John A. Morrison's Journal Scrounge Built

So you get the brake kit, master cylinder, rotor, calliper, reservoir and brake hose. Rather short as go karts put the master behind the seat and have a rod to go to the foot pedal. Ha, not us cyclekart fabricators, So I get suggestions that I should use the master cylinder in front of the peddle! Hmm, short hose for sale or giveaway, had to purchase a metal brake line and replace adapters on both ends, there would be two types of tube ends to deal so best look carefully. Tested the brakes and did not find them very powerful, then well I mean one rotor! So I bought a larger rotor to get more swept area, still not impressive. So we do test run, and pictures of the two sides tells a story. One side shows good contact while the other seems to be missing some swept area. I shimmed the bad side with a pattern cut piece of metal 3mm, swept area showed a bit of improvement but now have to wait till spring to break for a run.
JUST IN CASE, I buy a mechanical drum and brace brake for safety with a fabricated up gear handle to set for park or one handed drifting. Just got to work out the cable to get the action without the brace clamp trying to jump off the drum. Great Fun.

Been a tough year to work in my little shed up here on the East Coast of Canada. Record snow falls etc. No different than many areas but cold fingers or cold feet really cuts into productivity. Keeping the old warm morning heater going can take a lot of ones attention. So I am going to try and pick up where I left off and post pictures as I work toward completing my kart.
In our community Nova Scotia Power offers a work shop called the Makers & Space ( I call it the Make or Brake) fully tooled up, I took a night course to learn to weld and away we go. It’s getting better, the tread mill we scraped was the right size tubing a bit short but was able to overlap for the wheel base.
My wife Anita, printed out in full size the frame layout which was a tremendous help. I hope to be putting up 4 phots every other day till I can show a few of my friends, what I have learned, the helpers from the Make & Brake can see my progress. Thanks guys for making this available. Still having fun.

Steve,

So, the frame is made from my wife’s treadmill, I’ve learned how to weld, well a lot of grinding afterward for cosmetic purposes but quite proud of my self. The metal seat plate and louvered cowling is from my neighbours lawn mower, rake steering, steering wheel, front axel and spindles, axel spliced for 39” min. springs are being fabricated by Ocean Spring Industrial, I have the rear bearings for the axel and hope to pick it up tomorrow. Notice the Kick up, the treadmill did not offer full-length but the two together got me 98”. The seating position is very critical so I don’t want to make any mistakes in positioning. I have my rear axel bearings, the yoke kind, so I can put them on top of or below the larger frame tubing on the rear section. I need to feel that the kart won’t profile well if I don’t get it right. I believe I may be able to use them on the bottom of the frame, on top would maybe an uphill look, which I want to avoid. Hence the importance of knowing the the axel to wheel rim radius, will allow me to gauge my seat box drop below the frame to get my wanted 4.5” or there about, off the ground. Then I can mock up with jacks the front to see if she sits flat. Any hints, if your time allows would be much appreciate. A loyal subscriber am I.
Hope this gets to you.


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John Morrison, CEO
Quality Cameras & Computer Services Ltd.,
C: 902-304-4967
Sydney Nova Scotia
http://www.quality-cameras.com