So I bought a used motor last year and we drove it (learned and spun out alot) all year. At the end of last year start of this year the clutch was eating springs so I bought a new clutch for it and now there is literally no bottom end on the starts. I am assuming I need to get the shoes blue printed to raise the engagement point. Last year he would be able to keep up on the standing starts, this year in the first race in both the pre-final and final the other kids put 8-10 kart lengths on him. He was fine once he got going but it took 5+ laps for him to catch back up to the leader.
I have swapped to the Honda motor for the next race just to see the difference since one local series runs Honda’s and the other you can run either but everyone has a comer.
My question is does blueprinting the clutch, ie shaving the clutch shoe down 80% raise the stall speed enough to get him going faster?
Do you know which regulations you have for the clutch? If you have to follow WKA rules then blueprinting will help but it’s not dramatic. I’d put other things higher priority as far as return on investment.
If you can run the cut down “outlaw” clutches then yes it makes a bigger difference in engagement point.
This really isn’t any tech on the kid karts but I know one of them has the normal blue printed clutch. It might just be time to get a new ring put in the motor. I would like to stay legal per the wka rules.
Only one spring that is legal. The shoe is around 1/4” thick new and it’s machined down to say 1/8”.
if you want to stick with WKA then yes, you can minimally grind off material to their minimum specs and then run the cryo treated springs. It’s not going to make a world of difference like the outlaw clutch would.
Well he had another race today. After practicing with the Honda for 200 laps we swapped back to the comer since the other kids were killing him (like 40+ feet out by turn 1 which is 100-150 feet from the start) when we were practicing standing starts on Saturday.
He was keeping up with them this go around so my guess is he wasn’t really paying attention on the starts last month.
Once he was up and rolling he was faster on the Honda for our track. Just can’t give up 40-50 feet on the start.
Talk your club into doing rolling starts. Many people that run clubs feel the kids can’t do it, but with some instruction they’ll surprise you and be better prepared for the next step.
Clubs without tech generally get some outlaw Comers. These have cut down clutches among other things that make them very fast. Make sure you are comparing your engine to like engines.
Finally, as it seems you have already learned, most of the time resides in your driver. The sooner you realize that, the sooner you’ll start saving money, and focusing on your driver which will help more than anything you could buy.
100% agree its all down to the driver, its funny that he can run 3 laps within .04 of each other every session but from session to session it can swing a full second. I did not opt for the shaved down clutch when I got this one but the first race had me questioning if there really was a difference.
They typically do standing starts for the first few races of the year. I am hoping by race 4 we can do rolling starts. I agree that it would be better long term so they get used to it.
I know 1 motor was brand new and stock, one motor was bought used and has some work done to it. Our motor was bought used and has work done to it as well. The other 2 I am not sure if they are stock or had work done but the kids are a little timid and just started so they are not pushing it as hard.
I really hope we can phase out the comers next year and go to only the Hondas, for the 200 laps we did all I had to mess with was putting more gas in.