1995 ParCar throttle Operation questions

[tcanthonyii]

OK. Picked up this 95 in a trade. Traded a running go kart for it. In OK shape. Some holes and cracks in the hood on the right side but to be expected for the price. Tires are cracked but after some slime hold air well. It's a 4 seater with 4 cup holders which seem to be somewhat odd from what I've looked around at on the net.

Anyway dude said it ran intermittently. It absolutely did. I drove into the garage and never started again. I determined the crank seals were out so the engine came out and I ordered seals. Upon installed found that the clutch side bearing was worn and loose so a total teardown came forth. All new seals, new bearings both sides and as it turned out fan side was rough and dead. Cylinder was honed as there was no cross hatch and I broke a ring installing the jug so it got new rings as well. The reed valve I found to be worn but simply flipping seems to have gotten it sealed up. I ordered one but it was worse than the one I had.

Got it all put together last weekend and then suddenly no spark. My spark module had gone bad. Dang, ordered points and installed today. I do not have them set right but it was enough to hear it fire. Swapped out the carb for an 80's ez go (this is not as simple as everyone makes it out to be....). Simply reversing the choke isn't hard but the spring is wound the wrong way to open it up. The butterfly is at 75 degrees the wrong angle and the adapter for the air filter doesn't fit. I resolved all the issues but only after an hour or two of trial and error and digging through my bolt buckets. I still need to figure out where to route the choke cable so it operates correctly.

I swapped the carb because the butterfly wasn't opening when I hit the throttle. If I force it open then it opens. It closes fine. I have the same issue with the new carb. The old carb was shot. It still works but the choke lever has worn a very large hole in the side of the carb.

Is this throttle cable supposed to be "sticky" or should simple spring pressure open it up? Any cure or just splurge for a $45 cable.

In other news it runs poorly but the gap is set horribly and I totally guessed on the timing. Like I said it fires up. Once I get the spark dialed in and this throttle deal figured out I think I'm in business. It wants to rev up but you can see the points arching and you can hear it cutting out. My kid is all over my butt to get it running. I swear every time I turn around I'm buying more parts for this thing and out here in the boonies it's another weeks wait. I just wanna drive it! :) I don't mind all the work honestly. At least we know it's REALLY solid and should last a while. I have about $200 ish total in parts so far and I have maybe $100 in the go kart I traded so for 3-400 for a running golf cart to run around our podunk town isn't bad.

Oh also do I need the governor cable at all? Its flat broke. I'm assuming I do not as it would just limit how fast it would run, just don't be stupid and floor it?

[tcanthonyii]

Lubed the cable with some wd-40 and moved the return spring to accommodate the Chinese carb better and it its working now. Not as good as I’d like it but it is moving freely now. I ordered a new one anyway just to have a spare. Setting points later today and should be in business I hope.

[tcanthonyii]

Well it runs and drives. Got the points gapped. Then realized I had somehow ripped my carb gasket. A new one! Digging though my small engine gaskets I found that a briggs intake gasket is nearly an identical fit. Ran much better.

The thing needs timed better. Still working that out. I have everything to convert to HEI. Just need to build a harness.

Biggest issue now is getting the exhaust fixed. The middle pipe between muffler and lead pipe is broke right at the connection and somehow Ive lost 3 of the 4 springs. Hoping an local exhaust company can fix me. I got a whopping 14 mph out of it. It cuts out at high speed she be better when i get the hei built or timing dialed in.

[tcanthonyii]

Finished the HEI conversion. I was throwing way too much spark and burning points. Thought it was a bad condenser. Nope. Replaced same problem. They were already getting burned. I knew I wasn't keeping points anyway so I started to build the harness. A board would be better. I just soldered to wires and that seems brittle. I have lots of electrical tape and even a twig from a tree to hold things somewhat stiff. The wires are way too long but it works. When I finalize the wiring I’ll build a better harness with a board and a project box that I will 3d print. The hei module is bolted to the oil tank bracket. After reading and reading I decided to just premix And delete the pump. Plus with this china carb I see no way to hook it up anyway. The gasket for the points cover is a cereal box. Not perfect but will work.

It fired right up and made better revs than last night.

Now I just need to get this middle exhaust pipe fixed and I should look at the breaks. A new belt is on order as well.

Thank you to everyone on this site for the help. There is limited parcar resources available. Also have a late par car makes things difficult to some degree as well.

[tcanthonyii]

Well the ancient worn out belt blew today. Go figure. I have one ordered already. At least my kid got to drive it.

I redid my pop can exhaust. So far its holding up. Now to see how long it holds up. I dont wanna take it off until it breaks again.

[tcanthonyii]

New belt yesterday and shes up and running full speed. Im kind of impressed how reliable its been considering Im the one who tore it down and put it back together.

Built a hitch today so I can pull a yard cart down to the tree dump. I had an old bracket for an mtd riding lawnmower bagger that had a large piece of angle. Bolted it to the rear bumper. Should be about perfect. I need to find me a new hood now

[tcanthonyii]

Tested the speed. I got up to 20mph pretty easily. Still need to get the exhaust fixed. I also painted the nose so its not so ugly. For reference rustoleum canvas white is a fairly close color. I was just trying to make it a 100 footer.

[tcanthonyii]

Fixed the exhaust today. It's not "correct" in that it's not belled open. It just fits snugly over the union and does have room to roll a little bit. No one around here worked with pipe that small and one shop sold me a foot of this stuff that worked. She now just purrs along.

[tcanthonyii]

Well about a month ago the thing just stopped running a few blocks from the house. Inspection showed the cylinder was toast. Of course now with the worldwide shortage of everything cylinders are NLA. Took it to the machine shop and all they could do was measure and hone it. Found it to be .020 over. The piston in it was stock size with stock rings. Not surprising it schmucked the sidewall.

I got a good final hone on it and some how found a .020 set of piston and rings. Bolted it all down and still wouldn't run. Discovered I had installed my reed valve backwards in some of my testing. Fixed that and then it ran but sounded like it had a miss. I was able to drive it a little bit but wasn't right. Discovered points had come un adjusted to set those again and it was better. Still couldn't get it to time right by ear. Took another drive after and it wasn't any better.

At this point I determined my HEI conversion temporary turned permanent wiring was the culprit. I set out to re-wire again using breadboards that I bought a few months back and a project box I 3d printed about the same time. Now it ran better but the spark was still very very week. Eventually after being towed home by the neighbor I discovered the points had dirt between them. Our streets in town are gravel and a lot of fine dirt gets sucked up everywhere and in final testing I left the cover off. A quick clean and some compressed air and she now seems to run great again.

I then replaced my choke cable as I broke it in a fit of rage. Oops. And finally the throttle was sticking somewhat open and not returning this time after sticking the engine back in. Originally the throttle cable was very stiff. I forced some juice down it which made it operational but I had to throw a return spring on the chineese carb. I had a spare new cable that I bought to replace so I swapped that in and that extra return spring was no longer needed. After replacing it I found the old cable to be frayed and worn causing it to get hung up.


Trying to make sure I get everything I do to this cart down so the interwebs have items for people to search for. I have found very little troubleshooting information out there on these and even less the last 3-5 years of production. I need to get some pictures uploaded to show everything.

[Tech Support]

tcanthonyii
"Dear Diary,
Day 1342, I'm still hanging in there in my bunker with my trusty cart. I've somehow managed to keep it sparking every other couple weeks. I don't know what I would do without her. She is frustrating to say the least, but I'm still kind of having fun with this so called project."

Keep up the updates, and get around to the pictures. There's the standard troubleshooting guides in the 96-2000 manual ( https://evtechnicalservices.com/documents ) but right here on BGW is about the best troubleshooting information you'll find anywhere.