NEHA

My biggest stumbling block to date, and it still defeats me, is the torque converter.

Now I know what you are thinking, Seth you knuckle head, that isn't a torque convertor, that is a centrifugal clutch. Yeah you are right! That is what a frustrated dad does when he's sick of looking at a non moving kart. For the life of me I couldn't get the torque convertor to fit. No matter how I clock it on the motor, something is in the way. I'm guessing I need to do a jack shaft setup, to make it work, in the space I have. So for short term, I have the clutch setup. They aren't suppose to be good for hills, and our yard is one big hill. What good is a kart that isn't good at climbing hills? Especially to someone that loves hillclimbing.

So, the other issue we had to overcome, was Andrew's size. The poor guy is only 42 inches tall at the moment. It is a kid sized kart, but he was still a good 8 inches shy of touching the pedals with the seat all the way forward.

I tried all manner of things to extend the current pedals, nothing really worked. So Speedway motors came to the rescue with some cable throttle pedals designed for hot rods.
I'm happy with the pedals, but I need to shim them so they don't lie flat on the pan of the kart....because it makes it harder to floor it. Andrew hasn't complained about it yet, but it sure does look uncomfortable.

Being one wheel drive with no suspension, you find yourself limited a little bit. You keep the throttle down, which keeps the tire spinning even though you don't have much grip. Then the lawn starts to strip away. That is the ripping sound you can hear in the video.
It should be pretty easy to make it two wheel drive, I just need to find the time.

I'm sure he felt like he was going 100 mph!

Ok.... better cage, harness, and more power is in order.... and a track.

Check. Five point racing harness installed. Had to go with a latch and link which is hard for him. Anybody have an expired cam lock style they want to get rid of for cheap? Far more power is going to the ground.


Our lower yard has become the track for now. The grass is not amused.


We did successfully convert it from one wheel peal to two wheel drive. As you can see it gives him plenty of grip out of the corners, but it's a little harder to steer.




The lawn prefers it in two wheel drive as well, as there is less wheel spin.

If I can find one of my old camlocks, I'll bring it with me this weekend. He looks so serious in that action picture haha

That would be epically cool David. Thank you.

sweet. you're a great Dad, Seth.

I had a similar cart...but my parents never got us stuff like this...I had to wait until I was a little older and dumpster dive for parts and pieces. Our first cart was built from a pressure washer we found on the side of the road (must have fallen from a truck), an old lawn tractor, and a go kart frame that had been discarded at the dump. Front wheels were way bigger than the rear wheels, and it was 1 wheel drive too...but I got clocked at 31mph on it!

Anyway, great to see this..brings back a lot of memories, and also sparks ideas for a build for my daughter

The thing that makes me the happiest about this one, is how long he can drive it on a tank of gas. The gator was cool, but maintaining the batteries was a pain.

So instead of getting annoyed at a battery going flat before he's done playing.....now he gets exhausted from the steering input.

sachilles wrote:...now he gets exhausted from the steering input.

That's about the best thing you could hope for - a kid who gets worn out before they get tired of doing a fun thing. I wish more parents had this much fun doing things with/for their kids (anything, not just things I consider fun).