[William Martin]

I used to have an Atomik, years ago…can you post some pictures & test my memory? AKL-90 I think was the full name.

Bill M

[William Martin]

Seems like two-strokes are making a comeback in the motocross world…maybe that will prolong the supply far better than kart racing could hope for.

 

[William Martin]

Hi Jeremy,

 

Check your ignition advance. Too little and it will be burning in the exhaust, looks really hot on the egt, but you can still have a wet plug.

regards,

Bill

[William Martin]

Interesting, nice to see an alternative to “big bucks” racing for shifters. Hope it adheres to the f100 “keep it simple” philosophy!

Bill M

[William Martin]

Can you wiggle the crank nut up/down enough to notice? If so, check your main bearings before you carve a trough in the cases with your connecting rod…or maybe push it through the block! This doesn’t sound like an “airflow” heating issue to me…

Good Luck,

Bill Martin

[William Martin]

Matt,

I have a k9b cylinder & head on my k9a engine, and have not seen this issue. Do you have the k9a head on a k9b cylinder? I don’t know, but that may be the issue you have with too much piston/head clearance. I didn’t try that combination myself…

Bill

[William Martin]

It’s amazing how much speed is scrubbed by a kart that gets “sideways” for a moment! Think that’s all that happened there.

[William Martin]

“JMHO”? Really just good common sense…unexpected moves are DANGEROUS.

[William Martin]

What happened to those tires? Big torch? :-)

 

[William Martin]

Can you post a picture of the set up that you have? I made my own clutch handle perch to stop the flapping cable issue, whenever turning the steering wheel. It goes on the steering column between the steering wheel and the upper column support, but it floats on the column, not turning with the steering wheel. Not sure if this is what you need, hence the request for a picture of what you have now.

 

[William Martin]

[quote quote=61169]John, in looking at the photo you supplied, you may want to go over the wields on the kart, the seat support strut looks as though its cracked. Brian [/quote]

Great observation, it very much needs re-welding. Have had a few of those myself, since I keep these silly things “forever”.

[William Martin]

Depends on what you consider “small”, I suppose. It will not be optimum to throw a mod engine timing curve into the mix unless you have porting work to make good use of the extended rpm range that the mod engine curve will permit. Still, worth a try I think. Just don’t expect too much!

[William Martin]

[quote quote=59150]All ideas are appreciated, Love the Pro-Am idea but really wonder about the logistics and cost particularly on the celeb side. [/quote]
Connection with a well-known charity sounds like a very good way to open doors that you will otherwise never even get close to opening. Lots of the “rich & famous” like to be seen supporting “causes”, some of them may actually support worthwhile causes…pardon the cynical note, but they all work the PR system to the max. It would seem there must be some well know pro racers that could be persuaded to lend a hand, given the right kind of media exposure for their own benefit.

 

 

[William Martin]

Don’t really know. My only criterion is that the piston shaft has a real dirt seal in front of it. The vented reservoir is also good with self-retracting pads in the caliper. I haven’t looked at the MCP caliper in years, is it a self adjusting style? If so, no problems with using that as far as I can tell. It will certainly be easier to build your brake system with parts from the same place… :-) I just like to do it the hard way I guess!

Bill

[William Martin]

[quote quote=58013]Right now I am running a drilled and full float disk. are these the correct ones? <span style=”line-height: 1.5;”> </span> <span style=”line-height: 1.5;”>So which one would you use. They all just seem to small. Am I not looking at the correct ones?</span> [/quote]

Have a look at the rotor that Schockwave did for the Wilwood rear caliper, it isn’t really available any more, but illustrates what they had to do to get the friction down to where the brakes didn’t just instantly lock up with little pedal pressure. It was a solid rotor, about 3/8″ thick, with a bunch of holes drilled in it…not so much for cooling, I think!

About the seeming small: Do you mean the calipers at the Summit link? If so, it’s deceiving, that rear caliper is massive for a kart.

Bill

[William Martin]

MCP master cylinder & Wilwood Caliper. You may need to make your own mounting bracket(s), but those parts will last approximately forever, compared to most anything you can get from Europe. The Euro guys have some nice calipers now, but still can’t seem to make a decent master cylinder, ie. one that is not designed to suck up dirt & fail “soon”. Oh, one problem with the Wilwood caliper: you may have to figure out how to get less rear brake…the rotor needs a lot of holes in it to reduce the available friction surface, or it will be “hair trigger” sensitive. At least that’s how mine worked out…

Bill

[William Martin]

I can’t imagine that claiming a “leased motor” is going to work out so well…the idea of swapping at random for just the duration of the race event would be sort of more palatable to the owners of said leased motors. But still not too popular…

 

[William Martin]

I don’t know of any, but how about adapting one of the electrically assisted steering boxes that many cars have now, in place of the hydraulic type of old. Should be a lot less problem than trying to power hydraulics on a kart!

 

[William Martin]

It costs twice the Honda. So it costs $12,000? Where did you see that?

From current Acceleration Kart Racing web adv.:

Honda CR125 Engine, assembled

We stock the 1999 Cylinder version engine with a 6 speed transmission.

This is just the Engine and Electrics.

So, $2800 x 2 is $5600, about what one of the DEA units costs. Nobody really needs to pay $6000 for a cr125, although some may think they do. Not a problem…

[William Martin]

Well…announced two years ago, they don’t seem to have overrun the world yet. Maybe because it costs like twice a Honda?

 

[William Martin]

[quote quote=57330]Here is one near you that is awesome. These motors kick butt. Not a shifter, but fast and the motors require a lot less work overall. http://atlanta.craigslist.org/nat/mcy/5282472621.html [/quote]

Maybe not a shifter, but 45hp and no front brakes sounds a bit dodgy to me. It’s also a rather old chassis, note the “breadbox” side pods, that went obsolete in 2003…

 

[William Martin]

Unfortunately when you have metal bits flying around, there is no “usual suspect”, nearly anything can happen. Having said that, the lower rod bearing is something to be replaced “just because you can”. The cage will eventually fracture on it’s own, I sort of doubt if it will swallow metal bits from outside of the bearing, since it is spinning around trying to throw stuff away from itself.

If you had a real rod failure, there would probably be a hole in the case somewhere…although the big end of the rod will start eating at the cases, right where it gets both halves at once, when there is enough rod looseness. That usually doesn’t happen if you replace the big end bearing at a reasonable schedule. Any trace of bluing from heat and it’s too late, you need a new rod and crank pin both.

So the moral of this long-winded story is that tear down and close inspection is critical to keeping these little monsters alive. Clean stuff like you mean to bake on it, so you can really see the condition of the metal surface.

regards,

bill

 

[William Martin]

Well, at this point your only option is a complete tear down. There is no telling what may have been chewed upon in the bottom end. Maybe it would have been possible to fish around with a magnet, turn engine upside down & flush with spray cleaner, but it isn’t reliable. Always taking a big chance when not opening up cases after a failure that left broke something in the cylinder. Guess why the cranks or crank bearings are made to slip fit, as opposed to the way Honda’s come from the factory…

 

Good luck,

Bill

[William Martin]

[quote quote=55315]Produce a racing go-kart that cost $500. [/quote]

Lots of people do that. Then they sell them at 4 to 5 times mark-up… so they can pay for all the fun they have with their racing /marketing programs.

 

[William Martin]

It is fuel cell foam. Just do a search on that, possibly check with off-road racing shops, anyone that operates in a high-shake environment can provide a lead for you.

Bill

[Author]

Posts