Good morning, I’m new here and joined to hopefully get a handle on on what’s going on with my new to me Tao Tao Go Kart. My brother bought this new for his daughters, he followed the break in procedure and switched over to mobil 1 after the 1st oil change. He’s always run VP non Ethenol fuel as well. When I got it from him it started kinda hard and he mentioned it has always been a bit cold blooded so I didn’t think much of it. As my son and I tried to use it though it wasn’t running right. I had to modulate the choke, and it would occasionally stall when changing from N-R or N-D. I figured it was a carb/fuel issue so I asked my small engine guy down the street to take a look. He ordered an adjustable carb for it(identical in spec to the original but adjustable), put a new plug in it and now it starts and runs beautifully EXCEPT..
1. It idles super high, so high that you really dont want to shift it into gear: we start it in gear with the ebrake on.
2. If you adjust the idle down to a normal +/- idle speed it stalls when you try to put it in gear.
3. It now smokes? He (my small engine guy) didn’t put any time on the motor maybe 15-20 minutes around the yard. It didn’t smoke before but now it has a solid haze and often thicker
most of the time.
What have you experienced with these engines? Thanks in advance for your help!

 

Put another new plug in it. If that does not work, clean the old carb out and put it back on. Some machines have a lock out which cuts the motor when changing FNR gears unless you have a brake on, are you sure that machine doesn't? If the original problems are back, refit the new carb, adjusting it to make it run better, if rich (which would explain the smoke) get the engine warm, then set it to over 2000rpm, wind the main jet screw in a bit and see if the revs rise, if they do, adjust it a bit more. Once it seems to be running better, set the idle mixture screw with the machine at about 1000rpm. In, and see if revs rise, keep going slowly until they start to fall, then out until they start to fall, then half way between. Finally, set the idle speed screw to get an idle that does not give crunchy gear changes.

 

Thanks for the heads up! I’ll give it a shot and keep you posted!