How to add king pin inclination to a yard kart to reduce turning radius?

[Bmr4Karts]

I know KPI is what causes the inside tire to lift in turns on race karts. I need some of that with my small yard kart. It has a short wheel base but has a large turning radius on the street which is solely where I use it.

I'm also thinking about ditching the parallel steering tie rod and setting it up with a triangle shaped piece coming off the steering shaft with two shorter tie rods, one going to each wheel. Again similar to race karts.

 

[Denny]

You already have it looking at your pictures. KPI does nothing to help it turn. But it works miracles to help it go straight without twitchy hard to control steering. What you are thinking of is probably Ackerman and camber. Camber is built into the spindles when they are built. Or the front axle when the brackets are welded on. Nothing you can do about that now so let’s forget it. To figure proper Ackerman you tie 2 strings to the center of the rear axle and then run each string to each king pin and then strait past. You want your outer tie rod end to run dead center of that string when attached.
Got it? Your triangle pitman arm idea will correct that if you attach the tie rods to the opposite sides of what they control. Which means you will end up with one tie rod on the front of it and one on the back of it.

 

[Bmr4Karts]

You already have it looking at your pictures. KPI does nothing to help it turn. But it works miracles to help it go straight without twitchy hard to control steering. What you are thinking of is probably Ackerman and camber. Camber is built into the spindles when they are built. Or the front axle when the brackets are welded on. Nothing you can do about that now so let’s forget it. To figure proper Ackerman you tie 2 strings to the center of the rear axle and then run each string to each king pin and then strait past. You want your outer tie rod end to run dead center of that string when attached.
Got it? Your triangle pitman arm idea will correct that if you attach the tie rods to the opposite sides of what they control. Which means you will end up with one tie rod on the front of it and one on the back of it.

Thanks

I do get that an just read FA's latest build thread where he explains Ackerman. I guess what I would need help with is how to do the string method when my spindles are setup with the ends out in front of the front axle versus behind it.

 

[madprofessor]

"Leading arm" spindles like yours only have the single problem of the arms hitting tires/rims if there's not enough room to point them out for some Ackermann angle. Same problem myself, but I needed to cut away some of the arms and weld on some big weird pieces and drill them out to put the tierod holes where they would work with my extreme A-arms travel and still get correct Ackermann. If the spindle arms hit the tires/rims before you reach enough Ackermann, then you must custom fabricate.

 

[Denny]

No just make a triangle shaped pitman arm like I wrote above. Look on Thepartsguy’s thread about the streaker build and see what it looks like.

 

[Bmr4Karts]

No just make a triangle shaped pitman arm like I wrote above. Look on Thepartsguy’s thread about the streaker build and see what it looks like.

yeah. That's what I was talking about in my 2nd paragraph in the first post. The piece to add to the steering shaft. "Pitman arm". Thank you for all the correct terminology.

 

[Denny]

Glad I could help. Now get going!