Death kart idea

So I was thinking of what I could do with the 6.5 Briggs on an old push mower I have and I thought to myself that I could make a go kart out of it for the frame I could use c channel that I have laying around and for the rear end I could use a flipped spicer 6 speed once I replace it in my tractor and for the front end I could use the direct steering setup out of a pedal kart I have laying around and I was also thinking about possibly making this a front engined thing also I know how unsafe it is but the main purpose would be to try and make something capable of going 30 out of used parts anyways if I did it I’d prolly use the cheapest torque converter I could find

You could probably get to 30 with 6.5hp but it would take a bit to get there. Have to be a tail wind too maybe but still, might be fun to play around with. I always wanted to make a slow speed machine that looks like a really early car. Like a 1903 curved dash oldsmobile or something similar.

They had a single cylinder engine under the seat. Liquid cooled. That crank on the side was the starter. You steer with a tiller instead of a steering wheel. People were still thinking in terms of horse drawn buggy with the design. Pretty much just added an engine.


I actually saw one for sale at a show maybe 5 years ago. They were asking $40,000

That’s Pretty cool my plans for this is to just have it low and minimum since I don’t want to put any money into it also was thinking maybe I’ll run the push mower engine ungoverned, has anyone ever done this before and will it be fine as long as I don’t rev it like a crackhead

You can run it with no governor. A lot, if not most of us on here run everything ungoverned. Some don't like too. In my own experience, you can hammer on the smaller engines a lot more than the larger displacement ones as far as reving them up. The cast aluminum connecting rod is usually the weak link in this stuff but I've only blown up one engine so far in my life. A 4hp Tecumseh.

Some think the governor parts can come apart if unhooked from the outside without doing anything else. So there's two options for that. Either hook the governor arm with a spring to a stationary point on something just to keep some tension on it. Or take the bottom of the engine off and remove the governor parts, and then block off the hole. (or leave the shaft in the hole) That's assuming it's not the air vane type, I don't think too many are made that way anymore.

Something to think about is that, if your using a push mower engine, usually they have a very light flywheel because the mower blade acts as much of the flywheel weight. If the blade is removed, they can be very hard to start because there's not enough weight anymore. Prone to kicking back and ripping the pull start cord out of your hand. I've got them to start that way but it's not the most fun.

You might have good luck adding a heavy pulley on the crank or even a larger diameter dummy pulley just for added flywheel effect. Or if you have a flywheel from a horizontal engine that fits you could swap it. For instance, briggs 3.5hp push mower engines shared the same size flywheel as the 3.5 horizontal. Just that the push mower version is much lighter.

Yea so after taking the shroud off the engine to fix the recoil I saw that the flywheel is plastic so I’m gonna just leave the the governed on since plastic to the face doesn’t sound enjoyable

Buying a pulley or torque convertor for the engine, the crankshaft size is usually bigger then normally what is on a power equipment engine, in relation to a push mower engine of 6.5 hp. Be a good idea to measure the output shaft diameter before buying. I think the shaft size will be 7/8 inch, instead of 3/4 or 1 inch. Companies sell 7/8 inch centrifugal clutches, I don't know about a torque converter with that size shaft.

Alright so I was thinking of trying to make a limited slip diff to put in the spicer for this thing. I have an old spring that’s pretty strong and I was thinking maybe I could put it over the spider gear shaft and compress it so it would fit on the shaft and push on the spider gears but still allow some slippage. Has this been done before and do you guys think it’ll work. Also I just need to finish a few things on the other build then imma start on this full time

Also I was wondering about frame material. I’m pretty sure the only types I have are 3” c channel and 1 1/2” angle iron. I was thinking the c channel would be too heavy since it’s crazy thick and was unsure if the angle iron would be strong enough to hold up without bending. Ill check next weekend to see everything I have and if I have have some 1” square tubing I’ll use that

On my GTR 4 zero I used 16 gauge square tubing. I think that's a bit too light but it did hold up fine for a few test runs. Doesn't need to be as heavy as you think probably. 3" c channel is probably way heavier than needed for a shortish machine. Something only 4 or 5 foot long with a couple hundred lbs on it doesn't need too much.

yea i was thinking the c channel would be wayyy too much so imma try to find some square tubing that i can use and if i dont find any ill probably end up using some this aluminum c channel that i have sitting around even though that may be too thin

You can always double the pieces up or stack it. Just careful of welding longer pieces, sometimes you can warp them out of shape if they get too hot. An inch long weld every five inches, or something like that, would be plenty to stack two sections together.

You could make box steel out of the angle iron too if you have a lot of it by flipping the one around and welding them. Again, you'd have to be careful not to warp it. I'd tack it in place along the whole length first instead of doing your final welds at one end and working down. The tacks will keep it from spreading apart/warping. 1-1/2" angle iron boxed might be too heavy too I don't know. Or you could even make the frame from that by itself and maybe have a couple cross pieces to keep it from flexing. Probably wouldn't be too bad.

Hmm idk for sure what I’m using yet, but this weekend I’ll be getting the steel whatever it may be and hopefully it’s some square tubing

so i was thinking of putting mower bodywork on this and entering it into the build off since its gonna be made using almost all mower parts so then it should qualify right? or would there be problems entering it since its not on a mower frame? could i get some input on this

It doesn't have to be on a mower frame, But must be resemblant of a mower frame.

Rule states:

4.) No automobile, truck, SUV, etc. chassis allowed. No ATV chassis, or "Compact Tractor" chassis from larger homestead+ tractors allowed. Passable examples are: Lawn tractor, yard tractor, garden tractor and mini chassis’, stock or modified. Custom-built chassis are allowed provided the end result will be resemblant of a lawn or garden tractor chassis in appearance. Specifically, ladder, tunnel, or pan-style. No space frames, or frames made primarily from tubing that are resemblant to go karts, rock crawlers/ bouncers, etc.

Question is:  Will it look like a Tractor frame, or a Gokart frame?  @Doug, got any input?

I was just thinking of doing a rectangle with square tubing or something and then putting cross bracing in to make it stronger

Sounds like a ladder frame which is allowed.

Alright cool! Just need to get some frame material and a doner tractor then I’ll enter it in

MightyRaze wrote:

It doesn't have to be on a mower frame, But must be resemblant of a mower frame.

Rule states:

4.) No automobile, truck, SUV, etc. chassis allowed. No ATV chassis, or "Compact Tractor" chassis from larger homestead+ tractors allowed. Passable examples are: Lawn tractor, yard tractor, garden tractor and mini chassis’, stock or modified. Custom-built chassis are allowed provided the end result will be resemblant of a lawn or garden tractor chassis in appearance. Specifically, ladder, tunnel, or pan-style. No space frames, or frames made primarily from tubing that are resemblant to go karts, rock crawlers/ bouncers, etc.

Question is:  Will it look like a Tractor frame, or a Gokart frame?  @Doug, got any input?

Ladder frames are ok but really needs to utilize tractor parts. The frame is a very gray area and can easily lead to a disqualification if it looks like it resembles tubework. Theres been a lot of discrepancy on this in the past.

Using square tube to reinforce a stock frame is 100% passable. Once its tubes its up to our speculation.

A ladder frame is basically a reinforced tractor frame isn't it? That's kinda what a reinforced widebody frame looks like...

the only thing ill be making from tubing is the ladder frame with a part in back above the transaxle for the seat and fenders to mount to so the frame from the side should look like this and then everything else is gonna be bodywork from a tractor
.................___
_o_______l_O_l

ignore the periods there just there to space stuff

Well I’m gonna end up using the 1 1/2” C channel for the frame, it’s only around 4 feet long so the engine will probably be tucked between my legs with the footrests right behind that front axle but this also means I’m gonna have to narrow and shorten the hood which shouldn’t be too hard since I can prolly have my dad teach me to weld it after cutting it down

So tomorrow I should be picking up a toro 8 25 that has a peerless 700 in it and I’m planning on taking the driveline, engine and maybe some steering components to put towards this project

so are trying to use mower steering setup on your build?
or do you have some go kart steering you have laying around?

I’m either gonna use the steeeing out of the toro which seems pretty tight or I’m gonna modify some murray steering i have laying around so it’s 1:1 and use that

alright so new plan for this, im gonna convert it to front engined using the stock frame. ill put the engine bewtween my legs and the transmission can go under the seat, my one problem will be designing steering to work wit it