Carson Model Sport Go-Kart

[Racer 1966]

My Father's Day present,a Carson Model Sport Go Kart, arrived today! After all week of UPS saying I'd get it Monday,today I get an early delivery

Here's a few pics. It's supposed to be 1/4 scale so I used my son's T-Maxx for a size reference. I figure everyone pretty well knows the size of a Maxx(+ it's the only rig that's clean enough for pics :whhooo

It has a .15 engine for motivation. The tires are soft and sticky,hopefully it should corner good on a clean track. And the neatest feature to me,when the servo turns the wheels the driver's hands turn with the steering wheel so it looks like he's actually driving it The batteries and receiver are in the side pod and I'm not sure if a hump pack will fit, I'll have to see about that one. The stock radio is 27mhz FM. I will probably use the rx and control it my XP3D transmitter I used for VRC since I don't have an extra rx for my 3PM.

I'm going to hopefully pick up some fuel and start(complete?) the break-in Sunday. I'll definitely post a video when I go open'er up on a parking lot. May even do one of the figure eights in the driveway while breaking it in. Stay tuned for further updates

 

[Lessen]

Does that thing have kingpin style suspension (pancar) at the front? Looks like it'll handle like nobody's business

 

[Racer 1966]

Suspension is solid. Handling is is determined solely by the tires/track grip.

 

[Jeabajuice]

Wow, that is really cool. Must take much more battery life than other rc cars because the head turns but that is sick. Must be fast because it is probably mad lightweight.

 

[mtaylortank]

wow thats supposed to be 1/4 scale I figured I was going to see a big r/c, but that things is kinda small fo the scale.. still really cool!!! let us know how it goes.

 

[Jeabajuice]

Yeah! Post a video on this thread. I would love to see that thing fire up and go!

 

[Racer 1966]

Wow, that is really cool. Must take much more battery life than other rc cars because the head turns but that is sick. Must be fast because it is probably mad lightweight.

Extra battery drain will be minimal. The arms turn by mechanical linkage not with battery power.

wow thats supposed to be 1/4 scale I figured I was going to see a big r/c, but that things is kinda small fo the scale.. still really cool!!! let us know how it goes.

Remember that a go-kart is small to start with so 1/4 size wouldn't make it huge. However when compared to the Maxx that is supposed to be 1/10 scale,to me one of them is not scaled properly. I wanted it because it's not as common of an r/c.

 

[Racer 1966]

Finally picked up some fuel yesterday(Losi Nitrotane 20%) so today was the day to try and get the go kart broke in. I had to start with charging my rx/tx batts. While they were charging I checked over the kart for issues. I pulled the cooling head,checked it over,lubed the cylinder and reinstalled it. Then I found the exhaust was loose on the pipe brace and 1 wheel was loose. Fixed those.

Next was to trim the antenna tube to the correct length and slip the antenna through it. It fit loose into the holder so I used a dab of silicone to help hold it in. I slipped a piece of fuel line over the end to hold the tip neatly.

I already had an extra exhaust deflector,so to keep the rear of the kart cleaner I installed it.

Of course with nitro,safety is a must. So I installed an Ofna micro failsafe. Then the hump pack was charged so it got stuffed in too. Kind of a small compartment for the electronics but it all fit.

Time to check out the electronics and make sure everything is working. I didn't like how the throttle was working so I replaced the spring with fuel tubing for a more positive action on acceleration. Also with the spring,the trim would not open the throttle to help with cold starts. This can be seen in the above pics.
I turned on the transmitter then the receiver and shazam! It all worked. The servos are weak though. The throttle one was especially weak. As I mention in an above post,the driver's arms turn with the steering. You can see that in this vid.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vo_uYjhB9xA"]YouTube - ‪Kart Steering.wmv‬‏[/ame]

And now the main event! Will it start?

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMUQ7xscm-A"]YouTube - ‪Go Kart First Start.wmv‬‏[/ame]

I'm not sure exactly what happened But as you can see the pull start is working but the owb seems to have a problem. Either that or the starter shaft broke or ??? I had board meeting at the church tonight so I'll have to check it out later. Stay tuned for more updates.

 

[Racer 1966]

I had some extra time tonight so i decided to get the go kart fixed and ready for another break-in attempt. Time to pull the motor and see what's going on with the pull start.
I give it a :thumbup: for easy to work on. Also as you can see in this pic,another :thumbup: for loctite on the engine mount screws from the factory.

After removing the engine and the pull start system,there was no obvious breakage. I tried the owb on the engine and it was grabbing as it should,the engine is new and of course tight so I didn't try real hard. Just enough the make it grab. Further inspection showed no wear/stripping on the hex in the pull start and the pull start would pull and recoil fine. So put the owb in the pull start, just held it place and pulled it again. No grabbage! So I tried the owb on the shaft by hand again,tried to turn the engine completely over this time. BINGO! The hex sleeve was slipping on the O.D. of the owb. In fact I could pull the actual bearing out of the sleeve by hand!

Well that's garbage :\ Luckily though it is the common hex style and happens to be the same as the one my Savage uses. So I pull out my spare and give it a try. Sweet! Easy fix so back together she goes. Looks like I can make another break-in attempt this weekend :yes:

Here's a pic of the drive system on this kart. No slipper clutch,should be fun Stay tuned for more updates as they occur

 

[Lessen]

Staying tuned... this makes me wanna get the bike fired up.

 

[Rolex]

That is so cool. Love the steering in the first vid.

 

[Jacknifejuv]

haha thats so doody

 

[Racer 1966]

Well I managed to get 3 tanks through the kart this weekend. The carb settings were too lean from the factory so I had to richen it up. Here's vid of the first run. Since there have been a lot of newbs with starting issues.I decided not to edit the clip and show you that even though I am fairly experienced,I still had to deal with the new engine problems just the same.

BTW,have I ever mentioned I hate pull starts? New engine break-in and pull starting sucks. Also note that when it started,it revved really high. Seemed like radio interference was moving the throttle even though I have a failsafe installed. After some tweaks to idle it down,the issue never cam up again. If you just want to skip to where it runs,jump to around the 8:30 mark.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6rly_Fh_aM"]‪1st Run Take 2‬‏ - YouTube[/ame]

 

[Rolex]

Great turning radius. That's gonna' be a blast when it's broken in.

 

[moe7404]

if necessity is the mother of invention, then laziness must be the farther.

 

[Racer 1966]

You can also see it doesn't do off road very well

Another thing I don't care for is the Losi fuel. It's clear,so it's hard to see when the fuel line is primed and harder to see the fuel level in the tank. Also it doesn't smoke much. I probably won't buy it again.