 jet now with the largest mini bit I have, and I believe it could still use a little more. It feels about 4 times better from idle to WOT (and general off to on throttle response).

 

[Sleepy122CID]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_nskcXBCA1c

 

[sebastiaan]

Nice work! looks awesome

 

[Sleepy122CID]

Thanks =). Still have a good bit more work to finish it completely... And I can't wait to get the new flywheel on and the governor off! Coming up that little hill I top it out about a quarter of the way up (calculated 29mph).

 

[sebastiaan]

Removing the governor will be awesome. I did that with a Honda. If I was you, I would also change the valvesprings. When you have no governor and rpm above 5000, the valves will begin to 'float' because the original springs are to weak.
Keep up the good work!

 

[Sleepy122CID]

 

[Doc Sprocket]

Header wrap? Cool! Tell us about the muffler, too! I really like what you're doing with this, very nice.

I know you're redoing the steering, good thing too. Dunno what you've got planned, but that over/under thing with the tie rods kinda disturbs me. Offhand, I'd suggest running both rods ends off the same side of the pitman arm (not opposing as they are), and shortening them to suit. Right now the geometry looks awful. Another option you have is to run a drag link from the pitman arm to only one steering knuclke, and then run a tie rod between the knuckles.

Also- I'm having a bit of a hard time with the pics, but it looks like your frontend does not employ the Ackermann steering principle. Maybe might want to consider reworking your frontend to include that? It will make your steering more effective. It's easier, by the way, to set that up with the steering arms BEHIND the spindle. If you do that, and mayb re-examine your castor and KPI angles, you'll likely be able to do away with the counterweights. Maybe even save yourself some tire wear, too. Cheers- Chris

 

[theo]

Regarding your steering, maybe install larger tie rods and use rod ends instead of the system you are using now (this will also stop the tie rod from bending which effects your toe). Those throttle ends that are on there now make your tie rods stand off to far from the pitman and the steering arms on the spindles. Which allows flex.

 

[DirtTrackRacer_07]

i like the exhaust if i may ask you it looks like you got some big slicks on the back it i ganna ask you were in the world do you find em? or can you buy em somewhere? dont mean to steal a thread or nothin but i like the slicks? i ant sure if im stealin or not???

 

[RedLine Go Kart]

hows the motor on that?

 

[Sleepy122CID]

Header wrap? Cool! Tell us about the muffler, too! I really like what you're doing with this, very nice.

I know you're redoing the steering, good thing too. Dunno what you've got planned, but that over/under thing with the tie rods kinda disturbs me. Offhand, I'd suggest running both rods ends off the same side of the pitman arm (not opposing as they are), and shortening them to suit. Right now the geometry looks awful. Another option you have is to run a drag link from the pitman arm to only one steering knuclke, and then run a tie rod between the knuckles.

Also- I'm having a bit of a hard time with the pics, but it looks like your frontend does not employ the Ackermann steering principle. Maybe might want to consider reworking your frontend to include that? It will make your steering more effective. It's easier, by the way, to set that up with the steering arms BEHIND the spindle. If you do that, and mayb re-examine your castor and KPI angles, you'll likely be able to do away with the counterweights. Maybe even save yourself some tire wear, too. Cheers- Chris

I had some header wrap in the garage, and the welds look so poor (I think mainly because of the wrong shielding gas - couldn't get a steady arc) that I had to just wrap it up. I didn't feel like grinding all those welds down lol. The muffler is an "RLV muffler" from AGK. It seemed to quiet it down a little, but really took the sharp pops out of the exhaust.

And all I had planned to do with the steering is put some different tie rods on with proper ends. I'll look a little more into this after reading your suggestions, but I kind of doubt I'll be doing any huge changes unless (or until) I decide to suspend the kart later down the line.

Thanks for the comments/suggestions.

EDIT: Oh yeah, I googled Ackerman angle, and I believe I do have a bit of angle on both sides. Not sure how much it should be, but I don't think those ends are parallel. I'll measure or get some pictures of that soon.

 

[Sleepy122CID]

Regarding your steering, maybe install larger tie rods and use rod ends instead of the system you are using now (this will also stop the tie rod from bending which effects your toe). Those throttle ends that are on there now make your tie rods stand off to far from the pitman and the steering arms on the spindles. Which allows flex.

That is pretty much all I had planned for now (but I'm going to put them on after I powder coat everything).

 

[Sleepy122CID]

i like the exhaust if i may ask you it looks like you got some big slicks on the back it i ganna ask you were in the world do you find em? or can you buy em somewhere? dont mean to steal a thread or nothin but i like the slicks? i ant sure if im stealin or not???

They are just bald tires that came on the kart when I bought it. I have some replacements that will be going on after I powder coat the wheels.

I don't feel like you are "stealing" the thread by asking that. These type threads should be for questions both ways in my opinion.

 

[Sleepy122CID]

hows the motor on that?

Feels pretty good. I'm not sure specifically what you are asking. I'll have a re-edited video back up soon (when I get a chance). I took the other one down because I accidentally made the window very small.

 

[Sleepy122CID]

Been a while since my last update. Haven't had much time to work on the kart lately. Got the wheels powder coated a silver metallic with candy teal top coat. I believe I'm going to do the gas tank and covers the same color...

How they might look on the kart. I won't be installing them until after I finish the trail and the rest of the kart. The color looks a little greener off camera...