KF82 88 connecting rod questions

[88BlkDS]

Hi all, great forum, advanced thanks for the help. I recently acquired a 88 club car DS, my family has had it 25+ years, has run like a ungoverned beast for that whole time.

Recently, the connecting rod has come loose and sounds like a 1920 john deere. I have a new rod on order and am looking to get this bad boy back on the trail asap.

I work on cars all the time, but first go round with the DS, and I want want to keep this machine as close to OEM as I can and have several questions:

Does the motor have to come out to do the change, or can I leave it installed? Can the rod be replaced without pulling the top end off the motor? Can the rod be changed without removing the clutch? Should I tear down the head and replace all the gaskets even though there are no signs of leakage, oil use or loss of compression?

Ebay sells overhaul kits, some of them have valves & piston & ring sets...do I need to do any of that stuff if only the rod is bad? Obviously, any gasket I break open gets replaced, but, I want to avoid replacing the OEM parts unless I have to. Any advise on how far I must with the "overhaul" would be appreciated!

Thanks!

[BobInOK]

In this case YouTube is your friend. Couple videos on the DS engine and overhaul. Yes it will need to come out of the cart but not a hard job.

[Fairtax4me]

Yes, Motor has to be out. Yes, Top end has to come off. So does the side cover, which manes the clutch has to come off also.

You really should remove the crankshaft first and make sure the crank journal is not trashed. Also the rivets that hold the cam gear on are known to shear and the cam gear can get trashed if that happens. So check those while it's apart.

[Springbok]

When I acquired my '87 it had a trashed rod after knocking for a little while. Like Fairtax said, you need to have the crank checked if you want to re-use it. When I put a new rod on my old crank it didn't last because the journal was egged-out. Over time this is what causes the rod to fail in these engines.

I'm currently rebuilding a KF82 right now and have sent my old crank to J&M Golf Carts. They do a crank/rod exchange. They re-machine the crank and then also machine a new rod to match. This may be something you'll want to look into.