Manco 800 series spindles

Darian1m

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Hello, go-kart homies. I have an 800 series 2 seater manco. I replaced the tie rod ends with some Heim joints I picked up at Grainger. They look the same to me. The steering gets stuck now. The old tie rod ends looked bent to me. Also the spindle looks bent to me but I dont know if it is.

my theory is that the new rod ends are straight, the old ones were bent and followed the shape of the bent spindle.

Do these spindles look bent to you guys?

https://photos.app.goo.gl/tGEZYhfJJL4ZEvH3A
 

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Brianator

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I don't have an opinion on the spindles but maybe you could stack a couple small diameter washers to raise it?
Or are you able to put the tie rod on the underside without creating interference elsewhere? Looks as if it's on a upward angle towards the spindle causing the body of the joint to bind on the spindle.

I've seen here in a thread that there are spacers that fit inside the joint (smaller bolt required) to raise it off the surface, pretty sure it was to correct the steering geometry when doing a suspension lift but could potentially help your situation as well.
 

Darian1m

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Thanks! I didn’t think about putting them on the underside. You are absolutely correct that the body of the joint is binding. I had tried some washers but the diameter was too large and were binding with the heim joints. I was going to take the spindles off and straighten them with a hammer after seeing what the replacement parts looked like. I may need reinforce it by welding a stiffener plate on to it.
 

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Darian1m

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So they were indeed bent. I took a heavy hammer to the spindle and straightened those bad boys out. It fixed the steering and kept the joint from binding. I don't understand how they could have bent like that. I can't think of a load or force applied to the spindle from normal use that would bend them. They are connected to tie rods that move up and down. The tie rods could not have done it. Past owner must have done something. Thanks for the pointers.
 
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