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| Posted: Thu Jul 28th, 2011 02:03 am |
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1st Post |
George Paine
Member
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I've been eye ballin' some Yamaha karts, circa mid 70's. I know they may not be everybody's cup of tea, but I was hoping there might be one or two resident experts here nonetheless.
I've put over 200,000 miles on Yamaha motorcycles and think they make excellent machines. What are the pros and cons to their early karts? Is it hard to find frame/chassis bits? I know the motor is still offered new.
I just like how they look and sound and would like to learn a bit about them before I considered buying one.
Thanks,
George
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| Posted: Thu Jul 28th, 2011 03:05 am |
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2nd Post |
Joe Drabicki
Member
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Hey George,
Yamaha guy here. I have had them, raced them, sold them and still have some parts for sale.
Some chassis parts are hard to find separately, so I try to buy complete karts just to have spare parts. There are enough of the karts around that I can
USUALLY find or have the parts someone needs. I am trying to track down a seat bracket for someone right now. I will probably have some hard to get parts reproduced soon, like the seat brackets.
You can do a search on this site for posts in the past on the Yamaha RC100S karts. I have covered the topic before, but here is what you need in a nutshell.
Yamaha designed the karts in the early 70s and began production in 1973. The kart began getting imported in the US in 1976. The frames were made in two versions, the early one with an upside down U seat bracket bolted to the rear frame tube (hard to find) and the version with the left seat bracket welded on and the right seat bracket bolted to the bearing carriers behind the engine. This righ seat bracket is hard to find.
The wheels were made in two versions, early were straight from bead to bolts, later were stepped from bead to bolts. As a Yamaha kart goes through its life, people end up putting aftermarket hubs and wheels on them and lose the original ones.
The engines were made in three versions, but I lump the first two together because the first version had a straight crankshaft and was changed to tapered early on. The forst gen was made from 1973 to 1995. The second gen was made from 1996 to today. There are finer points to ID the engines, but I won't go into that here.
If you have questions or need parts, let me know.
Kind Regards, Joe
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| Posted: Thu Jul 28th, 2011 11:00 am |
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3rd Post |
| Posted: Thu Jul 28th, 2011 12:34 pm |
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4th Post |
James Slaughter
Member
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yamaha karts first time i have ever seen them, was in new england , back in 1976 or 77, a company called venture sold these, straight shaft engine, there was a kid with a good running mac 49 that would smoke them then later came the five in reed class, 92 engine with a thick head gasket,yamaha had to run a rest. of some sort , and ran against the 92 with the thicker head gasket still beat em.the newer engines,that yamaha made, where much better, but not vintage,the good stuff,very durable engine,early style yamaha karts, the carb was facing the back of engine,as far as i know,still a good class in some areas,p.s. i have one, that i run on a modern chassis.they are a neat looking chassis i know a man in N.H.WHO still has his, wont sell it but it is mint shape.
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| Posted: Thu Jul 28th, 2011 12:34 pm |
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5th Post |
James Slaughter
Member
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yamaha karts first time i have ever seen them, was in new england , back in 1976 or 77, a company called venture sold these, straight shaft engine, there was a kid with a good running mac 49 that would smoke them then later came the five in reed class, 92 engine with a thick head gasket,yamaha had to run a rest. of some sort , and ran against the 92 with the thicker head gasket still beat em.the newer engines,that yamaha made, where much better, but not vintage,the good stuff,very durable engine,early style yamaha karts, the carb was facing the back of engine,as far as i know,still a good class in some areas,p.s. i have one, that i run on a modern chassis.they are a neat looking chassis i know a man in N.H.WHO still has his, wont sell it but it is mint shape.
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| Posted: Thu Jul 28th, 2011 12:34 pm |
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6th Post |
James Slaughter
Member
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yamaha karts first time i have ever seen them, was in new england , back in 1976 or 77, a company called venture sold these, straight shaft engine, there was a kid with a good running mac 49 that would smoke them then later came the five in reed class, 92 engine with a thick head gasket,yamaha had to run a rest. of some sort , and ran against the 92 with the thicker head gasket still beat em.the newer engines,that yamaha made, where much better, but not vintage,the good stuff,very durable engine,early style yamaha karts, the carb was facing the back of engine,as far as i know,still a good class in some areas,p.s. i have one, that i run on a modern chassis.they are a neat looking chassis i know a man in N.H.WHO still has his, wont sell it but it is mint shape.
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| Posted: Thu Jul 28th, 2011 12:35 pm |
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7th Post |
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