I have a Manco Go Kart with a 5hp Briggs and Stratton Fun Power Engine (Model# 136212-0026-01) The engine idles and runs great. You can throttle it up by hand from the engine without a problem, but when you step on the gas pedal it will run open for a second then lose throttle response, maxing out speed of just 5-10 mph. I know there is a governor, but I'm not exactly sure how to adjust it to get a little more speed. My question is Can I adjust the governor and if I can How do I do it? I don't really want to take it off cause my nephew will be the primary driver so I don't want him to be able to run it wide open. Thanks for any suggestions.

First off you have to remember that a gov is a safety feature. So messing with it beyond a factory setting is going to imply liability in the heaviest way. Is this something that has changed since it was new? Are all the filters etc clean and free of dirt? How fast is it suppose to go? Making it go faster may exceed safety limits and cause the unit to crash. That's the last thing you want to do.

My borther and I have been messing around with the same gokart for his kids. It seems like we're getting enough RPM but not enough speed. My brother thinks it's a governor problem but I tend to think it might be the torque converter not doing it's job 100 percent.
The governor is acting as it should. When you start from a dead stop, the throttle goes wide open and it takes off. As load decreases, so does acceleration and engine speed increases. At this point the governor starts to close the throttle. I heard my brother come down the street with it and it sounded like he should have been really moving but he drove by only doing like 10MPH, lol.