98 Club Car w/ Motor swap. Need help selecting clutch

[Shifters13]

Hello. I recently picked up a 98 Club Car DS Villager for $200 as my first Buggy build. Was missing the motor and that's about it. Found a 15HP Kohler command pro with blown head gasket for 100. ( this motor runs like a raped ape!) Since this engine spins CCW, I'm going to fabricate a jack shaft. I'm ready to position the motor but need to select a drive clutch and jackshaft pulleys. Still has stock driven clutch installed. Not looking to spend a ton of $ as I'm also fabricating a lift kit. Rear is done. Front in progress. Plan on running 22/23" tires. Still have quite a few of high ticket purchases to make. Wheels and tires, battery, clutches, unknown rear-end condition...

I see a bunch of posts asking the same question. Everyone's build or goal is different. Cart will be at campground, cruising sand dunes. Nothing crazy at least right now. Looking for a happy medium of fast and torque.

What drive clutch should I look at (one inch shaft) ? Jackshaft pulleys ( should they be same size? If different sizes, I can improve gear ratio? Should I swap the driven for a sprocket? )

Any help is appreciated. Thank you in advance.

[CP241]

I wouldn’t screw with a jack shaft. You’re making it more complicated than it needs to be...

Get a cvtech clutch from Vegas carts (assuming your kohler is a 1” keyed output shaft) and a set of speed gears. I’d probably go 8:1 if you plan on climbing with it.

You could do without the speed gears, and you’ll have crazy amounts of torque for climbing. But it won’t go very fast. Reverse is geared quite a bit lower than forward so you’ll have tons of torque in forward and it’ll haul a$$ in reverse. Speed gears helps to correct that.

Only down side is reverse will go forward and forward will go reverse. But there’s no bad effects other than the shifter is backwards.

[Shifters13]

I don't want it to run in the reverse gears. To many issues can occur. Wasnt meant to run that way. I know a jackshaft is extra but at least it will still work as designed. Thanks

[Jeff McGuire]

Originally Posted by Shifters13

I don't want it to run in the reverse gears. To many issues can occur. Wasnt meant to run that way. I know a jackshaft is extra but at least it will still work as designed. Thanks

Actually that's not the case. The only issues you will incur are all going to be with a homemade jackshaft. The design of the Kawasaki differential does not lend to deflection of the gears when ran backwards. The final drive is a bull gear design not a bevel gear design like a traditional auto differential. You can pick up a set of 6:1 gears for $260 which will still give you plenty of speed but still have plenty of low end.