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I left you on a cliff hanger there didn't I

I booked the Wednesday off to make all the panels, they're all flat, it wouldn't have taken long.


What actually happened was I put it all back together and it wouldn't start, nothing at all from the starter, zero, nada.

Went through the whole wiring loom, still nothing.

Tried a screwdriver across the solenoid, nothing

Took the starter apart and spent an hour putting it's fiddlyAss back together. Nothing


Finally put a meter across the battery and it was reading 9v


Oh





So, I put the jump pack on and it whirred straight to life. Great, now I need a new battery


But wait, it was grand the morning before, so I stuck the meter across when it was running and I was getting 18v, that's not good


I then smelt burning and notcied the regulator was smoking



Now pit bike stuff is cheap, but what it isn't is available on the shelf. It's all eBay etc



So I shelved it and took the barstool with me instead, which tried to kill me





Home now after an epic weekend, I revisited it.

Only things that could be wrong could be the stator, the regulator or the wiring loom

The regulator was toast, but I had a spare, still 18v. Starting to think it's the stator


I pulled the loom though, stripped it down and picked another wiring diagram from the internets which differed slightly


Re-fitted it, engine started instantly, checked across the battery, 12.4v now.



So I think i've solved it. 12.4v is on the low side, but it is a cheap chinese stator, so probably about right.





So I now have a couple of months to complete her before RRG

2 days before RRW (we're going up on Thur, making a time of it)

Sounds like the ideal time to strip her right down and paint it

Shot her in primer




Then laid down the graffiti paint. I love this stuff, just covers so well




I now have 1 day to attempt to make at least a couple of panels

But you wont see that until after RRW

I have no idea what i'm doing here

I used the machine that's under the stairs and it stuck the material together




Stretched it over the base and the foam, I think it's turned out alright, won't win any awards, but meh






I got the spare fuel tank from the GX200, saved me a load of hassle

Chucked together a quick bracket. Flat bar makes anything look good






This allows it to sit here.




It will gravity feed there - if it was half full. So I mounted the vacuum pump





That concludes today

I've done a lot. Well, me and barstoolracer have done a lot

But it doesn't look at a lot

But it took a lot of time


So a lot...


I really wanted my throttle and brake to be foot operated. There was talk about hand controls under the steering wheel the same as Army'Geddon , we also toyed with a push pull arm meaning one handed steering.

But it turns out being clever there was enough room to have foot operated controls

The brake master cylinder was where we started as it's the biggest piece of the puzzle.




We managed to slot it into a gap where I could lose a little bit of the inner mudguard




Next I thought about the pedal itself and how it would operate the cylinder.

I made a couple of these (actually 4 as you'll see later)




I used a bit of leftover 20mm tube, bit of welding, a bracket to match the pivot point of the cylinder and




A working brake pedal. It's both comfortable on the foot, operates the cylinder smoothly and has enough give to hold your foot up, yet work with slight pressure.


Throttle next.
Hmmmm, the brake works so well, might as well replicate it



This doesn't return to it's original position or even have an original position (the cyclinder arm limits forward travel on the brake)

Stopping it moving forward was easy, a little tab was made and welded in

Looked around for pull springs, had a few, but they're all long and pretty weak. I did find something that resembles a valve spring, no idea where it came from mind.

I drilled through the chassis and welded in a cap head bolt that fitted snuggly inside the spring, then welded a tab on the pedal



So there you can see the stop and the return spring, it all works great, again, great foot feel (that's a thing right)



Finished up mounting the battery. All the weight is at the back so far, so I stuck this right up front.

Just a simple flat bar bent round it then welded to the chassis. This is just going to be held in by a cam buckle strap - why make it difficult?






Really getting there now - What is it? 3 weeks till RRW.

She should be going, in a non-complete fashion

Don't know what you're on about chap 🤔

Lets talk steering

No, lets talk steering when you're making a kart that's 550mm wide using components from something that's normally 1200mm ish wide.


I've been reading up on akkerman angles, lots of calculations and all that jazz, but I basically figured out you're in the right ballpark if your steering arm holes fall on to a line drawn from the centre of the rear axle to the pivot point of the steering.




I flipped her over, laid out a long steel ruler and came up with the correct location to gain correct akkerman.

I then went and welded some plate to the side of the arms so I could redrill the holes




Made them look pretty, then bolted them to the kart, happy.

I altered the length of some kart steering arms, fitted one side, then turned the wheel.

I was upset to find that due to the short length as you got near full lock, the arm on the column would flick forward which just would'nt work.





So I did what any self respecting engineer would do when faced with such a thing, got angry, drilled some more holes where I knew it would work and frankly Mr Akkerman can go f........ himself






So I now have steering, it will probably push on tight turns at low speed but meh, I have steering

I have these around my workbench, probably around 6 foot into my garage.


The car doesn't get parked on them, but it's amazing the difference they make walking on cold concrete or just kneeling down.


7 years so far. Don't get me wrong, they're pretty knackered now, mainly grinder marks and full of welding spatter and hot offcuts of metal. Kneeling is not so much fun now actually



7 years of welding, grinding etc

That would be lovely, thank you

Bit more done over lunch

I sat where I need to sit and decided the steering wanted a slight bit more angle than I could currently get, so I notched the dash bar.

This will get a fillet welded in and ultimately will be covered by the dash panel.




Racing karts use a plastic block to hold the top of the column, but I managed to buy a plummer bearing for the same price, so this got fitted here




So once the track rods are sorted I should be able to steer... Well, I need a steering wheel first




I shot the completed exhaust in some matt VHT paint the other day, so that's another bit completed