Motorcycles, Snowmobiles, Go-Carts, ATV's and Golf Carts - go-kart project w/vertical crank mower engine

hello, me and some of my buds are brainstorming some plans for a go kart to be built around a 1996, 185cc 4.5 HP engine off of a push mower. I've taken the engine apart and thoroughly cleaned it and replacement parts are in-transit to me. I've read about how you can't flip the engine on it's side because of the oil pump design. My engine's got a primitive pushrod and sleeve pump that fits on a special lobe on the cam. I'm stumped, but if anyone has any ideas on how to modify this to make it so it will run on it's side, it would be greatly appreciated. Now, i've thought further ahead than this though, I think that in order to transmit the vertical power to horizontal, I would mount the engine in the middle of the kart and have two pulleys pulling two belts that gradually twist to drive another two pulleys on the axle (live-axle because for extra traction because I live in the boonies) Somewhere a centrifugal clutch would be used in the system. I have no idea if belt slippage is a problem for belt-driven karts, so right now I plan on a dual belt system. Does this sound like a good idea, or does anyone else have an idea?

I've just now found an actual v-belt clutch, so maybe I'll find a way to work with one belt, but still needing opinions, advice, tips, etc.

Cratemaster,

Look up "homemade go kart" on Youtube. There is a go-kart that uses a 6.5hp lawnmower engine driving a snowblower gearbox to the rear wheels. Pretty cool. He has a pull-start, but I would use an electric start, just because I would want to be the first kid on my block (or forest) to say I have an electric-start, lawnmower engine-powered homemade go-kart.

Cheers,

Steve

I believe when you run a v-belt from your vertical shaft engine to the drive axle with a twist in it and a clutch in the drive line you'll have too much in too short a distance. This is if you're placing the engine fairly close to your drive axle.

Using a gear box/differential would be the best solution. There should be a lot of those available from junked out lawnmowers. I think I would stay with a solid gear drive vs hydro for a gokart.

As far as modifying the vertical shaft lubrication system to accommodate rotating the mount of the engine to horizontal; if the lubrication was solely pressure fed from the pump, you would be able to provide a feed from the sump to the pump and it would be workable. However, if the system was a combination of pressure fed and splash/flow, you could be starving some components of oil.

Hope this helps,

Bob

I would stay away from gearbox drives from push mowers, and stay with either snowblower gearboxes, or drive axles from common garden tractors.

The neat thing about a garden tractor's axle is that you do three things simultaneously:

1) Rotate the drive the 90 degrees you need;
2) Get multiple gears (plus reverse); and
3) Get a differential so you can drive both wheels with no wheel-skip.

Steve

i used the engine and gearbox for a 12 hp 6 forward speeds and 2 reverse speeds for my bar stool racer.. worked great

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