85 marathon sparky to clone questions

1purpleranger

Hi new to the carting world I picked up what i believe is a 85 marathon. The electric motor is not responding and I'm thinking about a gas conversion, however all the conversions I've seen have a different rear end setup where the motor is mounted above the pumpkin. Mine seems to have the motor orientated like a car. How does the motor connect to the rear end input? Is it possible to do a gas conversion on this cart? Does anyone have pics? Thanks hope to get my cart moving before the lake opens this year

BGW

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firemedic247

I've seen a few Electric to Gas swaps but they all took modifying the rear end by adding a sprocket or driven clutch. You lose reverse in the process. In order to properly do it you have to swap out the rear end for a gas rear end including the cables. It's pretty expensive to go that route unless you have a donor cart.

slonomo

I'd prob just get a gas cart, less money. Unless you can get a rear transaxle really cheap. A lot of guys are asking $300 for them. You can almost buy a whole cart for that if you look around.

1purpleranger

I purchased this one for.the cost of scrap metal. im a fabricator and its no big deal to.fab anything you can imagine. I happen to have a shaft driven atv engine laying around it had reverse. I'm thinking now about atv engine swap.....

slonomo

Hmmmm

Sounds like a fun project!

PAPABEAR1

Sounds possible and I will keep an eye on this build . Pics please...

natew121

i say do it! I did the swap on my 1988 marathon 2 stroke to 4 stroke

bronsonj

Do it! I did. I have an 85 EZGO. I put a 212cc HF engine in mine.

Yes, you lose reverse, but when you drive, knowing you don't have reverse you just don't park places where you can't drive straight out. Not having reverse has never been an issue.

People laughed at the idea of 212cc, but I live in the city on pavement. I am also in Florida, so the steepest hill around here is a 1% grade... I get 23 mph in it and I weigh 230. With two fairly large guys it will launch very well (subjective opinion I know). But two large guys and 10yo nephew and the launch is impacted.

For me, I had no reason to go big with the motor. I need to keep it kid-drivable, and even with that it goes a bit too fast. So when my kids start to get old enough to drive it, I'll have to install a block of wood under the pedal..