Well, it's finished. Mostly.
It goes, it stops, kids love it.
A few things need looking at:
1) After all the effort on the pedals, the brake pedal needs modifying. There's too much slop before anything really happens to the linkage to the master cylinder.
2) The front wheels are a little small - I think a small increase in diameter of about 2 inches or so would bring the kart more level, and perhaps make it less prone to understeer.
3) At some point some sides to the seat would be good - at the moment with the bench type seat, it feels as if you could slide out of it on the corners, which leads to hanging on to the steering wheel.
But all in all, it's doing the job! I'm pretty pleased.
One lesson learned though - I ended up changing the axle, hubs and sprocket carrier for commercially bought go-kart parts. The parts I made were OK, but making them was never ending, and the mounting method of bolting through the axle was never as good for adjustability than a proper keyway'd axle. I'd have never got the sprocket and disc brake lined up where they needed to be in relation to the engine and brake caliper respectively. And the parts were pretty cheap too.
It goes, it stops, kids love it.
A few things need looking at:
1) After all the effort on the pedals, the brake pedal needs modifying. There's too much slop before anything really happens to the linkage to the master cylinder.
2) The front wheels are a little small - I think a small increase in diameter of about 2 inches or so would bring the kart more level, and perhaps make it less prone to understeer.
3) At some point some sides to the seat would be good - at the moment with the bench type seat, it feels as if you could slide out of it on the corners, which leads to hanging on to the steering wheel.
But all in all, it's doing the job! I'm pretty pleased.
One lesson learned though - I ended up changing the axle, hubs and sprocket carrier for commercially bought go-kart parts. The parts I made were OK, but making them was never ending, and the mounting method of bolting through the axle was never as good for adjustability than a proper keyway'd axle. I'd have never got the sprocket and disc brake lined up where they needed to be in relation to the engine and brake caliper respectively. And the parts were pretty cheap too.
