GCinDC
100 MW
kids (ages 10, 8 and 5) have been begging for a go kart...
i'd gotten free off CL a schwinn fs missile scooter that needed batts, and since i really didn't plan on riding as is decided to cannibalize for the project (borrowed pic):
i cut up charlie's old bike that had the same size wheels, planning to combine w/ scooter parts, but gave up on that idea when i realized how much of a pain it'd be to do the steering w/ two diff forks. we toyed with other ideas as well... haha
so i started hunting around for old go karts/frames.
i found a nice small zooma ty rod ii go kart on green bay CL and picked it up while just on vaca there. as you can see by the lawn mower, it was nice and small, and i liked the brake and throttle levers on the steering, for the smaller kids:
the previous owner had plowed into something and bent the frame at right front wheel, so i fixed that, and the kids wanted to paint it.
[youtube]Ba-gkDhlBsE[/youtube]
the previous owner said it ran great, but just before i showed up, he told me the pull start broke ("just a $15 part"). i fixed enough to find that it wouldn't start after 15 pulls, and that was fine since i planned to convert it anyway. strapped it on top of the minivan for the 16hr drive home:
the trickiest thing so far has been the motor mount. as you can sorta see in this pic, the scooter motor was mounted to a big flat piece of metal that also served as the chain guard:
i decided the easiest thing was to cut up that chain guard mount, and bend it to mount off the vertical bar that the old engine mounted to, shown here held by a clamp:
so that's where i am now. i'll add attach another bar or two from old horizontal engine mount bar to stabilize the motor laterally.
it's a 24v 26A controller and it spins the wheel surprisingly fast with no load. i won't be surprised if i have to put a larger chain ring on the wheel tho, to lower the speed and up the torque. i was very happy to see that the kart and scooter used the same size chain!
oh, and i've got to swap the motor leads so that it runs forward, with the motor in this position. i spent some time researching it yesterday: can a brushed (currie) motor run in reverse? i tested it under no load, and it seems to work, although it doesn't spin freely forward when not powered - has some resistance, while it spins freely the other way... all feedback welcome!
ps. testing w/ lipo, but might end up getting lead batt for safety/charging convenience for kids...
and once i get it running, i'll have to worry about where i let the kids ride it in our neighborhood... got a safety flag tho!
i'd gotten free off CL a schwinn fs missile scooter that needed batts, and since i really didn't plan on riding as is decided to cannibalize for the project (borrowed pic):
i cut up charlie's old bike that had the same size wheels, planning to combine w/ scooter parts, but gave up on that idea when i realized how much of a pain it'd be to do the steering w/ two diff forks. we toyed with other ideas as well... haha
so i started hunting around for old go karts/frames.
i found a nice small zooma ty rod ii go kart on green bay CL and picked it up while just on vaca there. as you can see by the lawn mower, it was nice and small, and i liked the brake and throttle levers on the steering, for the smaller kids:
the previous owner had plowed into something and bent the frame at right front wheel, so i fixed that, and the kids wanted to paint it.
[youtube]Ba-gkDhlBsE[/youtube]
the previous owner said it ran great, but just before i showed up, he told me the pull start broke ("just a $15 part"). i fixed enough to find that it wouldn't start after 15 pulls, and that was fine since i planned to convert it anyway. strapped it on top of the minivan for the 16hr drive home:
the trickiest thing so far has been the motor mount. as you can sorta see in this pic, the scooter motor was mounted to a big flat piece of metal that also served as the chain guard:
i decided the easiest thing was to cut up that chain guard mount, and bend it to mount off the vertical bar that the old engine mounted to, shown here held by a clamp:
so that's where i am now. i'll add attach another bar or two from old horizontal engine mount bar to stabilize the motor laterally.
it's a 24v 26A controller and it spins the wheel surprisingly fast with no load. i won't be surprised if i have to put a larger chain ring on the wheel tho, to lower the speed and up the torque. i was very happy to see that the kart and scooter used the same size chain!
oh, and i've got to swap the motor leads so that it runs forward, with the motor in this position. i spent some time researching it yesterday: can a brushed (currie) motor run in reverse? i tested it under no load, and it seems to work, although it doesn't spin freely forward when not powered - has some resistance, while it spins freely the other way... all feedback welcome!
ps. testing w/ lipo, but might end up getting lead batt for safety/charging convenience for kids...
and once i get it running, i'll have to worry about where i let the kids ride it in our neighborhood... got a safety flag tho!