Home made Go-Kart Page

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A few pictures and words as I build a Go kart for my kids (and me!).

Main frame is 1 inch square section tube, 3 mm thick wall.

Can you see the mistake made from the start, this is what you get working with no plans and making it up as you go!

The wheels are old ones scrounged from old ride on mowers. The rear axle is 25 mm solid steel bar in two pillow bearings. The back wheels have 8 mm high tensile bolts through them as well as being Loctite'd to the shaft.

The only work done to these rear wheels was to drill out the centre hole to take the shaft, clean and repaint. Tyre sizes are 16x6.50x8 for the rears and 15x6.00x6 for the fronts.

The engine, an elderly Honda 240cc side valve is from an old generator, the taper shaft was cut short and then turned down to 3/4 inch diameter.
A key way cut to match with the clutch and it's gear sprocket. It got a change in colour to silver a bit later!

The front wheels took quite a lot of machining to complete. Being designed for slow running they had very basic sleeve bearings. The centre sections were cut out and 2 inch sections machined to accept thrust bearings. The whole centre was then welded back into the wheel Also to be seen, are small inserts to reduce the bearing inner races from 17 mm to 16 mm for a couple of high tensile bolts. The hubs have grease points and in the end picture can be seen simple nylon caps to prevent loss of the grease and to keep as much of the dirt out as possible.

Basic make up of the stub axle can be seen here. A king pin angle of 8 degrees, no camber or caster has been included in this design, just keeping it simple and not expecting very high speed's.

Sorry, but missed a few stages here, I would rather plan and build then take pictures, but a few progress shots of the kart
View of the steering, engine mounting and gear next to the clutch and disk brake ready for me to sort out how to get a calliper from Honda Superdream to fit.

In the above pictures, I still needed to add Nerf? bars to the sides, a floor pan, roll cage to the chassis as well as pedals, seat belt and any safety features I can think off.

A few more pictures.

Cage added and side bars. All the tube-work is done in my workshop, the thinner tube is 19mm Dia standard ERW and the Cage tube is 25.4 mm Dia ERW in 3 mm thick wall. This was bent by hand with use of home made die's and works well.

Slowly taking shape, still need to sort out the brake, pedals for brake, engine and to buy and fit an aluminium floor pan.

Again I have missed several opportunities to post pictures, but the project is near completion.

The pedals, brake, accelerator and cables are all on, a floor pan is fitted, the back axle has been cut down in length slightly from the above pictures. An old fuel tank is fitted but not too happy with this as I would prefer to use a plastic tank, but it does allow the engine to run. Still have to obtain the safety harness and when this has been purchased the final frame work will be completed to hold the harness mountings and to brace the cage a bit more.

Still to do is some sheet metal fabrication to make a chain guard. Then I need somewhere to test the machine to see how it runs and if it proves to be fun it will get painted.

A few more pictures will be attached soon!

As from the last two pictures above, the harness is now on and the last bit of cage is completed. I added a brace from lower to upper cage corner and fitted a cross stay around the back of the seat. Also clips to keep the harness from sliding down. The petrol tank needed a slight adjustment to fit around the modified cage. I did consider a plastic tank, but in the end, it fits, is very solid and fits in with the rest of the machine. Notice the chain guard, quite boxy but it covers the clutch assembly as well and should stop hands and fingers from becoming entangled from above.
Last item added was a car style exhaust box to keep the noise down!

May even fit some mudguards, what do you think?

The main challenge now is to find a location to ride the kart in safety. I have contacted many of the local councils on the North West coast to be told they do not allow karts, quads or any motorised vehicles on the beaches. Some however do allow cars to park on the beach, some allow hovercraft and sand yachts or sand buggies, not sure on the correct title for them but riding this machine is not allowed.

I wonder what other owners of such karts do. Racing karts can use purpose made tracks, but machines such as this are not allowed on the few tracks I have contacted.

So I am stuck! I will try to find a grass area that undertakes track sports or even a large empty car park on an industrial area if the owner will allow, I expect to pay a small fee to do this. I believe with the state of political correctness it will be hard to achieve this goal. If you can assist please contact me.

There are still things I would like to complete, such as a much quieter exhaust system. A tilt switch to kill the engine, this would act as a safety as well as the normal kill switch to the left hand of the driving position. To actually draw some plans for it in Auto/Turbo cad.

If anyone reading this wants to ask a few questions then please do so, use of some of my equipment to aid in your own projects is always a possibility for locals (North West UK).

It still requires painting to even stop the slight rust it can get by just being in the garage.

Enjoy, but be careful out there

I started to draw up the kart frame in a basic cad package, and as I complete various pages I will include them here as pdf files.

kart1.pdf kart2.pdf

To do the frame with the round tube I made a bending jig. With it I was able to bend 25.4 mm diameter 3 mm thick wall tube. A few pictures are here for those wanting to make their own as it may provide some idea's.

The kart is no more! It has gone to a good home with someone with a bit of land and the promise I can ride it there. Now going to build a Roadster, get yourself a Haynes Book!

If you wish to contact me, please E-mail by clicking on the following link and then remove the "spamtrap" Email