Why good chain guards are a good idea

[Flyinhillbilly]

Today we had the first test nd tune at one of our local tracks. Overall it was a very good day, my dad is going to drive mine this year, and I’m going to step into a more supportive role running one of our local tracks. It was really fun to watch my dad settle in and get fast. My daughter has always been fast, but I didn’t feel like she had enough motor to really get after it today since it broke the camshaft warming it up earlier this week, and the only one I had to replace it with on hand was a CL-4 dyno, which is a pretty small stock class style cam, and it only has 28/25 valves and small block carb. Apparently I was wrong. I made good power, and ended up breakythe new gold on gold chain and projecting it through the seat and right into my daughters side. I really do t think any chain guard on the market would have prevented this, but you can bet that I’ll armor the chain side of the seats from now on. We were lucky that she came out of it with some scrapes and pretty heavy bruises. Be safe guys, you never know when one of these is going to let go. This was a brand new gold on gold chain. We literally took it out of the box Thursday.
https://youtu.be/4QiRLVWfehc

 

[Tpdingo]

I hope she is okay! Anyway I think you could bend some 3/16" steel and that would be a big improvement for if the chain came off....though it might hurt your ears when the chain hits the plate

 

[itsid]

the F?
I also hope your daughter is well...
Maybe she should have her kidney checked,
just to be safe, that looks terribly close to the kidney and
like a terribly hard hit too...

Man I hope everything's alright.

well, yeah chainguard.. good idea...

'sid

 

[PullHorse]

I hope she's alright and thanks for reminding us. I'll be adding one to one of our karts.

 

[Karts of Kaos]

i hope she's alright as well, I have had my chain throne before but it never went far, so why isn't mine going far? I am running a stage1 212 and 41# chain

 

[karl]

Be safe guys, you never know when one of these is going to let go. This was a brand new gold on gold chain. We literally took it out of the box Thursday.

Huh, I put the same brand new RLV chain on my azusa bike, less than a mile, Under full throttle, pulled apart the chain.

Slung around and punctured the gas tank, and took out the valve cover vent, no fun.

I think I am going to convert to #40 chain, 20ish HP dont mix well with 3/8 pitch

Stay safe!

 

[Karttekk]

Another reason a chain guard is needed is to hopefully keep any riders with long hair or loose clothing from getting them caught in the spinning chain and causing severe injury. Better yet is something that covers the whole chain, clutch and drivetrain area so this never happens. Sorry to hear that happened, keep us updated on how she's doing.

 

[JTSpeedDemon]

Yeah, chain guards for sure are important, especially with high HP and speed!

Hope she gets better soon, but it looks like the seat took a lot of the impact.

This is my chain guard setup. Got it from a older guy that had a trailer full of old dirt track race kart stuff at Pate, so I found the guard in the bin and figured it would be useful!

It's a Slack Performance Deluxe piece, real nice with the heat shield. About $20 new, but I got it for about $5(Might've been $2.50, can't remember).

 

[Functional Artist]

Bullet Proof Bell Housing Concept

Wholy krap!
...hope she's OK too

Remember the "old days" when drag racing guys were "chucking" clutch plates thru their transmissions bell housing
…& thru the floor board
...& also thru anything else that may be in the way

They started modifying &/or using modified trans bell housings to contain the clutch disc & associated shrapnel

So, maybe it would be a good idea, to design a bit bigger of a blocker than just a chain guard

May be especially important for karts with highly modified (cheap Chinese clone) motors

* (2) failures from same mfg?
...seems kinda fishy

 

[Whitetrashrocker]

Functional artist. Now it's blower straps, pan diapers, bellhousing armor, driveshaft hoops, differential armor......and they get strict about up-to-date....

 

[Flyinhillbilly]

I saw her today, and she’s sore but ok. I’ve been looking at the way the chain guards are made and I’ve came up with a way to make sure that this don’t happen again. I think that’s particularly impoysince we’re always trying to find more woopow, and that’s only going to make failures more common. I plan to have both of our open modified karts updated by this weekend, and I’ll post pics when I get the first one done.
I’m going to do the stockers too, but I think the high hp ones should take priority.

 

[Functional Artist]

Functional artist. Now it's blower straps, pan diapers, bellhousing armor, driveshaft hoops, differential armor......and they get strict about up-to-date....

OK
IDC everyone knows, gas'ers are NOT my thing

I was just using a "catastrophic" situation like that, as an example
…& what they did to improve on the safety aspect

I'm kinda concerned about this because, I've seen many, many lawn mower engines with huge holes (even some with the whole side of the block "broken away") from simply "throwing a rod"

I'm talkin' about stone stock motors that were running @ normal RPM's
...but, were (usually) just ran low on oil & a bearing seized
…& then, KABOOM! (a connecting rod & lots of shrapnel are violently ejected)

Now, like with Flyinhillbilly, were talkin' about racing situations (high RPM's)
...or like I mentioned earlier, many others, are modifying them cheap Chinese engines
...& then running them as hard as they can

Just an idea I wanted to mention

 

[Flyinhillbilly]

OK
IDC everyone knows, gas'ers are NOT my thing

I was just using a "catastrophic" situation like that, as an example
…& what they did to improve on the safety aspect

I'm kinda concerned about this because, I've seen many, many lawn mower engines with huge holes (even some with the whole side of the block "broken away") from simply "throwing a rod"

I'm talkin' about stone stock motors that were running @ normal RPM's
...but, were (usually) just ran low on oil & a bearing seized
…& then, KABOOM! (a connecting rod & lots of shrapnel are violently ejected)

Now, like with Flyinhillbilly, were talkin' about racing situations (high RPM's)
...or like I mentioned earlier, many others, are modifying them cheap Chinese engines
...& then running them as hard as they can

Just an idea I wanted to mention

You aren’t wrong, and that’s why I try to use the best parts available. Billet side covers, good top plates, and good connecting rods all help with keeping the internals internal. The motor on this kart at the moment is the one slated for the dingo I’m building. I think the dingo should be pretty fast given what we’ve seen out of it so far.

 

[Wilson_Engine_Shop]

I've had problems with #41 and #40 chain breaking master links on my Murray lately. I switched to D.I.D. 420 chain and i'm hoping the chain issues will stop

 

[Flyinhillbilly]

I've had problems with #41 and #40 chain breaking master links on my Murray lately. I switched to D.I.D. 420 chain and i'm hoping the chain issues will stop

We don’t use masters.they get pressed apart and back together. No clip to come off that way.

I ordered the aluminum I needed this morning from my local metal supply, I should be able to pick it up this evening and hopefully get started on the guard upgrades.

 

[Flyinhillbilly]

Got started on it.
1/4” plate should prevent this from happening again.

 

[Whitetrashrocker]

Besides a plate guard, what about a grabber type. Something else for the chain to wrap around. Not for your example but in general.

 

[Flyinhillbilly]

Besides a plate guard, what about a grabber type. Something else for the chain to wrap around. Not for your example but in general.

That could work too. I think anything to absorb the energy before it hits you is a good plan. I’ve been slapped by a broken chain myself, and I’ll be the first to tell you that there’s a lot of energy in one. I should’ve done this before something like this happened, but I’ve never seen one come through a seat before and didn’t think it was needed. Clearly I was wrong.

 

[Kartorbust]

That could work too. I think anything to absorb the energy before it hits you is a good plan. I’ve been slapped by a broken chain myself, and I’ll be the first to tell you that there’s a lot of energy in one. I should’ve done this before something like this happened, but I’ve never seen one come through a seat before and didn’t think it was needed. Clearly I was wrong.

We learn from our mistakes. Glad it wasn't anything worse than what out ended up being.