[Kartbuilding] Questions concerning go carts

Stephen Burke sburke at burkesys.com
Sun Feb 25 19:13:34 GMT 2007


Hi Mike,

A chainsaw engine can easily be gotten to drive a kart. Its just a case of 
welding a small sprocket onto the bell housing of the centrifical clutch 
on the chainsaw engine. Make sure you have the chainsaw engine SECURED to 
the kart, otherwise things could go badly wrong. Also - you have to have a 
LARGE GEAR RATIO. This means that you need a large sprocket (6 times 
larger than the driver sprocket on the chainsaw) on the rear axle. 
Otherwise you will simply burn out the light clutch on the chainsaw 
engine.
In my opinion, the only way to get it working - is just to try it 
yourself. I dont know if you will be able to get useful advice from the 
mechanical engineers and businesses. I think you should simply go straight 
in and connect up the engine.

The welding kit will be useful for making the chassis of the kart - which 
is normally made from round tubing. However if you dont intend to bend the 
tubes etc. using a pipe bender, you would be better off using square 
tubing as its easier to weld. But - yes, the steel from the Home Depot 
will be fine for a kart. Try and keep the weight down as much as possible, 
otherwise the lawnmower engine will be under a lot of strain.

Best of Luck,
-steve


On Sat, 24 Feb 2007, Michael Puhalovich wrote:

> Hey,
>
>      My name is Mike and I'm 15.  I am strongly interested in building a go cart on my own.  The first problem that I have run into is the engine.  I have a very tight budget being a kid, and I was wondering if a chainsaw engine would work as an engine.  I have heard of people doing it but I am emailing mechanical engineers and businesses first to do research on it and gain common knowledge of the aspects.  I have access to a welding kit and other tools as well.  Would this be possible for me to build on my own?  I have never built one before but I am very good with my hands.  Also, I need ideas for building material for the body of the cart.  The most common answer has been steel piping that can be bought from Home Depot.  Thanks alot!
>



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