[Kartbuilding] centrifugal clutch

[Stephen Burke]

Hi Raphael,

Sorry for not replying to your earlier email (sent a week ago) sooner.
The two stroke lawnmower engine sounds good. Is the drive/output shaft 
vertical or horizontal? (Is the engine drive shaft coming out the bottom 
or side?) This will affect your transmission.

If the engine drive shaft is coming out the bottom of the engine, then 
chains and a centrifical clutch may not be the best way to go. If however 
the engine drive shaft is coming out the side of the engine, then you'll 
be able to use a centrifical clutch with a small sprocket on the engine, a 
large sprocket on the rear axle, and to connect them up with a chain.

As for whether the centrifical clutch will work with your engine, all you 
can do is try it and see. Obviously if you could find out how many rpm 
(revs per minute) your engine is, then you might know more.

My advice is to go ahead, try it with a centrifical clutch. If it does not 
work, then you can easily swap in a better centrifical clutch. There are 
many different centrifical clutches for different engage speeds and for 
horsepower (hp) ratings of engines.

If your looking to get a new centrifical clutch, then take a read of:
http://blog.kartbuilding.net/2007/06/26/using-a-centrifugal-clutch-and-chain-drive/
There are links on that blog post to northerntool and cometkartsales where 
you can look up different types of centrifical clutches.

I did however manage to get a centrifical clutch off a chainsaw working on 
a go-kart! Perhaps you could try this cheap option first. Go to a chainsaw 
hire or repair shop and ask the person there if they have any old/spare 
centrifical clutches.

Best of luck,
-steve

On Thu, 14 May 2009, raph pilon wrote:

>
> HI, my name is Raphael, I'm 16 and I'd like to build a go kart.
>
> My question is about centrigal cluth. I have an old 2 strokes lawn mower engine, it's not very powerful, maybe 2 or 2.5 hp. It doesn't have really high rpm but I can increase it a little bit by pulling on a spring. Will this type of clutch work on my engine? If you have documentation about this subject, could you send it to me?
>
> Thanks a lot! Your answer will be very useful.
>
>
> PS: I'm french (canadian) so if there are mistakes, I'm sorry.
>
>
> _________________________________________________________________