Project Paradimes Shifter: Making Karting Dreams Come True

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    • July 16, 2017 at 10:28 pm #83686
      Patrick Callahan
      Participant

      The kart really did come with a ton of extras.

      There’s a set of three used wheels, one brand new set of wheels, two old but unused sets of tires, a tire installing tool, a bunch of extra gears…

      …extra hubs (one has some bolts that need extracting), possibly a flywheel tool?, exhaust bracket, aluminum alignment discs, ballast…

      …a bunch of extra two stroke oil and a funnel (which I won’t bore you with a picture of), extra engine case halves, some random pistons and other engine stuff…

      …MyChron 3 with data logger, laser alignment tool, kart suit and rib protector, trackside transponder, and probably some other stuff. Hopefully it’ll all come together into a fun project. For now, I’m pretty pleased with the purchase. Time to get it running!

    • July 17, 2017 at 5:20 am #83689
      Matt Martin
      Participant

      A lot of the parts that you talk about having “play” are supposed to have play.  One [of the many] kart-chassis tuning methods is to tighten and loosen brackets which attach to the chassis – or sometimes removing them all together.  This includes floor tray, front-bumper bracket, side-pod brackets, torsion bars, seat brackets, etc.

       

       

      Your chassis looks to be quite old as the side-pod bars do not mount perpendicularly to the chassis – that’s always a quick tell.  That was standardized sometime in the early- to mid-2000s.

    • July 17, 2017 at 12:27 pm #83703
      William Martin
      Participant

      Do the brakes work? If it’s been sitting for a long time, as it looks, the best thing you can do is tear down the entire chassis and clean/inspect everything as you put it back together. New seals all around, engine and brakes would be a good start!

       

    • July 17, 2017 at 6:45 pm #83708
      Patrick Callahan
      Participant

      It’s definitely old. The homologation date is ’99 so at least 18 years. I really don’t plan on being competitive, but it is already clear that finding ‘vintage’ parts may be a bit of a challenge.

      The brakes don’t work well. I was actually planning on bleeding the brakes tonight, but valve on the included gravity bleeder won’t allow it to thread onto the master cylinder. Is it possible that it’s supposed to be reverse-bled?

      I do plan to do a fairly intensive rebuild. I will obviously be looking for abnormal cracks and wear, but it’ll definitely be a learning experience. Any tips or information would certainly be appreciated.

    • July 17, 2017 at 8:05 pm #83711
      FREDDY SANDOVAL
      Participant

      Don’t even waste your time bleeding it, most likely it will have all kinds of rust inside the pistons and calipers.

      Your best bet is to take all the hydraulics apart, hone your cylinders and replace all seals. You can find cylinder cups from an auto parts from a rear wheel cylinder rebuild kit that will fit that diameter, and for the master cylinder seals you will have to contact a kart parts supplier, they can still get those old kart seals, just ask them.

      And for your bleeding procedure, just buy a turkey baster, remove the plunger and use it as a funnel screw the tip into the threads and fill it up, jack up the front end of the kart put a wooden block underneath and start gravity bleeding your rear calipers. Then lower the kart down again, and start doing the front calipers.

      Here’s a store that has your seals, contact them, or if you already know your size then just order them from their website.

      Good luck.     http://fastech-racing.com/brake-seals/

    • July 18, 2017 at 6:28 am #83733
      Patrick Callahan
      Participant

      Okay. I had already picked up some steel wool to do just that. I guess I’ll move it up on the order of operations.

    • July 18, 2017 at 7:27 am #83734
      Matt Martin
      Participant

      you may need to use an actual brake hone.

    • July 18, 2017 at 9:53 am #83739
      Patrick Callahan
      Participant

      I still need to get one of the front calipers off the spindle and I broke two 90 degree fittings, but I’m so glad I took them apart. The pistons for the rear caliper, in particular, needed quite a bit of coercion to come out. Thanks for the tip!

      • July 19, 2017 at 3:34 pm #83788
        William Martin
        Participant

        Can you post pictures of the caliper bores? Let’s see if they can be saved…or just need to be replaced. Stuff that sits a long time with brake fluid in it doesn’t do too well…

         

    • July 19, 2017 at 4:51 pm #83790
      Patrick Callahan
      Participant

      I don’t have anything cleaned up yet, but I’ll post pictures of the bores when I do. I need to find a source for the 90 degree fittings that I broke and extract the broken ones. I would like to find the plastic and rubber pieces to fully rebuild the master cylinder, but I may be out of luck.

    • July 19, 2017 at 9:07 pm #83793
      FREDDY SANDOVAL
      Participant

      Here you have it, you may wanna call them to verify the parts you need.

      You may wanna hold and support those 90 degree fittings with another wrench next time so that they don’t break off, they are pretty fragile.

      http://www.fastech-racing.com/brake-line-fitting-90-elbow.html

      http://www.fastech-racing.com/brake-line-fitting-tee.html

      http://www.accelerationkarting.com/tonykartbrakepumpsbs2.html

      http://www.accelerationkarting.com/tonykartrearbrakecaliperbsm.html

       

    • July 20, 2017 at 5:14 am #83794
      Matt Martin
      Participant

      pics not working for me.  try imgur for a host.

    • July 20, 2017 at 11:32 am #83810
      Patrick Callahan
      Participant

      Should be fixed now. I had tried posting from my phone.

    • July 20, 2017 at 12:42 pm #83814
      Patrick Callahan
      Participant

      As I’m ordering new seals, I’d also like to replace the old brake lines. They are currently braided steel, but I’m interested in switching to nylon as I presume that would be less expensive and have the added benefit of making it easy to spot bubbles in the system. I’d also be interested in switching to banjo fittings. Thoughts?

    • July 20, 2017 at 1:19 pm #83821
      FREDDY SANDOVAL
      Participant

      Those master cylinders do not look Tony Kart style, maybe they were replaced by something else?

      You can use plastic lines, but the fittings will be hard to find in metric, and nearly impossible to attach them to banjo fittings.

      Look for good used ones on ebay, besides those brake hoses may still be good. They are nylon as well, they’re just cover in steel breaded mesh, and a nice rubberized coating that’s all.

    • July 20, 2017 at 3:15 pm #83823
      Patrick Callahan
      Participant

      Rather than try to take pictures of every bore, I tried to choose the worst front, rear and master cylinder bores to take pictures of. Each has been lightly cleaned up with denatured alcohol and steel wool. I’m leaning towards buying a brake cylinder hone for everything.

      Front:

      Rear:

      Master:

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