Hi Andy, Have to say I agree totally. I have used the tapered rollers in the 4" Hands on my A-Runner since I bought it new in 1962. I run it almost every weekend from April til October and have had zero problems with minimum maintenance. When I give them a spin with the kart on its stand, I get bore...

Hi Matt, I agree with Bob T., I would definitely put new tires/tubes on it before I run it. They aren't expensive. As far as a West Bend 580 or 700, I think it would be a great choice. Bear in mind that the more common WB of this vintage will be a left hand engine and will require you switch the axl...

Hey Dave, If the tag is actually from your engine, it was not a 5 port when new. The 58008 was built as a 3 port kart engine rated at 4HP and 5500 rpm. However, lots of the 3 ports were converted to 5 ports by buying a kit which included the 5 port block. The purpose built 5 ports were numbers 58012...

Hey, just out of curiosity what's the tag say? (not that it's necessarily the correct tag of course). I love the old round head WBs - especially the five ports. You can tell the size simply by checking through the exhaust ports with a magnet - the 580s had a cast liner but the 700s were hard chrome ...

Any chance I get to add some kudos to Jim, I'm on it. Been using his clutches on my 820s since I got back into vintage in '08 and they were great but the newer billet ones are amazing. Great guy and a great product!

Re: WTB GAS carbs Post by ted johnson » Wed Feb 08, 2012 11:30 am Thanks, Stan. I have a pair of 227's coming for the Bonbright 610, and a pair of 307's for the chrome bore 610. Don't mean to get off topic here but Ted: the Bonbright 610 you speak of - isn't that a hard chrome bore? (I ask because ...

Scott Kneisel wrote:Post by Scott Kneisel » Sat Feb 04, 2012 9:21 pm
Ted,
I always thought the HL134A was the 820 carb.

According to my service manual Scott, the original kart engine (61001/02 and 82001/02) 610/820s came with the HL134 carb. I know the engines we first bought from West Bend in '62 did.

Nice useful site; thanks for sharing!

Andy

Thanks, SteveO, for confirming what I've always wondered about. That the "poor man's Ackermann" you attribute to those who use negative toe (static) on karts and insist it works best overall are confused. Everyone has their own ideas and that's the basis for the intrique of racing mods for the masse...

Hi Scott- Steve is correct but you needn't go to the trouble to measure for Ackermann with your forward steering, single tie rod set up, since the only way you could have any real amount of positive Ackermann would be if your spindle arms were angled outward noticeably. With your setup, lines drawn ...