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Looking for some guidance and parts for a Little Red Bug!
#21
(12-30-2019, 08:02 PM)ted johnson Wrote: Bug changed their standard equipment as often as men change their skivvies. If they got a good buy on a different part, they bought that new part and used it until they ran out. The first Little Red Bugs DID have the Hands 4" wheels. I had one on the showroom floor for several weeks. I know they offered the Spider magnesium wheels as an option on all Bug karts. You could always get the Airheart brake on all live axle Bug products for extra cost, beginning, I believe in '62. The Bendix became a more popular option as it worked more smoothly than the Trophy mechanical disc. The early Trophy caliper was mounted to the bearing hanger by a cast aluminum bracket. Later, they welded a small "L" shaped steel bracket on, as the aluminum brackets often broke. My personal '61 Wasp had a steel bracket I fabricated. It was the same dimensions as the cast bracket. It lasted until I sold the kart late in the season. I have a Pro/Engineer CAD designed steel or billet aluminum bracket on my computer. I designed it for a Bug guy who broke his cast bracket and couldn't find another. It looks factory, but being machined, it'll last a long time. I'm certain that the later LRB karts came standard with 5" wheels. However, I sold a few with the 4" wheels all around. I guess Bug renamed the kart Red Bug, but the early ones were called Little Red Bug. These karts can not be pinned down to say: "They came thus and so". They came however Bug happened to make that production run, and might change next week. It isn't like they sold thousands of this model. It wasn't very popular. Most buyers wanted the Wasp, Flyweight, Lightning Bug or Scorpion. They were heavier, but the frames were less likely to break as they had the wrap-around rear bumper. We even sold more Lightning Bugs with the V-11 Saetta engine than we did LRB's. You are just not going to find definitive proof of exactly how the kart was produced from week to week. They aren't Fords nor Chevvies. I had stacks of Bug brochures, but tossed them when we closed the shop in '64. Every printing had several minor changes to the kart. Go Kart did the same thing. If you had ever visited Bug back then, you'd understand. They had frames stacked against one another many deep, and many stacks wide.
BTW, look at that second brochure. That's a later kart. It has the 5/8" steering shaft, the 5" Spiders, the Airheart brake, the swing mount sitting horizontal and the Faye's pedals. I imagine that's from late '62 or '63. They obviously had changed the name as well as the bolt-on parts. Your kart is an earlier model. It's still the same kart. TJ

Response to your 5/8” diameter steering shaft. The time period late 1962 (1963 model year) would be correct. IKF mandated the 5/8” for the 1963 race season.
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#22
Ted, thank you for the information! I was simply pointing out some inconsistencies I had noticed and I didn't account for the possibility that Bug may have changed things from one ad to the other. The more I dig in, the more I'm liking these karts since each one is unique in some way and I thoroughly enjoy a good history lesson/study!!!

My kart has a few odd ball features that throw me off on correctly dating it. First, the seat frame might suggest it was an early production since they used old stock from an earlier frame design. Second, the back of my frame rails clearly had a straight cut at the end vs the later angle cut. I believe this is because in the later production runs, they used the same frame rails on the red bugs and the frames that had a rear section where they tied in. Third, my frame has a 5/8 steering shaft. This is the one detail that throws me where everything else points to an early frame, the steering shaft points to a 62-63 build date. It's possible the steering shaft was updated at some point but if it was, they did a great job as it looks factory. 

With that said, an update is in order. I am dropping my frame off for repairs either today or tomorrow and I hope to have my parts very soon. I don't have pictures of everything but as of right now, I'm only looking for a bug swing mount and one rear half of a 5 inch trophy spider wheel. Enjoy!


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#23
I would surmise that yours is an early frame, and somewhere in its nearly 60 year life, someone switched to a 5/8" steering shaft. It can be done carefully so that there is no indication of grind marks. angle grinders are wonderful. Bug was strange. On the Wasp, the main rails bent upward to form the seatback, and the sissy rails pinched in, welded to the seatback tube and continued on around the back for the bumper. We got a Wasp in from the factory that had the lower main rails continue back and bend upward like a LRB, and weld to the bearing hanger. The seatback was a separate hoop. The sissy rails welded to the seatback, and continued back to form the rear bumper like any other Wasp. This gave two main rails from seatback to bearing hanger. Other later Bugs had this setup, but not a '61 Wasp! The Bug Cool Cart had this, but the bottom rail continued on to form a second bumper below the sissy rail bumper. This Wasp had the lower rails cut off after the weld to the bearing hanger. It was obvious that Bug was experimenting with this design, and shipped us the kart as a "production" unit. Pop called Bug to ask Tom Pierson what was going on. Tom laughed and said: "Clare (Pop's name) somebody is getting a strong kart"! You gotta remember, Bug was selling hundreds of karts then, but the company was owned by a "regular guy". Tom ran Bug like a small business, unlike Dart and Fox, which were more "big time". There were very often variations between shipments. I was the 17 year old kid who opened all the boxes from Bug, and I often saw small changes from one kart to another. I don't know if I said this before: When I opened the box around my new '61 Wasp, I found a bent channel 1960 engine mount. The 60 Wasp had a longitudinal tube from the seatback crossmember to the rear bumper. Two tubes on a dual engine kart. The inner flange of the channel mount welded to this tube. The '61 had eliminated the longitudinal tube, and replaced the channel mount with a flat plate that had a bent down inner edge for strength. Mine had the tube and the raised channel '60 engine mount. Pop and I laughed and I continued on with the setup. No biggie-just "Bug Engineering". I will try to attach a pic of my '61. MAYBE you can zoom up enough to see the channel mount. TJ


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#24
Does anyone know what engine I should run on this Kart? I have several on hand but I want it to be the factory choice. I have a few 580 west bends, 2 power products h81's, a mac 6 and 2 Clinton a490's.
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#25
Nothing wrong with any of these engines. All but the Mc2 are a year or two older than the kart. An Mc7, Mc30, West Bend 610 or 820, or a PP AH61 would be about right for the age of the kart. Putting an earlier engine on a kart was common. Not everyone could afford both a new kart and a new engine at the same time. TJ
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#26
I would love to find an AH61. I personally like the looks of the old power products engines. If anyone has one they would be willing to part with, please let me know.
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#27
Stuart, getting parts for Power Products engines is very difficult. West Bends and Macs are FAR easier to find spare parts for. Macs are easiest, as there were so many sold. Also, since Macs were West Coast produced, kart brands like Bug, Go Kart and the like were more often sold with Macs. Power Products and West bend were from Wisconsin, and the Midwestern karts such as Dart were more likely to be powered by them. As much as I like the Power Products engines, they are more fragile in some areas, and I think I'd stick to Mac or 820 West Bend. The Mac 91 is always a good choice, as the appearance of a 91 isn't much different than that of the Mc7, 8 and 9. If you paint a 91 flywheel shroud Rustoleum Sunburst Yellow, or RAL 1023 yellow powder coat, and add the cylinder head from a Mac 7, 8 or 9 it'll come close to looking like one of the earlier engines. I took an Mc101, added the round head, the flywheel shroud from an Mc20 and an Mc20 shroud sticker, and it looked very "period correct". A Homelite KL100 is also period correct, but even harder to find parts for than the PP 61. TJ
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#28
Small update! I finally made my way over to Doug Sharp's place this evening to drop the frame and tank off for a good work over. One question we have concerns the floor pan. The (few) pictures I've been able to track down show what appears to be small strips of steel that run along the perimeter of the main frame which tie into the seat back which is solid, save for a cutout for the fuel tank to pass through mounting from the front side. It then appears there is an aluminum floor pan. I cannot see how the aluminum pan mounts to these strips of 1 inch steel. Also, it was suggested that it may be easier to install a full steel pan for ease of welding and then cut the floor portion out 1 inch from the rails before installing the aluminum sheet. Would this be advisable over messing with strips of steel? 

Finally, I'm still on the hunt for a bug swing mount if anyone has one. Even a good set of pics if it would be simple enough to reproduce. 

Thanks again!
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#29
Stuart, I have done the "cut out the middle of the steel" and attach an aluminum pan. Just be careful not to warp the steel from the heat. Bug would put in the two side strips of steel and slide the pan in like a tray. Some karts used 1/4" screws and nuts, most used Pop rivets. A strip across the axle strengthens the front of the aluminum pan. You can pop rivet the pan to the seat back. Some Bugs, like my dual stinger, had tabs around the perimeter of the seat back tube to hold the tank. The tank itself made the back of the seat. I will try to attach a pic of my '73 Stinger. If you look close/zoom up. you can see that the tank is the seat back. You can see the seat fabric between the tabs. Sorry for the Instamatic photo! TJ
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#30
Does anyone know what decals are needed for this kart? I can see a small gear decal on the tank and the steering wheel cap. I can also see a large Gear decal on the floor pan but I'm not sure of its size. Is there a "Little Red Bug " decal somewhere on the kart? I've found a supplier but I don't know what is needed exactly. Thanks
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