No need to read the whole post if you have a short attention span!

Does anyone know of a good Go Kart shop local to me (lakeland)? I'd like to learn a little more about Go karts, small engines, and modifications etc. Are there any good and active discussion forums for Go karts? The forums that I have found are either for karting (this seems to be on a lot higher level than I think I want atm) or the go-kart forums which seem to have no activity at all hardly.


If you want to know where this is coming from you can read below.










I've recently bought a Manco Dingo SE Go-Kart for my daughter for Christmas. It was used and I got it from my boss at work. It has a 6 hp Tecumseh engine with a centrifugal clutch chain driven to a 54tooth sprocket on a live axle. It has a single seat with a cable throttle linkage and a brake with a rod to the brake pedal.

I knew nothing about go karts prior to getting this one, but I knew I would have to do some work on it prior to giving it to her. It ended up being a little more than I had planned, but surprisingly, it was quite fun to work on. I had to park it at a buddy's house to keep it secret and to work on it until I gave it to her. He knew just as much as I did about these things, but helped me anyway. Well, we replaced the fuel line from the gas tank to carb, the vacuum hose from the valve cover to the carb, when replacing the hoses, we drained the gas tank, then we drained the oil, changed the air filter, and the spark plug.

The clutch was a mess, so we pulled it all apart, cleaned it up to remove the gunk and lubricated the springs and shaft. I guessed the belt looked good so we just kept it, and the chain seemed to have a tad too much play in it and it was dry and a little rusty, so we just oiled it up some and figured it would loosen up and become more flexible with a few outings. The brake caliper was dry also, out of adjustment and didn't move as freely as I thought it needed to so we took it all apart cleaned it up, the brake pads seemed to be in better shape than I had expected, so after cleaning it up, oiling the moving parts and adjusting it, they worked good.

The muffler was a little rusty as well as the guard, so we cleaned it up, sanded it and painted it with 1500* primer and paint and it now looks new. We put everything back together, put in some fresh oil and gas and it ran great. One thing that still needs a little work is the cold start idle. It will fire up within the first 1-3 pulls max but I need to idle it up immediately until it warms up or else it will die. I tried adjusting the idle up, but once it has been run for awhile it will idle higher then when it was cold.

I got some padding from Summit and some new anti-skid pad and it cleaned right up.

We did Christmas for her on Christmas Eve since it was her mom's turn to have her for Christmas day. She was totally surprised and excited. Today she drove it around in a field by our house and you would have thought there was nothing better in the world.... until the chains masterlink broke!

I'm thinking about either ordering a replacement chain and masterlink and/or a new larger end sprocket, I haven't decided yet. The thing rolls out at probably 30-35mph already and until she gets use to it, she can't really see top end speeds until I think she gets use to it and I think she can handle it.