Dave's Droppings

So after a one year and two month layoff from kart racing my son decided he want to stat running again.  He started racing when he was 9 and at 16 decided he wanted to take a break.  After running for 7 ytears I think most of us would want to take a break.

Well just prior to calling a halt last year  had purchased a new pump around setup (converted carb and dual fuel pump setup) to replace our stock carb using a TrackMagic “MagicCan” setup.  We figured this was part of the problem we had at Sandia last year.

Installed the new carb setup, checked the kart over, replaced the brake pads, bled the system put fuel in it and headed to the track.

First session lasted two laps until he brought the kart in complaining that 1st and 2nd gear were fine but that the kart fell on it’s face when shifting to 3rd.

Checked the fuel system and determined that the issue had to be a problem with venting and that the new dual pump setup was over pressurinzing the system.  Added a bigger vent tube and overflow catch tank for it.

Back out for the second practice session.  Same problem.  Back to the pits to work on the issue some more.

This time we addd more wire ties as we thought maybe we were sucking air into the system.  Checked jetting and while we were a bit “fat” I did not want to add a “lean burn” to our issues since the day was looking like it was going to be a test session rather than an actual race.

Also did not bother with adjusting gear ratios!

Back out for the third session.  Seemed a bit better except the muffler came loose from the pipe and rather then keep running an cause damage he brought it in to the pits for me to look at.  Fixed the muffler and sent him back out to finish the session.

Back in the pits I checked the plug for color and it was very wet.

Pulled the carb.  Lowered the needle, changed the pilot jet, kept the main jet, replaced the throttle cable and adjusted the pipe bracket (which had caused the pipe to seperate from the muffler).

Lined up dead last on the grid for the race.  We had NEVER been in that position before.

At the drop of the Green Flag we we NOT left for dead.  The wholesale changes had transformed the kart.  Tyler was able to work his up the grid a bit and finished in 10th place in the 125cc Shifter class.  A long way down the grid from what were are used to but at least the weekend was salvaged and hopefully we will be back up the grid at the next race in 4 weeks.

The camera on the kart was pointed too low but here is a few laps early in the day when we were fighting the probem.  You can see Tyler raise his hands in frustration and signal that he is going slow.