The other night the heat must have made me delirious when I said I was going to go inside and write a song about triangulation. That would be ridiculous. Instead I wrote a song a bout "The Rolling Chassis." The heat has a much greater affect on me than it used to when I was younger. I have found that the best way to stay hydrated is to drink as much water as I can before going out into the heat and then keep a jug of water near and keep on drinking every ten minutes or so. I never feel thirsty this way and it is almost a chore to keep drinking. But I have read that if you feel thirsty then you are already dehydrating.

I know this is getting boring but you have to keep finding the weak spots and bracing the frame so that every section supports itself as well as adding to the overall rigidity of the frame. We want it to flex as little as possible. We will be going shopping later for the fabric for the seat so meanwhile we will finish bracing the nose section of the frame. Can you guess what shape the bracing will form? Will it be circular? No. Will it be square? No. Will it be heart shaped? The girls would probably like that. No but close. It will be triangular. We will be using 3/4" x 1/16" square tube for the bracing. You will notice in the next picture that I have drawn arrows on the front cross piece to indicate the direction of this piece which in this case is the front of the cart. The reason I do this is because I will be grinding and test fitting these pieces until they fit properly. Since this project is a special one off frame instead of a jig welded production model there will be a small difference from side to side. It is easy to get a piece turned the wrong direction and then all of a sudden you are grinding the wrong end in the wrong way. The best way to start is by laying a piece of tube across the front down rights and get an idea of where and what direction to cut the connecting angles. I usually try to cut the piece a little long so that there will be room to grind it to fit. The magnets can help hold it in place.

Even though I have tried to get the nose section as symmetrical as possible I will still need to grind each joint separately. This is a matter of trial, error and practice. You will most likely not get it right the first time. Don't hesitate to scrap a piece and start over. That is what I have to do on a routine basis. The idea is to become more skilled as you go along. I just walk back and forth from the grinder to the cart to check the fit. Don't try to grind too much at a time because you would be surprised how much difference just a little grinding can make in the way it fits. This is a tedious process but it is what metal crafting is all about. The idea is to get the ends to fit as flush as possible in order to get a good weld. You deed to get it at least within 1/16" to flush. You can make up for a little offset in welding. If I can get most of the joint to fit flush with a 1/16" offset on the rest I consider it good enough for a go cart. (This would be totally unacceptable in automotive or aircraft quality welding.) As a hint, try to get one side to fit well first and then work on the other end. In the case of this project we end up with a compound angle.

Now that we have the front brace tacked into place we can place the other two legs of our rectangle.

You can get an idea of where to cut the angle in the tube by simply sighting from the top, making a small mark on the tube, going over to the vice and holding your mouth just right.
You can use the vice to hold the tube at approximately the correct angle and cutting straight down with the hack saw. The grinder can do the rest.

With the T nuts securely in place we can now unbolt the front screws and remove the seat. All of the mounting holes should line up perfectly when it is reassembled. Here is a shot of the front mounting brackets.

The T nuts in place.

Our next job is to find some suitable cushion for the seat. I want my girls to have a comfortable ride. I sell industrial sponge in my business so I have chosen a closed cell neoprene sponge for the cushion. One half inch thick is the softest material I have so I will just glue 4 pieces together. You can use any kind of cellular foam that you like. Next we will need a suitable fabric to cover the seat. I am going to let Grammy pick out the fabric because I think it is going to be hard to choose something that goes with a pink color scheme. This will be interesting.

There are still a lot of loose ends to keep working on at this point so I will just pick out the most obvious first. I am not happy with the bracing at the nose of the chassis. There are numerous ways to improve the integrity of the connecting components by use of bracing. We will add a couple of braces to the front nose section.

The hardest part is getting the angles right on the ends so that they are flush and tight. Once again the magnets are a great help in holding the braces in place.

There will be a recurring theme as we continue to brace and support the frame. "Triangulation". You will notice that the bracing will form a triangle whenever possible. This will allow for optimum strength to handle the various twisting forces that will be applied to the frame. There is something about the shape of a triangle that feeds the loads equally in all directions thereby strengthening the whole frame. Just think about the Pyramids. As we go upwards with the frame we will be triangulating. It is 95 degrees in this garage at 8:00 PM tonight. I think I will call it quits, go inside and write a song about triangulation!

Here is some more of my award winning sketching. Sketching is supposed to be a way to aid in the design process of a part or mechanical movement. Computers have allowed for magnificent improvements in design and modeling. My problem is knowing how to utilize this technology to its' fullest fullness. For instance, I know there is a way to rotate the following photos but I just don't know how. I suppose you could just turn your monitor sideways. That would be kind of like using a sand blaster to clean the dirt off of your car. It works but there is a better way. Here is a publication that I really enjoy. It is Lyndsay's Technical Books and it is a collection of mostly early 20th century cutting edge technology. If you happen to have a steam engine you need to repair or need to build a small metal forge in your back yard to melt and pour iron ore, this is your source. Dave Gingery basically stands alone as the mad scientist of tinkering often on the edge of bizarrely dangerous. The following is given as a disclaimer in the catalog:

If you're an idiot, Go AWAY! Much of the information contained in these books is potentially dangerous. If you're too lazy to think ahead and exercise caution in your work ( my definition of an idiot ), then I don't want you on my customer list. These books are for fun. Getting hurt or hurting others is not fun. Dangerous dipsticks are not welcome here. I cannot vouch for the accuracy or the safety of the methods in these publications. This is a bookstore, not a school. Be very careful. Use good judgement in your work. Work safely.


I have a number of these publications. So far I have not destroyed anything ( of any value).

I think my next selection will be " Perspective Made Easy". I am generally dubious of any title that touts the simplicity of anything. But I can use some kind of help in graphic design regardless of the veracity of the source.

Now we can begin constructing a bench seat. It is a matter of using dimensions that fit to the frame we just built. At this point you could use any kind of seat you prefer. You can buy individual seats from Go Cart supply companies but they are fairly expensive. I have chosen a bench seat because it is easy and inexpensive to build yet very sturdy. Also I plan to install three sets of seat belts knowing how kids like to pile everyone possible on for the ride. The main materials needed are a piece of 3/4" thick plywood, 1/8" x 1 1/2" angle iron, 1/4" x 1 1/2" carriage bolts 1/4" x 1 1/2" hex head bolts, some foam seat cushion and fabric cover.
We start out with a plywood base that will fit in the space left for the seat. There are many ways to go about doing this and hopefully you can find a better way than I will show. Since this is a "one off" project as opposed to a production model, all of the holes that I am drilling are just random and will only fit in the place where they are initially placed. In other words I am too lazy to try to make everything uniform so that any bracket will fit at any spot. But it should not matter as this item should seldom if ever be completely disassembled. However I am building it so that the seat can be easily removed by use of bolts and everything will line up for reassembly. We start with cutting 2 pieces of angle iron 2 1/2" long. Since we are using 1/4" bolts we will need to use a 5/16" drill for the holes. A word of warning: You will notice that I drilled the holes in the legs of the angle iron right across from each other. This was not smart. Instead you need to offset the holes so they do not interfere with each other when bolting it to the frame. I am setting the front angle irons in 1" from the outside so that the lip of the seat can rest securely on the front rail. I have also chosen to bolt the angle iron directly to the front seat

rail. Once the holes are drilled in the angle iron, ( remember to offset them) the mounts can be clamped in place for drilling the holes in the plywood seat. We will use 1/4" carriage bolts because they have a flat head that can be pulled down flat so they will hold the wood seat securely in place as well as keep the bolt head from protruding up into the seat cushion.

It is a good idea to use a flat washer and lock washer to secure the seat to the mounts. With the mounts securely bolted in place the seat can be placed on the front rail and the holes can be drilled in the front rail. Go ahead and bolt the front mounts to the front rail using 1/4" x 1 1/2" carriage bolts. This will secure the front of the seat so you can work on the rear mounts.

Now we can move to the rear seat mounts. They consist of a piece of angle iron plus a piece of 1/8" x 2" flat plate. The rear cross rail is lower than the front cross rail so I will need to build some mounts that will raise the level of the rear of the seat. I have drilled the holes in the angle iron first and then the two pieces can be clamped together in the vice and then drill the holes in the flat piece to match.

Now the pieces can be bolted together in sets.

Now that the sets are bolted together they can be aligned in the proper spot for welding to the rear rail.

The idea here is to evenly space the mounts across the rear rail. Start out with the outside mounts first in order to get the seat level then you can put the center two mounts in place.Be sure that the mounts are pushed flat against the wood seat when you clamp them in place.

Now the clamps can be welded into place. Did I say clamps?? I meant mounts. Whatever you do don't weld those clamps to the frame. Have I ever done anything like that? I don't want to talk about it. At this point we need to mark the holes on the seat so they can be drilled to match the mounts. I used a pencil to mark the holes. You have to kind of stand on your head to mark the holes from the bottom. It was about 95 degrees in the garage with the fan blowing last night at 9:45 when I was doing this. I was sweating like a hog.

We will be using Tee nuts so that the plywood can be easily bolted to the mounts. A tee nut has an inside thread with perpendicular barbs on the outside that secures it into the wood like a tack. Once it is in place it fits flush with the surface of the seat. Insert the tee nuts into the holes that are drilled into the wood. You can simply drive them flat with a hammer but I like to pull them flat by screwing the bolt into them. I think it lines up better this way. The following photos illustrate the Tee nut being drawn down flat with the 1/4" bolt.

" The Rolling Chassis". This is the much anticipated milepost in any rolling project. Imagination can begin to fill in the rest of the missing parts and some glimpse of the finished cart can take shape if only in the mind. At this point all of those countless hours of late night toil begin to show some real accomplishment. Tedious fabrication and grinding of parts to fit begin to show the worth of their design. But this can also be a most tenuous juncture in the progress of any project. I would guess that for every completed project there are several hundred unfinished "Rolling Chassis" sitting in garages throughout the world that will never be touched again. The vision of what "could be" is easily substituted for the REAL thing. I could very easily back off now and lose interest in finishing this project. This is not the time to rest but rather a time to regroup and look at what remains to be done. So I have made a list of the things that must be finished. In my opinion there is not as much of a logical sequence or order in which to complete each task as there was in the beginning. Personal preference may have more substance than structural integrity. The following is a list of fabs that remain to be done but not necessarily in this order.
1. Finish Steering wheel and linkage.
2. Bench Seat
3. Secondary drive system and Brake.
4. Roll Cage.
5. Body Moldings.

Continuing from this point is kind of like trying to avoid the curse of the "Unfinished Rolling Chassis" so I am beginning right away on the framing for the bench seat. We start with the uprights from the chassis floor. One thing to note at this point is that the frame is now supported by the coil over shocks. In very broad terms this is what is refered to as "Sprung Weight." I have measured the distance from the the bottom of the frame to the ground at each corner and found a small difference in heights. This can be corrected by means of adjusting spring tension and suspension mounts. I prefer to wait until the final weight of all components including the engine are mounted before making these adjustments. I mention it at this point only because the rest of the body framing needs to be perpendicular to the floor frame in order to keep it square. Use of a level will make the uprights perpendicular to the earth but when you correct the ride level of the chassis it may look a little lopsided. So I am using two bodies from 2 "T squares" to help align the uprights perpendicular to the frame rails. I am not paying any attention to the bubble levels at this point because I know that the frame rails are flat. Besides I have the levels going the wrong direction to check the level.

Now we have an outline for the bench seat. I will begin sketching how to build the seat and connect it to the frame.

Last week Brenda and I took off for our cabin on Lake Tenkiller in Oklahoma. Uncle Roy and I snuck off to the river to do a little catfishing. It was mostly fishing and very little catching. But we had a great time. These are shots of the upper Illinois river just above Lake Tenkiller. The water is a little muddy at this point.

They have some of the most beautiful trees I have ever seen. There is a movie based on this neck of the woods called "Where the Red Fern Grows". We went to see the old general store that was used in the movie which is located outside of Keys.

The following is a shot of the Trout stream just below the Tenkiller dam. The water here is cold and clear.

Now that we have the tie rods finished they can be installed. There will be plenty of flexibility with the rose joints at both ends of the rod.

Now all we need is the steering linkage and steering wheel.

I have never assembled a universal joint before this project. They are a very efficient means of transferring force at an angle. The basic parts are the yoke which holds the U joint, The U joint itself, the bearing caps, copper retaining rings, and grease fitting which is also referred to as a zerk fitting.

I have already assembled one side of the joint so I will try to explain how to assemble the other side. Both sides are assembled in the same method. I know it is hard to see from these photos what I am talking about but you can easily find detailed information on the Internet. That is where I got my info. You basically start by placing the U joint inside of the yoke. carefully put some grease inside of the bearing caps. Then you take the bearing caps that you see in the next photo and place them on either side of the yoke. The bearing caps fit very tightly in the yoke and must be pressed in using a vise or similar force. The idea is to carefully squeeze the bearing caps into the yoke while centering the u joint so that it will slide into the bearings. This is the part where you need to pay attention because the bearing caps contain numerous needle bearings that are held in place by a small amount of grease. If any of the needle bearings fall out you must put them back into place in order for the joint to work properly.

You do not want to apply any direct force to the yoke itself. Keep all of the pressure on the end caps. One way to do this is to use a socket that is smaller than the Outside of the bearing cap. This way you will not put any pressure on the yoke and risk bending it.

The bearing caps need to be pushed in far enough for the retaining rings to be snapped into place. Now I don't want to give the impression that this all goes very smoothly especially if you have never put one together before. About the time you are through is when you are finally getting the hang of how to assemble it without much trouble.

Don't forget to insert the grease fitting when you are done and be sure to turn it so that you can get to it with a grease gun. Be sure and remember to grease the joint before putting it into service.

Here is the joint with the fitting installed.

Now we can complete the rear axle assembly. The Azuza flange bearing will hold the axle to the outer mounting brackets. I will wait until final assymbly to insert the key stock into the keyways.

A short center axle has a universal attached on each end and will be driven by the rear sprocket. I have not chosen the sprocket size yet. The sprocket will be bolted onto the sprocket hub you see in the middle of the photo.

The rear drive shafts are held in place by the lock screws on the bearings.

Now we can assemble the rear shocks and mount the rear wheels. This is the moment I have been waiting for. We now have a "Rolling Chassis".