Bent tie rods

[panchothedog]

Hey Cartinfun, I have been following this thread and I wish I could say I had an answer, but I don't. Not yet. One thing I do know is its a geometry problem. There is nothing wrong with your tie-rods. At least in your photo they look standard 3/8" solid steel double threaded tie rods. The kind it left the factory with. I'm going to take your picture of the front end of your kart out to the garage tomorrow and try to compare. If I remember correctly I think we have slightly different models. I've bent mine before but it was from hitting something hard with one front wheel. Not unexpected.

 

[panchothedog]

Cartinfun, took a good long look. Also took some pictures of mine but am completely useless when it comes to technology. So when my neighbor gets home I'll have him post them. What I can see for sure is that your tie rods are on a steep downward angle. Mine are almost level. How long are your shocks?
Mine are 11&5/8" center to center. For some reason your kart looks like it sits a bit higher than mine in the front. Anyway try this and see if it helps. Move your shocks to the third hole out and after disconnecting the tie rods turn your steering shaft 180 degrees so that the pitman arm is pointed down. This will help level out the path of the tie rods, which I think is the root of your problem.
BTW, the pitman arm on my kart is also pointed down.

 

[panchothedog]

Cartinfun. Here are some pictures of the front of mine. Hope this helps somewhat.

 

[Cartinfun]

Cartinfun. Here are some pictures of the front of mine. Hope this helps somewhat.

I see a huge difference in why yours are almost level. On your spindles where the tie rods bolt on it is bent up and over. My spindle is flat from the factory. In post #4 I took a close up pic of my spindle. It's oriented funny, but you can see where the tie rod bolts to it, it is straight.

 

[panchothedog]

Can you pivot your Pittman arm? That would level out your tie rods by about
3 to 4 inches.

 

[Cartinfun]

Can you pivot your Pittman arm? That would level out your tie rods by about
3 to 4 inches.

You mean like flip it around on the steering shaft? No the holes don't line up right. The Pittman arm hits the frame of the kart that holds the steering shaft in place. Also I think it hits the frame when turning the wheel.

 

[Cartinfun]

I wonder if I could have some metal bent and welded on to my spindles so they look more like Panchothedog's....

I have another kart I'm gonna be fixing up (it doesn't need a full restoration) maybe I will check what it's spindles look like. It's very similar to this one, but I think slightly different.

 

[Cartinfun]

Cartinfun. Here are some pictures of the front of mine. Hope this helps somewhat.

I really like the steering set up on your kart. It must be a different model than mine. But on yours all the steering components are up higher in the kart than on mine. Like my Pittman arm is actually below the frame of the kart. Wondering if I should do some modifications to bring mine up higher..

 

[Cartinfun]

Yup, looks like I have the 3200 series and Panchothedog has the 3203. They definitely learned what to do better on the 3203. Oh and I didn't circle it but you can see the Pittman arm is flipped on the 3203 vs the 3200. Such seemingly small but important updates.

 

[panchothedog]

About 4 to 6 weeks ago there was a thread on here where all the steering components were under the frame. Was that you? I'm sure it was on a
Yerf-Dog kart.

 

[Cartinfun]

About 4 to 6 weeks ago there was a thread on here where all the steering components were under the frame. Was that you? I'm sure it was on a
Yerf-Dog kart.

No, that wasn't me. I just ran into this issue. A couple weeks ago I was still working on getting the engine to line up with the TC.