The Bench Racers Journal

[Terry Bentley]

Chapter 113

Steve left not too much later than the usual time this evening. It was bail out and make it home before his mom was finished setting the dinner table, or he would be begging me to stick around to mooch a free dinner here. But if that happened, he would be facing the wrath of his mom when later returning home. He usually chose to get home before he had to get home.

The one thing Steve did not want to deal with is listen to his mom go off on him ranting about her slaving all afternoon making dinner for everyone and him deciding not to show up. There was always plenty of other starving children out there that would be more than willing to get home in time to eat. He should show some consideration and be appreciative for what he has.

Shortly after I finished dinner, Chris called me on the telephone. I only spoke with him once since he left with his kart last Sunday. Just to thank him for that new set of tires. It is weird. He was like almost an everyday occurrence after we first talked about doing all that work on his kart. We talked to each other on the telephone nearly every day and he was also here both weekends.

Then later Sunday afternoon, the work we did on his kart was finished and he was gone. Everything came to a hard screeching halt. I took a breather and then got back focused on what needed to be done on the engines getting us closer to our next practice day at the track. Then I decided to make that trip over to Franks house Sunday evening which was a complete bust. A total waste of time from the way I saw it.

That last time we talked Chris never stopped mentioning how much he learned building his kart and how awesome it turned out after all of that work was done. He said his debt to me would never be completely paid off. He owed me a lot. That was way too much work for anyone to be doing as a favor or just helping a person out.

Me and Chris picked right up where we had left off. He seemed more than pumped about going back to the track soon as everything else was finished. Covered mostly what I have done to get the engines ready. I gave him the condensed version of what I had been working on. Mainly focusing on the intake manifold adapters and assembly of the engines. Modifyiing them so we could run the bigger carburetor. Then Chris went into warp drive about carburetors. He was back to talking about everything relevant after discovering something totally by accident earlier this year. Well at least relevant to his carburetor and the problems he had encountered.

That very first time we talked, it was almost nonstop in a one way conversation. Well it was a one way conversation. He told me about buying a used Tillotson carburetor from someone at the track and installing it on his engine. Then some minor problems he had. But now he filled me in on the complete novel that led up to him replacing the stock float bowl carburetor with the used Tillotson.

Chris got the kart as a Christmas present from his dad. But it was after he parents had divorced. Chris thought it was his dads way of trying to make up for things. But he had no way to get his kart to the local Fabens track. So he rode it around the neighborhood in the alleys and occasionally in the parking lots on Sundays when the stores were closed. There were other karts that usually showed up in the parking lots.

It took no time at all before he had destroyed the chain and wearing out the engine gear. This is when he changed over to a Mercury clutch. After seeing an ad in a kart magazine, it was ordered and he waited very impatiently for it to arrive so he could get his kart up and going again.

About this time, Paul Fisher, who was his next door neighbor at the apartments he lived in, had seen Chris riding it around. Paul talked to him about racing at the local kart track and invited him to go. That is how he first got to start racing. Shortly after that, he was racing almost every weekend. But no luck at all being competitive just yet.

Chris said he did not know anything about changing gears, tire pressure, how the kart should handle or even working on the engine. He had been keeping the engine together when bolts would fall off. That was his self taught limited ability to working on the kart. We first met up at the hardware store that one Saturday afternoon so he could buy some bolts that had been lost on his engine.

It was one day at the track when a small screw came out that held the air filter on. He was still running the stock float bowl carburetor. The engine slowed down a bunch and started chugging a lot more than normal. He tried adjusting the big needle on bottom of carburetor and it helped a lot, but engine was still slower than it should be.

He had turned the high speed needle in. At the time all he knew was the needle was screwed in farther, but not understanding what it actually did. It was not until much later that he understood it to restrict the amount of fuel going in the engine. After pulling off the track he examined the engine to see what had changed. Then realized the air filter had moved. The filter was no longer centered to the carburetor. It was now rotated down to one side. After removing the outer cover, he saw one of the screws was missing.

Chris looked all over over the ground then finally gave up trying to find the screw. Looking closer at how the air filter was made, he freaked out at what he saw. There was a small piece of screen wire that covered the carburetor opening. Then a bracket that was held on with the two mounting screws. Except one of them was missing.

The filter element was sandwiched between the inner and outer cover with a single bolt run thru and screwed in to the bracket. What caught his attention is the small piece of screen wire was partially sucked into the carburetor. If it got sucked in, he thought it could have have destroyed his engine.

It was still early and he wanted to get some more practice in, so wondered what would happen if he just took the air filter off. Since most guys running in the faster classes dont run any air filters, he didnt think it should cause a problem. But didnt know if this was a bad idea since he was running a bushing engine.

He went around asking other drivers what they thought. He kept getting mixed answers. Some guys said it might cause the engine to over rev from getting too much air and could blow up. Others told him it would slow down because the air flow was increased too much for the motor to handle.

Chris told me that most of the guys in the junior bushing class were running Clintons. But almost nobody had done anything to their engines. The ones he had payed any attention to still had the stock air filter box. Some had a round filter and others had a square one.

This was back when he had just started racing. Then he noticed the two brothers that had been running in his class. They were fairly new but did run faster than a lot of the other drivers at the time, except were not very consistent. Too many times they would break down or run off the track and not finish for the night. Not to mention crashing into each other all the time.

But he did notice the engines they were running had Tillotsons but no air filters. He wanted to ask questions, but the grandfather would not offer any insight about what they did on their engines. The brothers always stayed to themselves and rarely ever talked to the other drivers.

Chris still doesnt know much about them. For the amount of time he has been racing, has gotten to know most of the racers, just not the two brothers. While Chris was talking to me, he just realized the flagman was not the dad but their grandfather.

Paul Fisher had told Chris the brothers were twins, Bill and Phil. Chris got a good laugh when Paul told him this before realizing he was being serious. Past knowing their names, even he didnt know much about them.

During this time that Chris had been racing, these two brothers had been in to a lot of altercations that usually ended up in their favor. It has also run off a lot of the faster racers. Then Chris mentioned about when David Watkins ran with me the first time I came out to the track.

I had to interrupt Chris right then to ask if he had read about David in the May issue of Karting World? I was not sure at first since I had only met him that one night at the Fabens track. But after reading the magazine and saw his picture I was sure it was him.


May 1961 Karting World David Watkins

David was super fast, but kept getting involved with the brothers just like me and Steve had done at our first race. So David was one more driver that left to go race at another track. Just like Mr Thompson and his son Ryan had done. Chris introduced them to me at the South 77 Strip when we visited last week.

Chris then got back to telling me his story. Since the two brothers were running without an air filter, Chris thought it must be OK. So he took off the other screw, removing the whole assembly. Chris then asked me why would the air filter housing have a smaller hole than the opening on carburetor?

I thought about it and didnt really know, since not picturing in my head exactly what he was talking about. But most of our engines were incomplete we got from Gasset. So didnt really pay attention to the stock air filters. He asked about my modified carburetor and said it looked a whole lot bigger than the one on his engine.

He finally got back on subject again about the first time running without the stock air filter. After removing it from his engine, it idled up way too high then layed over and died when giving it any gas.

Then he tried to adjust the needle, but not until backing off the idle screw. That first time the engine fired up, his kart had launched forward then immediately died. After adjusting the big needle on bottom of carburetor, the engine was now running better. He kept backing out the big needle until the engine was loading up. Then turned it back in slightly.

After getting back on the track, his engine ran a lot faster on the straight away, but kept nosing over in the turns. He had to feather the gas pedal or push it down very slowly before it would start running right. Something else he noticed is when turning the steering wheel the engine would also fall down on power.

Back in the pits, he asked some of the faster guys why his engine was acting like running out of gas exiting the turns after removing the air filter. Only one other racer he had gotten to know offered some help. Chris explained everything he had done, then the guy asked him about adjusting the low speed needle.

The guy showed him where it was on the float bowl carburetor and helped Chris to tune it better. This was the same guy Chris ended up buying the Tillotson from. He had upgraded to the new model HL-115A that had just recently come out.

Chris paid $5 for the stock Tillotson from a Power Products. He didnt remember the model number or what the numbers that were stamped on the flange even meant. The guy helped Chris change out the carburetor that night at the track. With some creative rigging they even got the linkage working good enough not to worry about.

Chris was totally impressed how much faster his engine was now running. Just from ditching that stock air cleaner then right after that changing out the carburetor. The guy managed to tune the Tillotson fairly close, since Chris has not done any adjusting since that night.

After changing the carburetor, Chris has been running faster than most of the other guys in the junior bushing class. But the really fast guys still ran away with it. He could not keep up with any of them. Unfortunately most of these guys didnt stick around very long before leaving and never coming back.

Chris went into some detail, even tho not understanding what had changed so much about his kart. It is now a lot harder to drive or handle like it used to do. He was having to fight it in the turns. He also has to be very careful in the tightest turn at the track. Now the driven tire goes to spinning like crazy exiting that turn.

With it spinning so much now, did not take very long before that tire blew out. The tire was wearing down a lot faster. He has changed it out a couple of times already.

I had to cut our phone call short, since my little sister was standing there staring up at me with her arms crossed. She wanted to use the phone. With the face she was giving me I had no choice but to cave in. But my mind was thinking about what Chris had told me about everything.

I wonder if improving his engine that little bit with a bigger carburetor did actually change the way his kart handles? I have no idea how a dead axle kart would drive like on a track. So my brain is going to stay busy for a while until I figure this one out.

Back in the garage, I dug out one of our extra, extras. We have several Clintons that I have not torn apart yet. These are not complete engines. One even has a big hole is side of the block. But this particular engine does have the air filter base still bolted on.

After a quick inventory, I found another carburetor with the filter assembly. In a box of parts was a round filter that looked complete. On that one smaller Clinton, the A-200 also had the filter base still intact. The first thing I noticed is a missing screw. Wonder if it is the same side that Chris discovered missing on his carburetor?


Clinton A200 closeup carb

All of these filters were different. The round filter material is made of what looks like aluminum shavings from the lathe all pressed together. One of the square filter elements I thought might actually be horse hair.


Clinton square filter

One of the housings still bolted to the carburetor had a rib going across the opening. Then I found the filter like Chris was talking about. He was right. The opening is a lot smaller than air horn of carburetor. There is a piece of screen wire covering the opening. That has to be very restrictive.


Clinton round filter

With such a small venturi in carburetor and all of the restrictions like the opening and screen wire is probably why the engines are so low on horsepower. But being low, they can run for years and years without any failures.

I am starting to see how someone can make claim to doubling the power on one of these engines. possibly doing so without too much in the way of modifications to the intake and exhaust ports. My brain is starting to put a plan together with all of this new found information.