Anybody ever used this style of adjustable cassette. It’s a margay cassette that adjusts rear ride height and cross. Margay said that they generally only use one. Do I mount this to left or right rear?
Using only one of these, you’ll cock your axle in the kart as I understand. I don’t really see any point in running one in a sprint application since you are basically always shooting for 50% side-to-side weight distribution, and cocking the axle is going to have a pretty gnarly affect on handling and the way your kart jacks and unloads in the corner. If you put cross in, it’s going to lift hard one direction, and sit flat in the other.
I once got a kart assembled from the factory several years ago and they accidentally put the rear ride height high on one side and low on the other, and it wasn’t good.
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Thanks man you probably just saved me a bunch of hassel lol
You typically see them on the American made karts. Though the most recent designs are going away from them.
If using 1, you would place it on LR. You can run 2 and we do on the Ionic Edge. With 1 it is used to adjust cross vs moving washers in the front. Running 2 in the design we have, you can adjust cross and ride height roughly 1" without having to unbolt cassettes and move holes. The Ionic design also let’s you run 1.25 through 50mm in same cassettes and change the axle with out hammering back through the cassettes etc. They split in the middle and pull it out from the top.
Cocked axle or spindles not at same height… One or the other and just 2 was to do the same thing.
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do you think I should buy another one and run two? Or save the money and run one?
What are you trying to accomplish by running these?
Just to have a better kart in general, more tuning options is always nice, I’ve never had the ability to adjust the rear ride heights. Margay made those cassettes for the kart that I have so I’d have to think there is some benefit in using them. The cassettes i have now are basically shot. I have one of these cassettes from when i bought the kart but I’ve never used it.
Just use one on the Left Rear. I so much prefer to adjust the cassette then take the dang spindles off and move washers around to get corner weights correct.
These are very common with road racing karts and American made chassis.
If you end up not wanting to use it I’ll take it off your hands.
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If the left rear ride hight is higher or lower than the right will it have any negative effects on the handling?
In a sit-up sprint kart, you will definitely notice it.
I’m going to disagree with TJ. As long as your corner weights are what you want them to be so your cross is at 50% and your left side and right side weights are good.
You see most Euro style karts with un equal front spindle eights to get corner weights set. What is the difference from the rear not being level?
TJ, do you ever run your front spindles unequal heights to get the front corner weights correct? Or do you end up moving the seat or some weights around or tweak the chassis?
My take on it is if you are using a sniper laser level where you mostly check it on the stand I’d rather have the front spindles equal and adjust the rear. That way the laser is shooting straight from side to side to make things easier to read when you are making adjustments.
Now, if you use a laser system like a pro line or something where you need to place the kart on leveling pads and use a mirror to read off the rear axle then you could to the front spindles.
I have never run unequal ride height on the front or rear on any of my karts, and I can’t think of the last time I saw another sprint kart running unequal ride height. The only thing we do to get 50/50 weight distribution is move weights around.
Ride height is directly affecting how your chassis jacks weight while turning. I can’t see how having them unequal would NOT affect your caster angles from one side to the other. One side will have more or less caster than the other.
I will say this; maybe this is a Margay-specific thing. In all my years of racing, the only guys who are on the scales after every session are the Margay drivers. Or OTK drivers, but that’s usually to straighten our karts back out! Margay guys tune with the scales, no one else does that.
Well if at all possible I want the front spindles and rear axle all equal. But if your already at the class max weight without added lead then the only option would be to move the seat around which is kind of a pain in the ass. So now your option is to adjust the front or rear ride heights. Or tweak the frame.
TJ, I know your more of 2 cycle and Euro chassis guy so you don’t see the scale tuning to the extent that you see at 4 cycle and road races. A lot of American chassis like Coyote, Margay, and others use scale tuning all the time. It is huge in the dirt oval world
I’m very surprised you don’t see many sprint chassis with unequal front spindles. I can’t believe you guys can get your front corner weight corrects every time with out moving spindle washers. But I guess when I was doing a lot of 2 cycle sprint racing my front spindle were almost always equal. The engines are usually smaller and not as wide so your seat is set more centered to the factory recommended spec’s.
I can understand if you don’t have weight to move around that it might be your only option to get the weight correct.
Road racing, 4-stroke karts, and oval karts all work totally differently to a sprint kart. There’s almost nothing you can apply from any of those to a 2-stroke sprint kart. You can run unequal ride heights in road racing because your cornering ability isn’t necessarily determined by how the kart is working or how much caster is in it or where your ride heights are. American-made 4-stroke sprint karts tune with almost an entire different theory to Euro karts. And of course you can run offset whatever you want on an oval kart because the entire kart is offset.
I’ve run road racing, 4-stroke, and oval stuff and it all seems like another language when they talk about what they’re tuning.
When you change your camber and Castor settings are you normally checking it with a sniper laser?
How often do you put your kart on the scales?
In my 30 plus years of karting I want my chassis perfect on the scales even if I have to adjust ride height some how to get it that way, not matter what style of karting I’m doing.
It seems that hardly any Euro kart has the adjustable cassette. It just isn’t a thing. Maybe as Americans we are lazy and want to turn a screw compared to moving a seat around.
My bottom line thought is this; ride height is a tuning adjustment. Changing ride height affects handling. If you change ride height on one side of the kart, you’re changing the handling on one side of the kart.
I’m very familiar with Euro kart front end pills. I’ve had Intrepids, Arrows, Margay. But if you don’t have the holes for the pills like some Arrows and Margay’s how do you know what Caster, Camber you have with out using a sniper laser or gauge. Your assuming they are the same.
The Caster in the kart is going to be the same side to side even though the right height is different. That is why you use the scales. Get the front weights equal and then check with a laser. So in your case the holes might be different side to side, but the overall caster is equal. Same as camber. One side might have more adjusted into it, but both sides say equal 1 degree camber when set flat on the ground.
Id’ rather not have to put the spindles or axle offset from each other if at all possible. That way I’d just have to move the pill hole equally side to side. I’d rather put weight where I need to, to keep the front end equal. But if I can’t then you have to change the spindle or adjust the rear cassette.
I think if you saw the way scales are used in conjunction with the lasers and the adjustable cassette you’d see we want the same in regards to chassis setup. think about it this way we are basically trying to un-tweak the chassis with the cassette adjustment instead of jumping on the frame.