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after much debate as to how to tackle the kart, I ignored everything he said and proceeded to build the kart the way I thought it needed to be built.
First, i tore everything down and cut the old motor mount off. then i decided that two children were simply too big for the cart, so the seat and the steering was cut off as well. I welded in an extra brace and welded the steering back on centered. the steering wheel flange was crooked, and wasnt high enough so i cut the flange off and welded it with gussets to a new rod, which i would add later to the stock steering shaft.
Since the front wheels and tires were pretty much shot, i hit it craigslist for parts. i found the exact same kart in like new condition and called the owner only to find out he had sold it. i asked if he had any leftover parts from working on it, and he claimed he had an entire set of extra wheels, tires, and steering linkages! he said if i came out he would sell them cheap. after driving an hour away hoping to score all the parts i needed on the cheap... i rolled up to some dumb redneck's trailer with three lawn tractors and a mountain of old used dry rotted car tires. the only tires he had were for an ATV or freaking hand truck tires. needless to say i was pretty pissed to drive all that way expecting parts for this exact kart only to be told by the redneck "well you could make these work..."
he ended up giving me the best set of grooved turf savers off one of the lawn tractors for free for coming out. they were very old goodyears, but he claimed to have just put new tubes in them. i thought they were as big as the rears (turns out they are a tad wider) and took them without complaint because i didnt want to be an asshole.
after we got them home and put them on, we decided we liked the way they looked anyway, and used them. i realized quickly that the tie rods wouldnt clear the larger tires, so i went to work reworking the spindles. they went from a piece of pipe, a bolt, and a strip of metal with a hole at the end, to a heavy duty, gusseted, and properly angled steering arm. i actually just moved the arm to where it cleared and where it looked correct, and i later discovered i had perfectly set my ackermann angle without trying
we found a local kart guy who we picked up a used chain and new tie rods from. the rods were too long, even when we crossed up the ends on the steering plate. i didnt want to cut the rods, so i opted to WIDEN the front track of the kart. yes it sounds ridiculous, but it seemed to me to be a better plan to widen the front end. i already thought it was too narrow and with the solid rear axle, it needed more leverage in the steering dept. the C shaped kingpin holder wasnt exactly square either causing a knuckle to not want to turn... which was easier to manipulate further out anyway. i added and inch or so to each side and redrilled the kingpin angles by hand, adding a little bit of caster and a lot of camber. not sure why, but i thought it was a good idea and had read it in a few kart blogs (no idea which type of kart this applied to tho!)
after the kingpins were reinstalled and i began trying to get the steering to work correctly, i realized something was wrong. no matter what i did, i couldnt get the front wheels to not reverse-ackermann, meaning the outside wheel would turn in more than the inside wheel. after some more reading, i discovered that this was a common kart issue. most cheap karts do not even try to fix this and leave the factory with reverse ackermann. this causes karts to handle poorly, and easier to flip. its even worse on solid axle carts. the main cause of this was steering arms that pointed forward from the kingpin, and inward (to clear tires). without the correct anti-ackermann geometry, this is the WORST steering you can have. pointed forward, and outward will put you closer to correct ackermann, usually will not clear the tires, without hooking around in front of them, then your steering rods are way out in front where they are more tree-susceptable... an issue previously run into (haha punny!)
many articles suggested that crossing up the arms on the steering plate could give you some degree of reverse ackermann... and it made sense... but we had started with this plan simply to make the rods fit and they still would reverse ackermann! i had gone thru all different mock ups of positioning of the rods ends at the steering rod and couldnt make the wheels work together correctly! everything i did seemed to make it worse.
Eventually after more reading i decided to flip the knuckles and point them aftward, which is when i discovered i had perfectly set up my ackerman angles in the knuckles.... all i had to do was get the steering shaft end correct. after many tired 1, 2, 3am mockups, i found an angle i could attach a bit of metal that would keep the steering rods happy... up until full lock. the inside wheel now angled futher than the outside, but would flip past the angle at which the tie rod would go, causing the wheel to "lock" at full lock and wouldnt pull back the other way without manipulation of the tire. two nuts welded to the frame and two carriage bolts made quick and fine tuned steering stops.
the tie rods did end up getting shortened quite a bit, and i dont remember why i didnt want to cut them other than they hadnt been chopped up and butchered before. the original steering plate was impossible to use, but i left it on because i came up with an interesting idea for rotating spot lights for night karting. the motor mount was simple, just adding a few pieces of angle iron in the right places and keeping them at the same height. we ended up putting the clutch directly over the axle, and have no fore-aft adjustment of the motor. I decided to make a chain tensioner from spare delrin and a honda alternator bracket. i like the idea of moving the tensioner vs unbolting the motor for chain access.
im currently working on the pedals. the new tie rod position interferes with the stock brake pedal location, and the gas pedal had to be moved anyway. we reused the adjustable rails from the original double kid seat, but instead mounted a lawnmower seat across some metal strut. looks like a rather high seating position, but actually quite comfortable and natural. you still feel pretty low sitting in it, but you dont feel like your ass is scraping the ground. once the seating position was confirmed, pedal location was determined to be best just past the front axle. im 5 foot 10 and with the seat ALL the way back, my legs are straight out to reach the pedals. not ideal for me, but means a 6ft 4 person COULD comfortably ride this kart. sliding the seat fully forward however is short enough for even the smallest of rugrats (ones that should be allowed to drive a go kart alone anyway)
also soon to be completed will be a rear engine cage to mount fuel tank and protect engine in rollover, and on top of that will be a roll bar "tower" that will be something higher than one's head when seated for a flipping cart to land on... instead of your face. a backrest pad will be attached to that, and possibly some lights. I have a set of housing trailer lights that will become taillights (at least running lights) and some off road spot lights run off of a small jump start box battery. no alternator for now unless the power drain is fast enough to warrant one... then i will rig a honda alternator off the axle. till then i will just trickle charge it and maintain it.
also planning on using a TINY car muffler to silence the loud little flathead. I wish i had something even smaller, but I have this muffler i pulled off a customer/friend's 88 4wd wagon that was wayyy undersized for his d16a6... looked like it was off a geo metro. should really hush up the kart for night running
I will add some updates when its done since i am almost finished anyway. once its done we will take it for some testing runs and then disassemble for paint and last minute addons. in the end i might have to build my buddy a second... not so raced out kart to give back to his sister. i was supposed to fix it and give it back after having some fun with it. there is apparently a second kart frame for me to do FOR ME once i finish this one... but depending on what the other one is like, i may keep this one! I never had a go kart as a kid, so this is MY FIRST KART!!
im trying to upload pics from my phone, but for now i only have these two pics. there are moar pics to go with each section when they finally upload. go sprint.
