Chonda Brakes

[Alex Bahena]

Hello I'm "new" to the forum, I've been signed up for a year or two but haven't been able to participate.
I bought my son a 5hp CRG when he was 3 and he got the hang of it quite well. We didn't do much when he was 4 and he's 5 now so I really want to take him back to the track.

I bought a Chonda kart from someone on this board at little over a year ago. We both went to the track and I drove around with him. I never really got on it hard but I've noticed the brakes don't bite as much as I would have expected. I'm sure we don't want to lock up but I'm able to turn the tire with my hand when at full brake, and now there's no braking at all.

I'm guessing I need to bleed the brakes, but I wanted to know if there are any basic tips for most brakes on these Chonda karts. I'll take a picture of the brakes if it give you an idea of the brand. I looked on the forum and youtube and there's hardly any information on them, let alone tutorials.

Thanks in advance!
Alex

[Patrick Roth]

Alex,

Welcome to the forum! Regarding the braking problem it sounds like you've hit the nail on the head with needing to flush/bleed the brakes (as long as you have plenty of pad life left). Are you going to be at the track for this Sunday's race?

Typical brake bleeding procedure:

1) Open brake fluid reservoir, could be just the lid on a master cylinder or I've seen some with remote reservoirs
2) Top off with brake fluid and leave the reservoir open
3) Go to the caliper and open the bleed nipple just enough to get the fluid to flow when the brake pedal is pushed
4) Press the brake pedal in one steady stroke and hold at the bottom. Before releasing the brake pedal tighten the bleed nipple. Once the bleed nipple is tight, release the brake pedal. (While some would argue you don't need to tighten the nipple before releasing the brake pedal until the last stroke of the entire process, I would rather venture on the safe side given I don't know how your kart's brake system is designed. The extra few seconds it takes to open and close the nipple for each stroke is worth it knowing no air will be sucked in from the caliper end of the system.)
5) After each stroke, add brake fluid to top off the reservoir. You may not need to do this after each stroke but do NOT let air in the system by not having enough fluid in the reservoir.
5) Repeat steps 3, 4, and 5, until all of the air and milky fluid is out of the system.
6) Once complete make sure the bleed nipple is tight and add enough brake fluid to the level marked on the reservoir. Do not overfill!

I try to keep brake fluid spillage to a minimum since it can eat paint. I always use a clear tube attached to the bleed nipple to keep from making a mess and it makes it easier to see when you've gotten all of the air and old fluid out.

If you are at the track on Sunday look me up (26T in the shifter class) and I'll be happy to walk you through the process in more detail.

Patrick