[Kartbuilding] wet clutch

[Stephen Burke]

Hi William,

I wrote a good blog on clutches for go-karts at:
http://blog.kartbuilding.net/2007/06/26/using-a-centrifugal-clutch-and-chain-drive/

Two things in relation to your email:
1. wet clutch. Typically a wet clutch runs in an oil sump to keep 
lubricated and cool. If you want to use a wet clutch you will have to 
mount the wet clutch on the shaft (with modification to suit your engine) 
and then worry about running it in a bath of oil.

2. You didn't mention whether you wanted a manual or an automatic clutch. 
Typically go-kart clutches are automatic, in that an extra clutch pedal is 
not required.

So assuming you want an automatic clutch, I recommend that you go for a 
dry clutch. It is the easiest to maintain and attach to your engine.
You can get a centrifical clutch to suit your engine shaft. There are a 
few suppliers on the above blog post. The two main ones are:
http://www.cometkartsales.com/store/clutches/maxcomet.htm
http://www.northerntool.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/NTESearch?Ntt=centrifugal+clutch&storeId=6970&in_dym=1&Nty=1&D=centrifugal+clutch&Ntx=mode+matchallpartial&N=0&Ntk=All

I don't know any Irish supplier of centrifical clutches. You could go and 
visit a Karting Arena/Track. There are a good few karting tracks around 
Ireland which you could visit and maybe ask them for an old used 
centrifical clutch to test. See:
http://www.google.ie/search?hl=en&q=karting+arena+ireland&btnG=Search&meta=

I hope this information helps. There is further info on the blog post 
(link at top of this email) regarding these clutches and fitting them to 
the engine shaft.

Best of luck,
-steve

On Wed, 25 Mar 2009, william jack wrote:

> hi my name is William i am writing to you for some information about a wet
> clutch for a Honda 5,5 generator engine that i am mounting on my child's go
> cart its for the beach it isn't a track one i am wondering would i b able to
> buy one somewhere along with the shaft as the shaft in my generator engine
> hasn't got the groove in it .. i live in Ireland  and would b grateful  if
> you could get back to me on it as soon as possible about it .... with the
> prices for a wet clutch and the shaft   ...my contact details are
>
> William
>