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Old 03-27-2023, 05:55 PM   #1
nickdalzell1
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Default Explain the popularity of the KF82 engine cars

I see a lot of posts here and other places online that seem to LOVE the KF82 engine Club Car DS (1984-91) and I don't get it. The engine was garbage. GARBAGE. Anemic, underpowered, has a severe fatal flaw (it grenades if you go past 15 MPH) and is LOUD and sounds like it's gonna self destruct if you push it past half throttle. It is also severely cold natured and these engines, be them old or rebuilt, tend to 'mark their territory' like an old airplane engine.

I had to replace on this week and it's as bad as I remembered, loud, smokes and marks its territory and the thing sounds awful around 12MPH+.

I have the same opinion about them as I did the old Briggs & Stratton lawnmowers (those engines were also cold-natured garbage that were hard to start and tended to rip my arm from kickback)

What explains the love for these outdated engines? Also, can anyone explain the love of the Caroches as well? I call those cockroaches as they're also underpowered crap with an ugly body, unobtainable hyrdraulic brakes, and the world's goofiest pedal setup (which is always seized up so when you hit the gas you hit the brake and park brake all at once).

I must be missing something....
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Old 03-27-2023, 06:25 PM   #2
scottyb
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Default Re: Explain the popularity of the KF82 engine cars

Now now now, There there there, ... just go drive around in your Ezgo for awhile - you'll feel better.

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And take me with you
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Old 03-27-2023, 06:59 PM   #3
CP241
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Default Re: Explain the popularity of the KF82 engine cars

I really liked my caroche. It was standard speed/power for a 36v toaster cart but the brakes worked awesome and while I DID have to remove the pedal assembly and lube it all up, it never had any stickiness after I did that. Plus it was unique. Don’t see many of them around here but ultimately I lost interest and sold it.

As for the KF82… I’ve only had once cart (a 91 or 92 carryall… whichever was the last year they made them) with that motor. I was less than impressed. I also don’t get it. I’ll take a FE290 over that old lawnmower engine without hesitation. Only reason I could ever see myself buying another cart with the KF82 is if I bought it with intentions of removing it for a clone or v twin.
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Old 03-27-2023, 07:17 PM   #4
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Default Re: Explain the popularity of the KF82 engine cars

I never heard one run but then again all I work on is ezgo's . I guess I can add that engine to the ones I don't recommend to others .
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Old 03-27-2023, 07:52 PM   #5
nickdalzell1
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Default Re: Explain the popularity of the KF82 engine cars

I swear I clicked on 'Gas Club Car' but it apparently posted here. Sorry folks.

I've never driven a KF82 DS that I've liked. You want real fun? Try driving a lifted one. It's even worse. at 8MPH it's about to go to valve float. Those engines are to me even worse than the gas RXV/10-up TXT FJ400s. It's just a glorified Briggs engine with a different coil setup, but otherwise just as awful as a 1950s 'Easy Spin Starting' Briggs engine (which was NEVER easy growing up. Took forever to get one going, and they tended to have hellish kickback and would about tear your arm off. NEVER hold onto the rope when it does that if it's the kind you had to actually wrap around the crank instead of the more modern spring loaded ones) I got such a sour experience growing up with old Briggs-powered equipment as a child that it soured my view of Briggs & Stratton entirely. The only "good" mower was the massively upgraded riding mower from Murray that used a Tecumseh engine. That thing ran forever. Never had issues starting (just hit the key and it ran) and my current lawnmower also has a Tecumseh engine and has been great for over 10+ years. But of course it's more popular to love Briggs and hate Tecumseh.

As for the Caroche, if they had perhaps used the front end to use headlights or even a grille instead of looking like you could, maybe it'd look better. But it's ugly. The resistors are the only thing I liked but later DSs had a better system with one solenoid instead of 5 that always fail (like Xmas lights) and then there's those microswitches that once I ripped 'em out I never got 'em back in. We had to scrap two of those frames over that. Even when they ran I swear they were slower than a Melex 252. It would only go 5MPH because the electric motor was so underpowered.

Caroches are like Chevrolet Chevettes. They look awful, run worse, and are "unsafe for highway use".
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Old 03-28-2023, 08:30 AM   #6
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Default Re: Explain the popularity of the KF82 engine cars

I'll just throw out here that back in the day of KF82's, and even more so the Caroche, they were just a golf cart. A way to carry 2 golfers & some clubs around a golf course. Underpowered? Noisy? Rough? Sure they were! But back then nobody was using them to rip around the neighborhood at 40 mph. The way most of us use our carts now is nothing like what they were originally intended and designed for. For some there is a certain nostalgia to cruising around in 30 or 40 year old golf carts. Allow that some people's priorities may be different than yours.
Full disclosure: I own a 91 DS with the KF-82. It's the cart my wife usually drives. Doesn't leak oil, doesn't make nasty noises. I had it adjusted up to about 18 mph (on stock size tires), and she felt it was too fast. I dialed it back to about 12 mph for her and she rarely even goes that fast. We also have a newer DS with a FE290 and an electric EZGO (project cart).
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Old 03-28-2023, 09:31 AM   #7
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Default Re: Explain the popularity of the KF82 engine cars

Fun story... years ago I bought a basket case CC DS with a disassembled KF82 motor. Came with a .050 over pistons, valves, and bearings. Head looked like the motor had swallowed a rock and beat itself to death. We had the block bored for the bigger piston, lapped the valves in, installed bearings, etc. then for grins we milled the head .010 for more grunt. I'll tell you what. That little motor ran like a scalded gorilla. lotsa fun. But yeah would not go looking for another.
Gas carts do seem to be a bit cheaper than electric these days.
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Old 03-28-2023, 09:48 AM   #8
trig123
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Default Re: Explain the popularity of the KF82 engine cars

Quote:
Originally Posted by scottyb View Post
Fun story... years ago I bought a basket case CC DS with a disassembled KF82 motor. Came with a .050 over pistons, valves, and bearings. Head looked like the motor had swallowed a rock and beat itself to death. We had the block bored for the bigger piston, lapped the valves in, installed bearings, etc. then for grins we milled the head .010 for more grunt. I'll tell you what. That little motor ran like a scalded gorilla. lotsa fun. But yeah would not go looking for another.
Gas carts do seem to be a bit cheaper than electric these days.
Gas carts are much higher in price and demand here in Alabama. at least in my area they are.
In saying that I tell people who come in my shop asking about carts is to buy electric .
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Old 03-28-2023, 09:40 PM   #9
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Default Re: Explain the popularity of the KF82 engine cars

Oh when they're set to factory even the KF82 runs fine and quiet (just rumbles like a Briggs at idle). Factory was like 5-8MPH. But lately everyone is in this odd need for speed. I really don't get it. The reason the other motor died (it still looked like a fresh rebuilt too) was from 'go fast' mods (bypassing governor). It had no compression to start. Just spun like the rod broke (again, like my memories of Briggs, they'd ultimately go BANG and just spin free).

But every KF82 car I've seen or drove, smoked, marked their territory like an old airplane engine (as in you had to put litter under it or you'd have a small drop of oil under it by morning), and were anemic. I used to see people riding them at Oshkosh AirVenture back in the early 2000s. They're also extremely cold natured. You can't really drive them in winter unless you hold the choke in for a mile or two. They take forever to even start popping off (Briggs again).

I finally got that car going like it's supposed to, factory reset the governor, cleaned out carburetor, and did the best I could to solve the 'marking territory' issue (which you can never truly eliminate). Before you'd be going 15MPH at 1/4 throttle with the engine literally screaming, now you can go pedal to floor and it holds 12 MPH as it should. FYI the 'marking territory' thing is mostly from the 'blow by hose' that seems to be routed to point to the ground. It comes from the crankcase vent below the carburetor. I've seen many where this hose is just ziptied or otherwise routed to drain to the ground like on and old motorcycle. Not sure if it's supposed to be that way, but it's common, and where the little drops of oil come from.

We, too, have a KF82 in pieces inside a tub we've had for years. A customer originally brought it in asking me "hey can you put this back together and make it work?" and after seeing the amount of damage I had to just send them a rebuilt engine. We have the tub o' parts just in the odd chance someone needs a flywheel, ignition coil, or other parts that are now unobtainium.

I understand the love for vintage, but I'd rather cruise around in a '76 Cordoba or a '78 Continental over a '87 DS with a KF82. I mean, some vintage carts/cars were ultimately junk. Are there people who adore and collect (and make run) old Chevy Vegas and Yugos? Is there an AMC Pacer enthusiast group I'm unaware of?
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Old 03-29-2023, 06:31 AM   #10
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Default Re: Explain the popularity of the KF82 engine cars

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