[Hans Mattes]

Thanks, William.  I appreciate the sensible advice.

[Hans Mattes]

I have a good friend who has been doing business with Fastech for a couple of years and is quite happy with them.  FWIW.

[Hans Mattes]

I bought an Armadillo vest.  Nice vest, well made.  But bulky and, with the breastplate, too hot.  So I got an AlpineStars.  A lot less “vest for the money,” but more comfortable as I don’t get overheated as easily.  And that’s a safety feature.

[Hans Mattes]

I run a Rocket chassis with a pre-’09 Leopard at Sonoma.  I don’t race; I just drive around the track, but I bought the kart package from an ex-racer who included his log books and he was running very competitive times with this combination.

My Rocket chassis has a plate welded onto the crossmember behind the seat which has info, including model date, stamped into it.

[Hans Mattes]

I’m fairly new to karting, having bought my first (used) kart last Spring.  I’ve spent a good deal of time looking, on the web, in bookstores, and on magazine stands, for technical info to bring me up to speed.  Other than ekartingnews.com, I’ve not found much of substance.

I subscribed to Go Racing last Fall, hoping for some good technical articles.  No joy.  So I called their office to cancel my subscription.  The woman I spoke with was very nice, and when I told her why I was cancelling, she said that they would like to have more technical content but that they didn’t have the resources to write such articles and depended on submitted content.  And no one had been sending them anything technical.

If the karting sport wants to grow its technically-inclined base, it may want to look at ways of stimulating technical discussions, essays, tutorials, and so on.

[Hans Mattes]

Steve: I and a couple of buddies are also just into karting — started last summer.  We try to run Sonoma every Thursday (weather allowing).  Don’t know of any better forums than this one.  We run Leopard TAGs and 7.0 gearing keeps the revs below 15,500.

[Hans Mattes]

My buddy bought a never-used ’05 Trackmagic with Leopard for $1500.  It had never been assembled correctly (e.g., carb on upside down, brakes non-functional, ill-fitting bolts instead of king pins), and he’s put close to $2000 into support equipment, tools, spares, getting the kart sorted, and adding the requisite MyChron.  I bought an entire kart operation, ’07 Rocket kart (well used, but well set up) with Leopard and LOTS of spares (including a second engine), tools, support equipment and a trailer, for $2000.  Yet I also have put over $500 into setting it up — mainly a highbacked carbon fiber seat and some high-priced foam from Pegasus to hold my aging body in place.  Our after-purchase expenses are only for parts; we both do our own wrenching (on cars as well as karts).  We are several seconds off of competitive times at the Sonoma Raceway kart track, but we can hold our own on practice days and are having a lot of fun — on the cheap (VERY cheap), compared to race cars.

[Hans Mattes]

Brian, I think you’re on target for a lot of fun.  A buddy of mine (age 65) and I (age 72) bought older TAG karts with pre-09 Leopard motors earlier this year and have been running them, almost once a week, at the local kart track (Sears Point/Infineon/Sonoma Raceway).  We both have road race cars (he an old tube-framed Trans Am and me an old Radical), but find the karting as much fun and far more accessible and less expensive.  Two suggestions: 1) try to find a full outfit (kart, tools, spares, etc.) from someone leaving karting or, at least, changing classes, and 2) find a kart track.  It will be safer, more challenging, and easier to track your times and your inevitable improvement.

[Hans Mattes]

It seems that the lead on the ground brush of the Leopard starter is prone to breaking.  Mine recently broke and the box of parts I got with the used kart had several ground brushes with broken leads as well as a starter with a broken lead on the ground brush.  It appears that the previous owner had repaired some and had applied silicone (RTV) to all the brush leads.  He may have believed that vibration was causing fatigue failure.  But the silicone didn’t seem to end the problems.  Are there any other theories (or even facts) about the cause of failures?  One possibility might be that inadvertently hitting the green “start” button while the engine is running could cause the Bendix to engage and spin up the starter to a point where the brush is damaged.  I know that there’s a similar issue in motorcycle-engined racecars (I have one).  If  the car spins and travels backwards for any distance before the clutch is depressed, it kills the starter (which has a one-way sprag clutch rather than a Bendix).  The starter failure there often involves killing the brush assembly (ask me how I know).  I’m considering putting a flip-up cover over the Leopard’s “start” button to prevent accidental engagement.  Any suggestions?  Thoughts?

[Hans Mattes]

It was a fuel pickup problem.  I apologize for bothering the list with it and thank you for your input.  Now back to the track.

[Hans Mattes]

Sorry to say, but fixing the broken wire did not fix the problem.  The search continues.

I have a spare motor from the kart’s previous owner.  I’ve swapped carbs and, next time out, will see if this isolates the problem.  If not, I’ll swap motors.  If that fixes the problem, good; if not, it’s probably the ignition box.  At least that’s my thoughts.  Your thoughts?  Again, this problem occurs only after about 20 or 30 minutes of running and doesn’t come on quickly, but builds until the engine doesn’t run well at all.

[Hans Mattes]

Thanks for the suggestions, Michael.  I found a break in the grey wire that goes to the ignition coil.  The ends were held in place by a dab of RTV, but the conductor was clearly broken.  I expect that will fix things.  I’m actually surprised that the engine ran at all.  Thanks again.

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