Just when you thought it was safe to go outside, we’re back with another winter kart project! Since last year’s was dubbed the Cellar Dweller and since Tom’s brother Jack ponied up for this one, we’re calling it (in our heavy Boston accent) “Brutha Of A Cellah Dwellah”. Like the boys themselves, their two cars both have personalities and their two styles are completely different. Tom’s as many BangShifters may remember, is more of a hot rodded kid’s off-road kart where as Jack’s looks like it was actually but to race. But I’m getting ahead of myself here so let’s back the truck up a little and set the scene.

About three seconds after we started on Tom’s kart last year, Jack decided that he wanted in on the fun and began stockpiling money, doing extra little odd jobs at the house for a few shekels, and stocking away any and all of the funds that he possibly could. By time time he counted up what he was holding in January of 2016, there was $500 there for him to do what he wished with. He told me that he wanted a go kart and I told him to start hunting. He would search Criagslist after school looking for stuff most of which was junk, and then he stumbled upon the kart you will ultimately see here.

It was listed as being for sale for $500 and after looking at it, walking around it, and nit picking some stuff we left with a kart and Jack left with $100 in his pocket for stuff we would ultimately need to make this thing right. You’ll notice that the kart looks pretty racy and it sure looks like it to me. Where Tom’s is a kid style kart, this thing looks like it was (at one time) a competition kart.

Does anyone have an idea of how to identify why type of chassis this is? Would like to do that for sure because because I am curious!

So the rundown on this one is interesting. In the state we bought it, the hydraulic brakes did not work, the engine would not start or run, and it was in need of some general cleaning and love. The 5.5hp Honda engine turned free, there are four virtually new Dunlop slicks on it, and it sure seemed like a lot of kart for the money we spent. Turns out, we were right and you’ll see why below.

I do not believe that this go kart was ever supposed to be powered by the 5.5hp Honda on the back of it today. There are some aluminum adapter blocks under the engine to get it so there was something to attach the Honda mounting pad to the chassis with. If we had to guess this kart once had a really tough two stroke on it or something. The clutch is a standard go-kart clutch which is centrifugal. There’s a beautifully welded aluminum fuel tank that sits dead center on the floor and it is not hooked up to anything. When I went to remove it I learned that it was filled with lead shot!

So with the new Cellah Dwellah in its service bay (the literal basement of my house) it was time to really get down to brass tacks and go over the whole machine. Thankfully there were no real surprises. We started by cleaning a bunch of stuff just so we could get a better look at the situation and because it is always nicer to work on clean/semi-clean things. The seller said that the kart had not been used much in the last couple of years and not at all in at least a year so along with the new rope pull, I recommended to Jack that we swap the carb. Once we did those two things we’d be able to assess the health of the engine.

First Fixes To Test Our Our Investment –

As you’d imagine, there wasn’t much to the carb swap or the rope pull replacement. I shot some ether into the throat of the carb and pulled the handle. The little 5.5hp mill spun up to life and then idled for a moment’s time before the ether ran out. We knew the engine was good and then it was time to move onto the next task. This kart does not have a torque converter like Tom’s, it has a normal go kart centrifugal clutch. It should be zippy and fun when it hits the road.

The only really hokey thing on the whole kart was the brake pedal bracket being attached to the frame with a hose clamp. Once the weather turns and we have this thing out, I will MIG it back into place so when Jack romps on the brakes the pedal does not break off the side of the car. The last two photos show it mocked into the correct location. It looks like there was welding done on it before but with no penetration it did not take much to snap it off the frame. Hose clamp fix has been deleted!

Jack’s a shorter guy and one of the big wins on this kart is the pedal extensions that allow him to operate the pedals perfectly. Without the extensions we’d be rigging stuff up. Once he gets older and taller we can pull the extensions and he’ll fit perfectly.

Them’s The Brakes, Kid –

One of the things I find really cool about this kart is the fact that it has a hydraulic brake (another reason I think it was a real racing kart). The master cylinder had been hammered in some sort of a crash and was completely non-functional. I could not get the thing to budge and there were chunks missing out of the bottom. I may make alterations to the bracket to allow for some more ground clearance. The replacement master cylinder was $40 and it took them like 1.3 second to ship it to us. We’ll cover that swap in the next story.

Paint and Body –

The last thing Jack wanted to handle was changing the color of the number plate in front of his steering wheel. Said plate was kind of beat up with some chunks missing, cracks, and other stuff. I busted out the sand paper, the Bondo, and some spray paint and we got to working on it. By no means is the body work good, but it looks better than when we started and that’s always a win.

This is going to be a lot of fun and there will be some great lessons in this thing for Jack. Heck, he already got a great one. Bust your ass and save up a few bucks in order to have a big time! We’ll be back soon with the second installment of the series and since the weather is showing signs of promise, hopefully some fun “kart review” action.