91 Marathon Resurrection

[Pig Punisher]

Lately I've been asking a few questions about a 91 marathon 2 stroke so I'll give a little back story on it.
One of my coworkers bought some property and there was a golf cart left under a shed. He did not want to try to do anything with it and offered it to anyone who would take it. That was about two years ago, right after I had purchased my first golf cart. A 2000 TXT with a robins 295. That cart took up enough of my free time so I wasn't really interested in the abandoned marathon.
Fast forward a couple of years and a couple of kids later and my wife and kids always have the TXT occupied. All I get to do with it is work on it when something needs attention, so I decided to go take a look at the marathon to see if it was worth messing with. Here is what I found.

[Pig Punisher]

The cart was missing the carburetor, muffler, 2 tires, the seat and lots of wiring not to mention a broken front leaf spring and who knows what else. Anyway I decided it would be a good project for me to work on at my camper after work. (Yes I live in camper during the week while I work and go home on the weekends)

Over the course of a few weeks I made a list of things that I knew I was gonna need. I ordered a cheap Chinese carburetor and fuel pump and purchased some 1/4" fuel line. While I waited for the UPS man to show up, I took some tools a battery and a compression tester to where the cart was to determine the engines prognosis. After a long fight to get the starter generator to turn over the engine I hooked up my compression tester and was greeted with 120psi. Time to order more parts cause this is gonna happen!

[cart around]

Looks like you need a forward reverse switch too.

I feel for you living away from home like that. I work with a bunch of guys that work double, double, single, and then fly home for four days. A bunch of our guys work in Philly all week, and then fly home to Pittsburgh. If the planes are full, they don't come home. Many of them have been commuting like that for over 20 years. I'm always thankful that I have the seniority to hold the station, and don't have to travel like that.

[Pig Punisher]

This past week I was ready to get the cart out from under that old shed and over to my camper where I can enjoy a step 6 when working on my newly acquired buggy. (For those not familiar with the proper process of fixing something it goes something like:
Step 1 identify broken/missing/dirty widget
Step 2 get the right tools you need for the task
Step 3 remove offending widget
Step 4 clean/inspect/fix widget
Step 5 admire your great work
Step 6 drink a beer
Step 7 reinstall new/fixed widget)

So I ordered up 2 new leaf springs from Amazon and loaded up my old bald tires and wheels that had been removed from my TXT. After fighting wasps and old rusty bolts (plenty of PB Blaster) I had the broken leaf replaced and 4 matching bald tires on the marathon. We loaded her up and took her to her new home.
Time for step 6.

[Pig Punisher]

I've been working on the road for 18 years now, just 4 10's and get to spend 3 days at home. I had the fnr switch removed for cleaning when that picture was taken. It's back in the cart now.

[75Harley]

I have the same cart that I'm restoring. Mine was missing the passenger side brake cable. I ordered a new one but I don't know how it was run to the brake drum. Could you send me a picture of how yours is run?

PS. Make sure you replace the crank seals. If it sat for any amount of time, they are bad. I made a flywheel puller and I bought a 3/4 fine thread 2 inches long for the clutch. Just fill the shaft with water, put pipe tape on threads and it popped right off.

[Pig Punisher]

Will do on the crank seals. My plan is to get this thing running with the least amount of money and parts first, and see how it does and then start restoring. I have a bit of frame rot where the battery tray is and it appears to have gotten all the way to the passenger side swing arm mount. I know I'll have to pull the engine for that and will do crank seals at that time.
I will snap some pics of that brake cable on Monday and post them here.

[Pig Punisher]

Now with the cart in its new, albeit temporary home, I can begin to focus on getting her running. I've still been battling the starter generator. I had a 4 volt drop while cranking but after removing the fnr switch and cleaning everything I have reduced it to two volt drop. Still not good but getting there. I will be replacing ground cables and starter cables next to try and get everything cranking like it should.

I installed my new fuel pump, fuel lines and carburetor, rinsed out the tank and poured in some fresh 100:1 fuel mix. After giving the starter some assistance the engine turned over and fired up! She actually idles quite well with no muffler but bump the throttle just a little and POW I get quite a backfire. This is all going as well as I could hope for at this point.

I have purchased the parts I need to piece together an exhaust. Hopefully that will smooth things out a bit and I can take a test ride. I'll post back soon with the next updates and hopefully plenty of pics.

[kyerik]

I had the same issue with frame rot. Actually my passenger swing arm mount broke loose. I cut off the rotted square section of the crossmember and found a piece of square tubing that fit nicely inside the open ends of the cut crossmember. Then I welded it in and welded the swing arm mount to it.

[Pig Punisher]

Here are the pics of the passenger side brake line that I promised