Category Archives: Running a kart

The exhaust BBQ!

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I have never cleaned my exhausts. To be honest, I tend to avoid any nasties that recommend the wearing of gloves/goggles, covering of skin, holding your breath etc (even Mr Muscle oven cleaner!) so I wasn’t ever really likely to go down the caustic soda route recommended by many. Consequently I hadn’t ever bothered trying to clean the exhausts – until one of my buddies told me he just put his on the BBQ! Unfortunately, I don’t have a BBQ so I sat patiently and waited for an invite to his next one 😉 I really wish I had taken a picture of the little BBQ, in the gloom, with a couple of TKM exhausts and end cans sat in it – it was one of those sights you’ll only see at the very bottom of the karting ladder :/

It’s been quite refreshing not having done a single thing on the kart for two whole weekends running! I have spent a few evenings on related stuff – the exhaust BBQ being one thing and yesterday evening was spent learning how to properly put up the awning! It’s a 6x3m awning that we (another Dad who I pit next to and I) bought from a bloke who had used it for his rally car. At £60 it was a bargain, despite the fire damage!!! Ok, it isn’t quite that bad although we will be the only ones you’ll see in a white awning with big brown marks over it! To date, we had only ever used it without sides. It turns out that we only have three sides and that we don’t have all of the side panels we’d like (it had been used 3m wide and 6m deep, we want to use it 6m wide and 3m deep) but we’ll make do (as usual).

Despite really not wanting to spend any money off-track, I’ve had to replace the axle that I only bought in March, thanks mainly to the young chap who had forgotten what the yellow flag meant 🙁 You really should be able to send the bill to people who are completely at fault for breaking your kart but there we go…

Items purchase since last post: axle £72, exhaust cradle (the old one got broken as I didn’t use any rubber dampeners after aligning it nicely) £12, fuel pipe (£6)

Total spent this year: £1,652

Time to rebuild the kart

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Today was the last weekend day before our belated reappearance and, with the kart stripped down to just a chassis with a brake system, I had no idea how long it would take to get sorted. I needed to touch up the paintwork having had the chassis welded and then it was just a case of putting everything else back together.

There were a few hiccups along the way – the steering rod seemed to have a little resistance when turning and so I spent some time replacing it all whilst trying to find out where the resistance was coming from (steering column bush was over-tightened although one of the saftey collars was also a little tight to the bush) and then I put the first track rod below the stub axle(!). I took the opportunity to refresh most of the bolts and T-Cut the undesirable bits and the kart looked much happier for a quick polish with Carlack 68 🙂 It was nice to have the newly rebuilt engine fitted, which had been waiting for me to collect since the beginning of the year. The biggest issue I had was right at the end of the day – the throttle was not closing fully despite the pedal hitting the stop bolt with nothing else having been moved. I spent some time trying to identify what had changed but ended up just adjusting the stop bolt. Eight hours later and, with darkness falling, it was finally done. The wife wasn’t impressed with my being late in for tea but I think we are there – I always find myself wondering if I have tightened everything/put it all back together properly so I’ll give it all another check in the week. Fingers crossed the weather isn’t too bad for the coming weekend.

Items purchased since last post: replacement bolts – £18, 2x carb rebuilds and full engine rebuild – £253

Total spent this year: £645

Year 1 spend: £4,594

I must not buy anything else for the kart!

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I had an offer of a bent 2010 EVR chassis this week and, since I was in the midlands, made a detour to pick it up. Of course, whilst I was there I *just had to* get the final few things that I had wanted to get for the new season: a set of new wet rims for my inters, some side pod bars ahead of getting new pods and decals for Junior’s birthday, a Viper exhaust bracket to strengthen our flimsy exhaust and another engine mount so that I didn’t have to switch my mount between the engines. I’m quite please with my purchases; the rims and bracket are new and I saved a fair bit on the side pod bars 🙂 I really do need to stop spending now though – at least the good news is that, other than the few things that Junior wants for his birthday, I cannot think of a single thing I need now. Running costs only from here on…honest!

Whilst the bend wasn’t too bad, the chassis does need a weld as it has a small crack on the brake-side bearing hanger and, although not flattened, it is a bit tatty underneath. I’ll definitely keep it in case something happens to our EVXX chassis but I don’t think I’ll be spending any money on getting it jigged just yet. This also now means that I am very close to owning two complete karts – that does start making you wonder 😉

I’ve decided to change my accounting style a little – not much benefit in a running total of costs since the year dot so I’ll detail this year’s spend and the previous year’s total.

Total spent this year: £374 – OTK engine mount £30,  wet rims £50, OTK exhaust bracket £20, side pod bars £30

Year 1 spend: £4,594

Definitely still a novice!

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You know you are still operating as a noob mechanic when, having spent only five weeks away from karting, you spend 5 minutes looking at your sprocket carrier wondering which way around it goes on the axle!!! :S

It was good to start getting the kart ready today – we aren’t quite there yet as I still want to bleed the brakes, clean the exhaust cans and change lots of tyres. Really wanting to get out there now – eagerly looking forward to testing in a few weeks time 🙂

An expensive month – and we’ll not even be hitting the track!

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This month is proving to be one of those where the costs keep mounting. I have decided that I’ll buy new tyres from now on – I still have several sets of used slicks that we will race on although the two sets of used wets we bought in the summer have obviously degraded a fair bit and I wanted to get hold of a new set to give us something more suitable for a very wet track. I picked up an unused set of wets from one of the forums for £120. I also bought some brake fluid and replacement seals ahead of my bi-annual bleeding of the brakes and a new sprocket carrier from eBay in a bid to finally rid my chain of that tense spot (the reality is that it could still turn out to be the axle, which I’ll replace when funds improve, and I’ve probably stretched my nice Panther chain by now anyway).

Still to be funded are the engine rebuild, the MSA licenses (don’t start me on the rip-off PG license again – I will email my feelings on this to the MSA when I get a chance!), the club membership and track loyalty card.

Total spent this year: £160 (unused wets – £120, brake fluid/replacement seals – £25, sprocket carrier – £15)

Total spent so far: £5,424

 

I’m ashamed of our kart!

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After we raced at the start of December, the plan was to strip the kart, clean it and wrap it up for 6 weeks or so. Because I really don’t have the room (or the lighting) to make a proper job of this in the garage, the ability to do this depends entirely upon the weather. Factor in Christmas and a holiday period that consisted of exactly one dry day spent repairing storm damaged trees and I have to confess the kart has been untouched in over a month. Until yesterday.

The kart was dirty but I didn’t think it was wet and I didn’t expect to find quite so much rust on the axle, with spots forming on the bumper and seat supports. Worse, my expensive Panther chain was starting to rust also! With the wife working the weekend and two kids to entertain/taxi around, I wasn’t able to spend more as much time as I would have liked on it but I was able to strip the back end and clean most of it up. Wire wool and T-Cut got rid of all but the toughest rust spots on the axle; I could probably have gotten rid of the remainder had I not been working to a ‘pick up the wife from work’ deadline. To make myself feel a bit better about the neglect, I polished the chassis and bumper 🙂 Just need to do the same for the front half of the kart and change the brake fluid and we’ll be in a better position to consider karting again!

End of first year accounts!

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Ok, so when I posted my predicted costs at the start of the year, I had reckoned on this costing around £3,200 based on ten practice days and no racing. A full season of racing would have cost £4,600. Going back through my posts, I noticed a few costs had been missed so with two sets of used wets, a set of used slicks, a carb rebuild and a few miscellaneous items thrown in, the grand total for the 2013 spend (12 practice days, one aborted practice, 3 race weekends and a race Sunday) was £4,594!!!

It broke down something like this:

Retirement package (chassis, engine, new slicks, used slicks/wets, trolley, Mychron 4, remote starter, transponder, kart cover, rib protector, spares package – carbs, pods, bumper, seat, fuel tank, nassau, floor tray, track rods, stub axles, exhaust, axles, sprockets, chains, nuts/bolts/spacers etc, chain lube/brake cleaner): £1095
Trailer/Tow bar/lid: £490
Helmet/shield protector: £345
Tools (tyre tools, file, hex keys, socket wrenches, spark spanner, tyre spanner, sprocket puller): £133
Clay Pigeon Loyalty card: £40
Practice Days (12): £385
Race weekends (4): £233
Petrol for car: £273
Petrol for kart: £126
Stuff (pedal extenders, cargo net, ActionCam, lead, half share in awning, waterproofs for mechanic): £192
Consumables (pulse pipe, fuel pipe, tank filter, funnel filters, cable ties, lubes, cleaners, chain guard, sprockets, chains, break fluid/seals, engine mount/clamps, hose clips, screws, bolts): £277
Repairs (chassis weld, engine, steering wheel, spark plug, cap, ignition lead): £213
Rebuild (1 engine + 3 carbs): £250
ARKS starter/test/parent license: £152
Used slicks x5: £190
Used wets x2: £100
Used SE rims: £100

A really obsessed blogger would link the above costs to the relevant articles but I am above all of that 😉 So what do you get for such an investment? 103 laps of Dunkeswell, 96 laps of Llandow (which always comes out as Lladnow when I type it) and 1,692 laps of Clay!!! Not to mention *a lot* less sleep, the onset of greyness, some crushing lows, some amazing highs, an awful lot of fun and some experiences with your lad that you’ll never forget 🙂

Have a great Christmas!

Surprise, surprise!

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Eight tyres in an hour – sometimes I impress even myself! My fingers and quad muscles ache (the latter from shoving my knee into the tyre when putting on the new tyre) but that was an outstanding success 🙂  If Junior shows the kind of improvement on Sunday that I showed today, I can cancel the turkey order (the winner of each final this weekend bags a turkey!) 😉

The thing I hate most about karting…

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If there is one thing worse than looking at a TKM engine that has ten hours on it, it’s the sight of eight tyres that need changing! Aside from having to stomach some considerable costs, the lows of troubleshooting when you are out of your depth, running without an awning in what seems to be one of the wettest locations on Earth and watching your lad ignore your advice lap after lap, there isn’t really much I don’t enjoy about karting 😉 That is with the exception of changing tyres: everybody will tell you it’s easy – and they certainly make it look so – but I *really* despise changing the bloody things. Getting them off the rims is easier than putting them on. I don’t think my technique is far off and I have actually changed a set on my own but I fail more often than not – I just don’t think my office-boy fingers are built for it!!!

So it’s Wednesday, I have three evenings to replace our practice and race tyres (with more used ones, of course) for Clay’s end of season Turkey Trot and I’ll be spending tonight sat on a dust sheet on the kitchen floor, hands sticky with tyre paste, fingers aching, sweating profusely and cussing at nobody in particular!!! Now there’s a picture you won’t be seeing…

It’s almost time…

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So we’re on the eve of our first race weekend!!! The overwhelming enthusiasm that saw me wishing most of this week would pass as quickly as possible has been dampened somewhat by the weather forecast. I do share a 6x3m awning with another Dad but his lad is a couple of months behind us from a competition-readiness perspective (or rather – he shares my view on not chucking them in until they are ready) and I don’t have the space in the Clio or the trailer to bring it with us. We’re going to have to stick it out if it gets very wet although working out the back of a Clio in heavy rain is no fun I can assure you.

Having only just seen the worsened forecast, I got to the camping shop 15 mins before closing this afternoon to try to get some waterproofs. Unfortunately I arrived as the shop keeper was getting into her car having decided to call it a day and, after watching me for a few mins (presumably making sure I wasn’t about to throw a dustbin through the window and help myself), she wound down her window, told me she had just put the alarm on and that I’d have to come back. Customer service, anyone? :/

Anyway the past few weekends have been all about getting set for the race. It’s been an expensive time what with the repairs after throwing a chain and I’ve also bought several sets of used slicks that each had a day’s wear (I figure we’ll race on used tyres at least for the three meetings we plan to do this year), a set of Doulgas SE rims (I wanted another set of rims to avoid having to change tyres overnight between the practice and race days) and a couple of additions for the toolkit (deep 10mm sprocket, front sprocket remover). As far as actually doing things is concerned, the maintenance has gone something like this: new front and rear sprockets fitted, chain guard cut/fixings fitted, transponder mount fitted, bearing carrier replaced, exhaust springs and wrap replaced, new manifold holes drilled, sprocket carrier protectors put back on, HT lead replaced, kart cleaned, front and rear chassis height changed, seat stays adjusted, Tillett 40mm washers added (to comply with MSA seat mounting regulations), engine mount adjusted (the mount does not appear to allow the engine to sit perfectly square so the chain is pulled at a very slight angle – need a new mount but the kart pot was empty!), front and read chassis height corrected (stupidly moved it in the opposite direction, even after blogging about rear chassis height!!!) and finally… swapped the front practice tyres over! 🙂

The changing of the tyres was a minor success – the first time I had done this alone although, as the tyres were 200 laps old, it was easier than it might otherwise have been. I was pretty chuffed with myself as I admired the newly fitted tyre – until I realised that I had put it on the same way it had come off! :S

So we’re pretty much all set – the transponder (pleasingly seems to hold full charge even though its not been used since February!), cordless drill, starter battery and GPS watch are all sat on charge on Junior is getting focused (aka upstairs playing Codemasters F1 2013 – I can recommend the Classic Edition :)). I haven’t had a chance to ensure my HT lead is good having borrowed after our problems last time but we should be ok. Wish us luck… 🙂

Purchases since last post: £10 used sprocket puller, £120 three sets of used slicks incl postage, £100 used set of Douglas SE rims (might have paid a little over the norm for these but I really wanted before the race weekend so my ability to wait for something at the right price was lost), £4 10mm deep sprocket.

Total spent so far: £3,630