Hard to steer

[echo7bravo]

Question for you men with mighty brains. I have an old Carter Brothers 2336ZX that just does not want to steer for

I have aligned the wheels and greased all the fittings and joints. But even as a man of great strength.....The kart still wins.

Any thoughts???

 

[landuse]

Post some pics of the front of your kart. It will give us some visual idea of what you have. You steering geometry might be off

 

[echo7bravo]

I'm struggling with figuring out this photo posting thing. The steering linkage is forward of the spindle and is angled inward slightly. Seems like bad geometry to begin with. Both tie rods connect to a single point on the pitman arm forward of the steering column. The kart is ungodly hard to steer.

I was thinking of welding a plate across the pitman arm forming a T. Then lengthening the tie rods in order to cross them to opposite sides of the T. I am thinking this will give the wheel angles better geometry.

What I am unsure of is how wide to make the plate that I am going to weld on the pitman to get the best angles. I'm sure I could drive a stake in the ground and pull a string to the back wheels and then each of the front spindles but even that seems like crude arrhythmic.

 

[OzFab]

Here's a thread describing how to make a triangle pitman plate...

 

[shadowfocus603]

Have you tried lifting the nose off the ground and turn the steering lock to lock? Just to make sure there is no bind? That cart doesn't seem like it should be overly difficult to steer. I don't see any oversize tires front or rear that would affect caster. Just on a lark use an angle finder to check your caster and make sure it is the same on both sides. Camber too. In the pic of the spindle it almost looks like there is some sort of impact damage on the frame where it connects to the spindle bracket? Measure the distance axle to axle f/r to make sure wheels are aligned fore and aft.

 

[Espeefan]

Thanks for posting that link to the Ackerman correction thread. That's something I would like to correct on my Manco go kart, eventually. Another thing that really kills steering on these karts is a solid live rear axle. The lack of a differential doesn't help steering one bit!

 

[echo7bravo]

The impact damage is superficial. I don't think there is any frame distortion or wheel alignment issues from it. However, I will measure to double check. The "posi" rearend with the live axle definitely doesn't help steering but it does help doing donuts. LOL

I have a second kart that has a gearbox steering system and the two karts are night and day different. I just finish painting this one and installing a new motor and torque converter. Now I plan to tackle the steering.

Will definitely measure and check alignment as well as camber but plan to look into a triangular pit man arm as well.