Snow Blower Transmission = Manual Kart?

[l008com]

Has anyone ever used a snow blower style transmission in a go kart to make it manual?

Before we go on, please understand that this is just a curious thought I had. I have ZERO interest in doing this, I think it would likely be a terrible idea. But it also seems like it would probably work.

So if you connected the aluminum friction disk to a clutch pedal, spring loaded it ON instead of OFF, then you would be able to shift gears freely, while moving, while the clutch was pressed. I don't know how long the rubber friction ring would last, but I assume not the 10ish years you can get out of them on an actual snow blower!

Another issue is that most karts don't have room for 3 pedals, so you might have to make it a hand clutch lever on the send of the shift lever.

In many ways this would be a terrible system but at the same time, I think it would be fun to play around with.

How a #Snowblower Transmission Works

A quick video showing you how the inside of a typical snow blower transmission works. This particular machine is an MTD YardMachines blower with no form of s...

www.youtube.com

 

[Denny]

It’s been tried by Carter Bros. It was a complete and utter failure. We don’t talk about it.

 

[l008com]

Ok I was thinking about this today while driving home from work and i had an idea to potentially make this work better.

Take a motor with a horizontal engine, but the shaft coming out of the top, not the bottom. Mount that directly on the engine plate. Then put a giant aluminum disk on TOP of the motor. At a much larger diameter than in a snow blower. Then a much larger diameter drive ring wheel with a thicker drive ring made of tougher rubber, more like car tire rubber.

I think this just might maybe possibly be able to work.
Again, I'm not building it, I'm just coming up with ideas. And this one... isn't *all* bad.

 

[Master Hack]

It may work on a snowblower that wieghs a couple hundred pounds and goes 3mph but don’t expect much more.
l just used a hydrostatic transaxle outta a ridem mower. Works great! Varible, gives whiplash if l stomp it. Reverse is lower gear than forward. I‘m really happy with how well it works.

 

[Rat]

FYI
there is such a thing as cable actuated manual clutch that goes right on the PTO shaft.

 

[l008com]

It may work on a snowblower that wieghs a couple hundred pounds and goes 3mph but don’t expect much more.
l just used a hydrostatic transaxle outta a ridem mower. Works great! Varible, gives whiplash if l stomp it. Reverse is lower gear than forward. I‘m really happy with how well it works.

Got any pics of this project?

 

[Denny]

No you are not allowed to see them! Because of your silly ideas.

 

[l008com]

No you are not allowed to see them! Because of your silly ideas.

 

[Master Hack]

Naughtagator V 2.0

Maybe l could get a job building some mechanical cr*p..... maybe not, i can't lower my standards..... maybe l should get some standards first!

www.diygokarts.com

 

[OffRoadGoKart2024]

> Has anyone ever used a snow blower style transmission in a go kart to make it manual?

No, but, they made riding lawn mowers aka Rear End Riders



I currently have 5 of them, using 4 of them to make a 6x8. The other one will just be a spare back up mower.

FWIW: The disc is steel. Plus, they appear to be chain drive inside the gear case. I will know the ratio once I open them up.