I was reading the Rotax manual to get an idea on what maintenance needs to be done and when to provide optimum performance. There is a lot of good info in the manual but I see and read others doing more… obviously there are certain things we cant do due to the seal. But I heard that lubricating the bearing behind the flywheel has to be done after every session and also a carb strip and clean out. Is anyone resealing the exhaust after each session with high temp silicon?
Currently I am just trying to prevent corrosion in the wet weather… So that’s a good spray of wd40 everywhere… But would be keen to learn what others are doing to keep the kart in shape…
What you want to be doing after every event is draining the fuel tank of fuel and the carb of all fuel as soon as you can after racing before putting into storage for your next event. Doing this will eliminate you having to strip the carb frequently. Once you do this you can strip the carb once a year. Its when you leave old fuel in there that things get gummed up with corrosion etc.
You want to service the clutch after every race, clean inside the drum and around the clutch shoe with brake cleaner. Also clean the needle bearing with brake cleaner then apply a very little amount of a heavy grease (too much and it will seep into the clutch and cause it to slip). Apply blue loctite on the nut that holds the drum to the crank and torque to 26ftlbs and you’re good to go with clutch.
The only other thing I recommend you do is remove the chain and sprocket and clean both thoroughly then apply new lube and go back up. Check your tension and thats it
Thanks Chris this is good information for us. Yes, are racing in Junior Rotax, my son is in the driving seat and i am head of maintenance \ finance \ transportation \cleaning the muck off the kart at the end of the day…so your tips will certainly help… thanks.
Hey Moody, yea aside from what i said above and thoroughly cleaning the frame around the engine and axle bearings there is not much else necessary to do. I check my alignment with the snipers just to make sure everything is all good there. Maybe one other thing you can do is undo all the electrical connections and spray out with contact cleaner then compressed air. If you had a senior you’d also want to be removing the spring on the PV between meets.
