How to Maintain Your Go-Kart: Everything You Need To Know
So you have decided to start go-karting, good, but you are overwhelmed by the number of maintenance operations you have to make in order to maintain your go-kart? Don’t worry we got you covered.
In this article we will cover everything there is to cover. We will talk about:
- The maintenance operations you need to do when the season is over and you are storing your go-kart.
- The maintenance operations you need to do during the season.
- The heavier operations that you do once in a while.
Maintenance When The Season Is Over
Once your season is over you need in your garage to do a series of operations/checks: 1- Check the fluid level in the master cylinder and adjust if necessary 2 – Check your hardware. Check all the nuts, bolts, washers, screws and tighten if necessary or replace. 3 – Check your battery and the level of charge. A battery that stays empty for months can deteriorate rapidly. Batteries are made to have at least some charge in them. So check the charge level, and charge it if needed. Same goes for your Mychron. 4 – Change filters for the fuel system. You can do it yourself or in your kart shop. As a general rule, if you have trouble doing an operation you can always ask for help in your local kart store. 5 – Drain fuel tank and carburetor by allowing the engine to run out of fuel. The tank must be empty. 6 – Chain & Sprocket maintenance. Generally, you will do this during the season with the clutch. You need to clean and lube the chain. You can also buy a new chain if you have money to blow. 7 – Put your go-kart on a stand and check wheel alignment. Check that the axles are not bent. Check that the steering rod works properly. 8 – Check the yolks. The yolks are C shape part that the stub axles are bolted into. Check their shape. They are usually bent after a crash so if you have been in an accident during the season you need to check it. 9 – Lube everywhere where it is needed.Maintenance Operations During The Season
Contrary to the part above, these maintenance operations are the ones that need to be done on a regular basis. Sometimes every 5 hours, sometimes every time the go-kart is used (before or after).Clutch Maintenance
For this operation, you first need to do a bit of disassembling. First, remove the wheel at the back on the engine’s side. Then remove the part that is holding the clutch, the clutch casing. Take off all the pieces (nuts, etc) if necessary. Then you need to remove the chain first. To do this you need to loosen some screw on the rear hub, then slide the sprocket. This will allow you to move the chain and remove the clutch. Once the clutch is removed clean it and clean its casing. While the chain is loose you need to clean it and lube it. Usually, it gets very dirty as some dirt on the track gets projected there. You can do it by letting you chain rest in some products (solvent for example). Then you might also want to check the sprocket and change the teeth. Additional tip: a chain that is too tight grinds through the sprocket’s teeth. So you might want to avoid that. Then you need to reassemble everything. Make sure that everything is properly installed and that all the bolts & nuts are correctly tightened. If you want your clutch to last longer avoid putting tyres with high diameters on your go-kart as they increase the strain on the clutch. You should also avoid driving too slowly and being afraid of speed. A centrifugal clutch starts working around 2000 rpm and locks up at 2600 rpm. Driving at a speed allowing to go beyond the 2600 rpm will allow the clutch to cool down as it will be less solicited. You should do this everyday at a minimum.Carburetor Maintenance
The aim here is to clean the carburetor and carburetor jets. This operation should be done at least once a day, preferably before going to the track in order to increase performance. For the carburetor, the maintenance is a bit simpler. You have to remove the carburetor from the engine by removing the clamp that holds it. Once this is done remove the carburetor and clean it completely. You also need to remove and clean the carburetor jets. You can use a solvent for this. You should clean properly the parts holding the jets on the carburetor. They are quite easy to dismount and separate from the carburetor. Reassemble everything and put in back in place. Put the clamp back in place and check the tightness of screws & bolts.Spark Plug
Spark plug maintenance is very important as this is a critical piece of the engine. Usually, go-karts use iridium plugs. These operations need to be done every 5 hours of use. Or every day. All you have to do is to remove the spark plug and then clean it thoroughly using a metal brush. Once the spark plug is fully clean and dry you can mount it back. You can also clean the spark plug cover. This is not a must-do but it is always nice to have a perfectly clean cover. It helps a bit in prolonging the life span of your spark plug, a cleaner cover means less chance of having impurities mess with your equipment.Power Valve
The power valve maintenance is done more rarely. For amateur drivers, this should be done once a day, for pros, it should be done before every race. This operation is important to do if you don’t want to lose power from the engine. This is important if you are in karting in order to compete. Failing to properly maintain the power valve can result in loss of speed in long straights and loss of power when accelerating. What you need to do first is to remove the power valve housing from the engine by unscrewing and removing all the screws and bolts that hold it to the engine. Generally, you will only have 3 screws. Once you remove the casing, there will be a spring, remove it also. Once the valve is removed you will see that it is composed of 3 different parts: the bellows, the blade and the piston. You can disassemble all 3 elements using a 10 mm spanner. You need to lubricate the blade. It is the part that goes inside the engine. Put the blade into engine insert and verify it moves swiftly. Ten put the housing back over the blade’s screw, align it with the engine. Then loosely screw back the housing to keep it in place. You then need to reinstall the bellow and the pistons back on the bellows using again 10 mm spanner. Avoid tightening them too much. Install the plastic rims of the bellows back over the pistons and put the circular spring back on. Undo the screws on side of the housing in order to align the housing with the engine. You have to check that the power valve’s bolt threads align with the engine. Tighten everything back up. As said earlier this is an operation that needs to be done frequently. It might seem hard but with time and training, this operation will only last 10-15 minutes for you.Change Your Tyres
Depending on your go kart you can encounter 8 mm or 10 mm bolts linking the wheel rim to the axle. Pick the correct tool. Put the go-kart on a stand and lock the wheels. You can do so with your arms of any other tool. Use the correct tools to unscrew the 3 bolts linking the wheel rims to the chassis. Remove all 4 wheels rims with the wheels installed on the rims. Remove the bead lock srews on the rims. Now you need a bead breaker to break the beads on the wheels. If you don’t have one your local kart shop must have one. It is a machine specially made to break beads on go-karts wheel rims. Install the wheel with its rim on the bead breaker and use it to break the beads. You will need to change the settings of the machine for the rear wheels as the rear wheels have a different diameter than the front wheels. Then use tyres scissors to cut through them and remove them from their rims. Then you will need to put the new tyres on the rims. For this start by adding grease on the inside of the wheel and on the surface of the rims. Then push the rims inside the wheels. You will then need to use your tyre scissors on their revert position in order to properly put the wheels inside the rims. Put back the bead lock screws and check for the absence of cracks or damage on the thread. Don’t screw them too much, they should not touch the rubber of the wheels when coming out of the rims. Add air to your wheels. Then unscrew one bead screw to evacuate excessive air. You should have a pressure of 14-16 psi inside the wheels. Check that all wheels have the same air pressure if that is not the case you might have a problem (bead screw, puncture, etc) Mount back your rims with their wheel on it to your chassis. Changing a wheel is pretty simple on a car and pretty complicated on a go kart. This operations needs special equipment. In case it is too complicated or you don’t have the equipment ask your local kart shop or track. Many karting aficionados don’t change their wheels themselves but ask their local shop to do it for them.Other Checks
- Do a visual check of the chassis, check for cracks
- Check the welds
- Check all bolts, nuts, bumper, floor, etc. Check their tightness.
- Check that the area below the chassis has not flattened too much
- Check overflow tanks, check that they are empty and not damaged
- Check hoses & cables
- Check the exhaust, check that it is correctly fitted
- Check that the axle is straight by putting the kart on a stand
- Check the yolks. The yolks are C shape part that the stub axles are bolted into. Check their shape.
- Change filters
- Check battery and charge if low
- Check steering column, check that go-kart is turning smoothly on a stand
- Lub and clean bearings after every event. You can do this by using a compressor, a nozzle and some WD40. Spin the axle and shoot WD40 while shooting air. This will clean the bearings. You should stop when it is clear. You can also add some Tri-Flo after in order to increase performance.
