Hello from CT

[Speed-J]

Hey everyone,
Its a pleasure to join the forum, and thanks for having me. My name is Fred and I'm from CT. I picked up a pretty shot Quantum Carbide 7150 a few years back, and while it ran it needed some work. Considering I'm a big Jeep guy, it got put on the back burner till this last January, when I decided pretty last minute to take it to Cali to go to the King of the Hammers desert race.

What happened next, in my typical fashion, was for me to spend the 60 or so hours before it was time to load it on the truck getting it going in a way that I could have some fun with it in the desert.

In that time (with very little sleep) I replaced the tires with new knobby ATs that were slightly larger (21x7-8F/24x11-10R), jetted the carb to 135 (iirc) built a new cage to replace the missing one that the original owner tossed, 4 pt. harnesses and threw a bunch of led lights on it (two headlights, a 20in lightbar, two tail lights and a 6ft led lit whip, which is required at night out there)

It did awesome when I took it for a spin in the woods around my house, but I noticed some slipping on a few climbs. Out of time, I took it to get loaded up, which was a fiasco in itself. My group had gotten downgraded on our trailer size, and because I was considered to be the least essential next to the race rig and chase trucks, I was told I was going to get booted. That's when I decided to take off all the tires, cut part of the cage I had literally just welded in, pull the motor and rack, and throw all the pieces wherever they would fit. Luckily, the kart made it, and I was able to reassemble and have some fun, after replacing the clutch and drive belt out there as I ran out of time before I left.

The kart did awesome the whole week in the hard pack, but would bog down in the soft stuff. I felt like it had lost the power I had felt back home. In retrospect I think I should have adjusted the carb for the altitude difference, although I'm not sure if it would have helped or not. It was fun for the week however (until I thought I blew the transmission the night before we loaded up) and it made all the hard work of getting it built and out there worth it. However, to come home I had to disassemble it again, and once back home after getting it together something appears to be wrong. Hence why I decided to join up here so I could ask for some advice.

I'll search around a bit, but will probably repost this in tech, but here's the situation: I pulled the clutch cover off when I got home and saw that I had trashed the new belt I installed (looks like it was a crap belt the way it ripped apart) so I put the original back on and threw the kart back together. When I went to take it for a spin, the thing would just bog down and shut off. It idles fine, revs fine in neutral, but stalls in gear, forward or reverse. I lifted up the rear end on jackstands and it will spin the tires in gear, but dies the second I grab onto one. I figured I blew the transmission for real, and pulled the motor out again. After popping open the crank case, Nothing appears to be damaged at all. The case is clean as a whistle too. Sooooo.... Ideas?

Also, while I have the motor out, I'd like to do pretty much any and all upgrades I can to it to squeak more power out of it. Any suggestions would be a great help.

Other than that, I had bought three different performance CDIs for the thing, but the kart wont run on any of them. Not sure why.

And the last thing I'm curious about while I'm writing this novel (and if you're still reading I thank you) is if anyone knows what kind of output the electrical system has? I ran all those lights knowing it was probably an overdraw, but nothing ever dimmed or got hot or anything, so I guess I'm alright, but was still curious.

Thanks for reading, and I'm glad to be here. Hoping to learn a lot from you all.


-Fred

[x-bird]

very cool and awesome experience thanks for sharing it! hitting KOH is a bucket list deal for me.

re. the belt/power loss issue, check your variator, sounds like a roller is out of place. very easy to have happen when working on these, if the two halve separate during install. the rollers can drop out of position and jam up the works.

[Speed-J]

Wow, I never would have thought of that! thanks x-bird. Ill check that out.

Like I said, I've been focused on jeeps most my life, so I'm a total newb when it comes to this thing. Its smaller but makes me feel like its way more complicated!

And I've gone to KOH five times now, its a really good time, so I recommend it if you were ever debating going.

[SYCARMS]

Put the buggy on stands and pull rear wheels and cvt cover. Start and operate in drive while watching the cvt for proper operation. x-bird is correct with the variator but you also want to check the the clutch pulley. If working properly the belt will rise on variator and drop on clutch pulley in sink with each other. The belt tension should remain consistent throughout the entire cycle. Welcome to the addiction.

[Speed-J]

Been A while, weddings have been keeping me pretty tied up. Wanted to get back here so I could post these:

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