2nd Maintenance Window
So we're nearly there - again. Garry came over from Swindon and my dad travelled over from Stroud to hopefully finish the re-build and get to a track to test.
Previously in the week, I tried to find somewhere local to test the kart. The circuits at both Little Rissington (http://www.rissykartclub.com/) and Dunkeswell (http://www.dunkeswell.com/) or also now known as Mansell Raceway (http://www.mansell-raceway.com/) were not available for testing. I also tried calling Wroughton Airfield, South Wales Karting Centre (Llandow), Kemble Airfield, West Country Karting (in Bristol), Hullavington and many others to see if they had any availability or use of their runways / circuits. The only people that had any option for use was Llandow and Kemble. Kemble Airfield were very helpful, but sadly their whole disused runway was being used for a Mazda Promotion so that wasn't a possibility and Llandow needed 5 gearbox karts on the circuit for a 'session'. Llandow were also available for an hour on the bank holiday Monday morning.
A couple of niggles appeared with a circlip on the engine sprocket spline (we couldn't find the circlip pliers anywhere!), two seating pins on the exhaust bracket and the clutch cable fitting. Garry continued putting some of the bits back together like the clutch cable whilst my dad and I visited Mac (who helped with the trailer build too by the way) to see if he had a vice or heavy duty hacksaw to take the welded pins off. It just so happened, Mac was in, and he had a grindstone in the garage! Result. Back of the net. Two seating pins removed!
On the way back we purchased (I still owe my dad monies for several items including these now - don't worry I haven't forgotten!) some exhaust repair paste to buffer the small indentations created by the grindstone and seat the gasket on and also several washers to space the bolts from the engine bracket. We returned to the house and found Garry in mid flow with the clutch cable as it was still presenting a few problems. I continued attaching the ignition box etc along with the engine socket (this was when we found out that the circlip pliers weren't available), so my dad whisked off back to the shop to get some circlip pliers.
Unfortunately, we found that we couldn't test the motor for a couple of reasons. 1 - We ran out of time, and 2 - we couldn't find the gear linkage. Without the gear linkage we wouldn't be able to knock the kart into gear and therefore not be able to bump start the motor. However, we'd got most things completed so it was another satisfying day.
All that remained was the gear linkage, aligning the sprockets (engine and axle), putting the chain on, the washers and spacing for the engine bracket, the permanent fixing of the engine (once the chain is on correctly) and replacing the seat. Then just adding the gearbox oil and replacing the fuel mix in the tank would complete the re-build.
So onto Maintenance Window number 3 and hopefully get to that circuit for testing!!!
Previously in the week, I tried to find somewhere local to test the kart. The circuits at both Little Rissington (http://www.rissykartclub.com/) and Dunkeswell (http://www.dunkeswell.com/) or also now known as Mansell Raceway (http://www.mansell-raceway.com/) were not available for testing. I also tried calling Wroughton Airfield, South Wales Karting Centre (Llandow), Kemble Airfield, West Country Karting (in Bristol), Hullavington and many others to see if they had any availability or use of their runways / circuits. The only people that had any option for use was Llandow and Kemble. Kemble Airfield were very helpful, but sadly their whole disused runway was being used for a Mazda Promotion so that wasn't a possibility and Llandow needed 5 gearbox karts on the circuit for a 'session'. Llandow were also available for an hour on the bank holiday Monday morning.
A couple of niggles appeared with a circlip on the engine sprocket spline (we couldn't find the circlip pliers anywhere!), two seating pins on the exhaust bracket and the clutch cable fitting. Garry continued putting some of the bits back together like the clutch cable whilst my dad and I visited Mac (who helped with the trailer build too by the way) to see if he had a vice or heavy duty hacksaw to take the welded pins off. It just so happened, Mac was in, and he had a grindstone in the garage! Result. Back of the net. Two seating pins removed!
On the way back we purchased (I still owe my dad monies for several items including these now - don't worry I haven't forgotten!) some exhaust repair paste to buffer the small indentations created by the grindstone and seat the gasket on and also several washers to space the bolts from the engine bracket. We returned to the house and found Garry in mid flow with the clutch cable as it was still presenting a few problems. I continued attaching the ignition box etc along with the engine socket (this was when we found out that the circlip pliers weren't available), so my dad whisked off back to the shop to get some circlip pliers.
Unfortunately, we found that we couldn't test the motor for a couple of reasons. 1 - We ran out of time, and 2 - we couldn't find the gear linkage. Without the gear linkage we wouldn't be able to knock the kart into gear and therefore not be able to bump start the motor. However, we'd got most things completed so it was another satisfying day.
All that remained was the gear linkage, aligning the sprockets (engine and axle), putting the chain on, the washers and spacing for the engine bracket, the permanent fixing of the engine (once the chain is on correctly) and replacing the seat. Then just adding the gearbox oil and replacing the fuel mix in the tank would complete the re-build.
So onto Maintenance Window number 3 and hopefully get to that circuit for testing!!!
posted by PhilQ at
4/10/2007 01:35:00 PM
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