Alignment issue. Pulls to the left

snipers are aligned properly and no more than -2 camber. And toe pretty neutral. But kart will pull to the right when driving straight. It started pulling to the right after swapping out the rear tires. Not sure how new rear tires would make the kartnpulls left when alignment is good and it didn’t do it before with the old tires. Same brand of tires, just slightly different compound ratings. Went from Bridgestone yhc to ylc. Similar duro ratings

Looking at they setup is check the caster angles. You might have caster lead which will make the kart feel “light” in one direction and it will tend to wander to that side.

Problem is that I don’t think caster shows up on lasers. Just toe and camber.

You could try to square the caster on the two sides up with a straight edge of some sort.

We call this Kart Marx effect

… not my best…but give me some credit

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Did you check the roll out of the tires to see if one side is bigger?

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You can look at the sweep and see how similar it is on each side.

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When you aligned the front end on the stand, was the steering wheel facing straight forward? If it was, does the steering remain pointing straight forward when the kart was placed on the ground?

I don’t think there is a way to adjust caster or camber on my kart. Seems like a fixed geometry on the emmick vintage kart.

Both front tires are changed at the same time with same brands as the rear. So I assume rollout is the same. But I will check tomorrow.

I don’t have a kart stand and am just aligning on the ground.
The steering column is slightly angled, so I’m not sure how to find true center steering. Do I just align the area where the tie rods connect to the shaft and make that part level?

I have been testing the toe settings as I ride and I found that if I greatly toe in the left side, the kart would almost go straight with little pull to the left, but then it’s obvious the toe is now all out of wack. The right side is still toed roughly 1 degree in, which I haven’t changed at all

It’s weird how changing the rear tires caused the kart to pull left on straightaways, when steering settings all remain the same as before. The new fronts have been on with older rear tires and kart drive nice and straight. As soon as I swapped out new rear tires, the kart started pulling left. All tires are the same brand and duro hardness

Just because they are the same brand, doesn’t mean the rollout is exact. Especially on B’stones, we’ve seen huge stagger differences before within a set of tires.

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I’m almost certain you can change Caster by rotating the bar that passes through the chassis, holding the spindle.

Loosen locknut.
Rotate spindle/spindle holder forward/back. Forward less Caster, back more. In the case of my poor diagram, counter clockwise will reduce Caster and clockwise will add.

These setups have a tendency to get knocked out of adjustment too.

I was thinking that too but there is a alignment Notch that allows the spindle to sit in one position only

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Measured the rollout for all tires. They are all within 1/8” of each other. No large deviation.

is the chassis bent/cracked?

1/8" stagger isn’t enough to cause a huge issue, but if you didn’t already, you’ll need to ensure the rears are set to the same pressure when measuring the circumference. I would also check the steering sweep to ensure everything is straight.

Had anything else changed besides the tires? Did you hit/bend anything by chance?

If you look at the pics you might notice some things out of place.
Is this an electric kart? If so battery weight might come into play.

No. The frame isn’t bent nor did I hit a curb or anything. It started pulling to the left after I changed the rear tires.

Yeah it’s an electric kart setup, but it only started pulling to the left after changing rear wheels. Battery and component locations all the same as before when it drove straight, so those can be ruled out

Yeah I have made sure psi are the same when I did the circumference measurement. If the rear wheels are different distances from the edge of the axle rod, would that cause it to pull left? When I changed the tires I only removed the wheel from the hub. I left the hub mounted on the axle and they are secured tightly.

What’s the best way to ensure both wheels are in the proper and centered distance on the axle?

Different width per side shouldn’t cause it to pull in one direction. Regardless, you can remove the wheels and hubs to first verify that the axle is centered, and reinstall the hubs at equal distances from the bearing hangers. From there I would proceed with checking the front end, per the video in my previous reply.

I am a big proponent of checking the sweep when I have the snipers on. I look to see if the red dots arcs match left to right. Mainly by seeing if they cross items @ the same height. You can use a ruler, white paper or hard translucent plastic. While not an exact science any big difference will show. Remember you snipers are showing you a static snapshot of an unloaded chassis.

Rear axle centered shouldn’t be an issue. I would check it for equal ride height and also squareness.

Looseness in front end components can’t help.

I’ve been following this thread for a while and I am at a loss to understand how a kart with all 4 wheels pointed straight ahead, and both rear tires the same circumference, can pull to the left, or right. I’m assuming both front tires will spin equally well.

One way to find it is make a list of everything that could make it pull and check them.
Often it is something that has changed that is not realized.