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Making a go cart

J

jjzcp

Experienced Member
Joined
Sep 14, 2005
Messages
123
Location
on the bald a$$ prarie
It all started about few months ago.... we were stoping to visit my dads friend, (who is an ex mechanic due to the fact that he's old, and he can only use his thumb and pointer finger on each hand.) who's place is quite cool because it had old motors, and junk lying around. By one of his junk piles was an old, and probably dangerous at the time lawnmower. It looked just like a go cart, except for the fact that it had a old cutter attachment on it. I decided to ask him if i could have it, and he accepted, because he had no use for it. I took it home to the farm, and after a month or so, on chistmas vacation in the city, i got a power max 5.5HP motor (My dad thought i should of gotten a Honda, but they cost twice, or even three times as much!) and the family (fainly) got a welder. It is was a new MIG Miller 210 welder. After we got the welder set up in our shop, i started to chage the frame to my requirements. I welded on side pannels, and soon after made an axel with a rod and two berrings, which i almost managed to wreck when welding. Today i cut some metal to connect the axel to the frame, and tomorow, i will try and find a pulley for the axel. after that all i need to do is connect the motor to the frame, and buy a centrificul (spelt wrong) clutch.

note: the axel i was talking about is the back axel. the front was already on. Thank god!
 
Good stuff, when you finish, maybe you can race my babies!
http://www.gallery.ubertechworld.com/thumbnails.php?album=18

I put in raptor rods, pistons, bored them over, high torque crank, etc.
Making probably 8 or 9 hp from 5hp blocks.
Briggs and Stratton Engines will last the longest under real abuse.
One is live, one is single wheeled.
They both need fresh paint.
You may want to consider gearing the end down, maybe 2:1(via torque converter), it may onlu go 30-40mph, but it can drag you, your best friend, a small shed, and your pet with it on 5 or 6 hp.
I weight 300+lbs, and I can climb a 30 degree hill at full speed no struggle, my friends straight chainer wont pull his 130lb butt up the same hill without a head start.
 
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alexkerhead, cool gocarts. Are they home made? I was thinking of making mine from scratch but all i had for metal was alluminum (which a standard welder can't weld), and wide pipe from a sprayer (which is way to wide)
Also i hope being only around 120-30 LBs is going to make up for the extra weight of the body. I am definatly going to use a 2:1 gear ratio, i just hope, 5.5HP is enough. I was also of thinking of having multiple sized pullies, and a slideable engine mount engine for multiple ratios. I could probably find a 10 to 20 HP motor at a farm auction, but it would be way to big, and way to heavy. I was going to use a engine from our old Honda 185 XL dirt bike, but something is wrong with the ignition system, and i couldn't get it to spark..

If/when i get it done, i will post pics, but not now, caus it looks like a peace of crap withought the axel installed.
 
First kart I built was 440 Rupp-powered. It would do 60 on the open road, but was realy designed for off-road use. I remember flipping it on one of the early test runs, trying to climb a hill that was a little too steep... A later project involved a 305 Honda engine, but that project was never completed beyond a few test-drives around the block (stuff just kept rattling loose and falling off, too much vibration I s'poze).

--T
 
A 2:1(means engine runs twice the speed as the weels, geared down) on a 5.5HP can pull my 300LB up a hill at full speed, no trouble, it definitly can do it for you. makes for an excellent off roader. a 1:1(means enigne runs the speed of the wheels) engines ratio will not have any torque really.
Check the points and coil, may be rusted up, or the coil maybe bad, coils are cheap. Replace points(if bike motor has em) anyway.
 
on the 185cc motor, i can't quite remember the part name, (mabye it called the condensor) anyways, i don't think it getting grounded. I was going to and give it a better ground, but my brother took the engine, and put it into a Honda 100 frame, with 80 wheels. This is also a cool project, and if he gets it going i will start racing dirt bikes again. My family(including relatives) is quite weird. They are eather computer nerds, or mechanics.

also, i do know what ratios do, and mean. If i didn't, i would be in a lot of trouble, when me and my brother fixed a 30 some year old Massy-fergasun combine.
 
jjzcp said:
also, i do know what ratios do, and mean. If i didn't, i would be in a lot of trouble, when me and my brother fixed a 30 some year old Massy-fergasun combine.
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I was just explaining just in case someone who didn't know took interest, I wouldn't need to go back and explain it again, nothing was being implied.
 
jjzcp said:
i know nothing was being implied, i was just saying that i understood ratios. Hopefully i didn't offend you. If i did, i am sorry.
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Nah, not at all, lol, I thaught I offended you.
Wow, this is a odd perdicament..lol
Anywho, we both know none was intended..:cool:
 
Hey, that Massey engine & gears would make for one helluva kart! Just think, you might start a whole new genre in outdoor entertainment...the 'Monster Kart'! I can picture it already...crushing a Greyhound bus with a go-kart...

--T
 
The only thing i could do with the engine is stick it in one of our old trucks. It should fit nicely in our 88' chev, because the engine in the combine is a Chevy 350, and it runs perfect. The eingine in the 88' chev is also a 350, but it has chevy's early, and terrible EFI. The bad EFI, and the fact that it burns oil like crazy would be good reasons to replace it. Besides the fact that the motor doesn't work, i would need to replace the steering column on the truck before i could use it.

Another cool thing in that old Massy that would be cool to put in a vehicle is it's hydrostatic transmission. It would be slow though.
 
Heh, the talk of tractors made me think of this...

A friend owned a hobby shop that had an indoor dirt track for offroad radio controlled cars. Track grooming was accomplished with an old Murray riding lawn mower that had the mowing deck removed and a "grader" blade installed. We called it his Murray-Ferguson. :)

Dragging the "plow" was pretty hard on it, had to replace the gears in the tranny on a regular basis.

Kent
 
Terry, we replaced the heads 0 times. We ran it until it quit, then got a friend/mechanic to look at it, and after that, it was done. We didn't want to sink any money into it because we replaced it with a 00' chev 2500. This is our current farm truck.
 
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