Go Kart Edumication

I bought my sons a gokart a few years ago and it has reached the point where it needs some routine maintenance.  None of which is overwhelming, even for someone who quit working on his own car engines a long time ago like me, it’s just that the manufacturer of this go kart went out of business so getting parts is an adventure.  My lack of experience is an impediment but not terminal. 

I have gone through a broken drive chain, destruction of a drive chain cover, breaking the deadman switch on the starter circuit (about three times-that thing’s about to go the way of the dodo bird), weak batteries, clogged/gummed up carburetors, and dirty air filters.  Believe it or not, it’s the dirty/clogged air filter that’s killing me.  I cannot find any place to get a replacement.  It’s a dry paper filter and in attempting to clean it I have opened up a hole in the center so I really need to replace it.  The closest I’ve come is finding a place that has an entirely new air box for this kart and I’m not even sure that includes the filter.

So, I’m about to convert this to a high-flow UNI filter system.  That should give me some replaceable filter parts and in the bargain they tell me this will boost the performance because the air flow to the engine will increase.  I hope it doesn’t increase to the point where the air/fuel mixture is a problem which is how I got here to begin with (restricted air filter = too rich and bogging at high RPM).  But there are solutions for that too.  This also means I’ll no longer have to deal with six screws into plastic just to clean the filter.  I’m bound to strip out the threads in the plastic during routine maintenance so I’m glad to see that air box go anyway.

Anyway, I’m really a newbie to this go kart upgrading/maintenance thing so here I go….