I’ve been looking for spare axles and steering shafts for my Ricciardo kart and come across replica steering shafts from righetti and axles from swift kart parts. The steering shafts were only 60$ to birel’s 90$. And swift has axles for a little over 160$ instead of 200+$.
Is price difference between genuine parts and the replicas too good to be true or are the replicas just as good?
I use mondokart/righedolfi
steering shafts but i like to have the original column, I brake them all the time so i have like 8pcs in my box when i just go for testing
+1 on above. Steering columns I’d say use original. Tie rods not such a big deal as long as you get the correct length.
In my experience, the non-OEM parts are just as good. The catch is they are not the same. Likely the axle keys are different so you will need a full set of them along with the new axle and the wide range of flex options are usually limited to soft, medium and hard. As for steering shafts, they are close but not identical. For example, the Freeline steering shaft has 2 holes to mount the steering wheel hub but the Righetti only has one. In both cases, though they will work basically the same and are just as durable.
You didn’t mention wheels, but this one could be a little more complicated as Freeline uses a different offset than other non-oem brands.
Drive/clutch sprockets are questionable. I bought one and didn’t fit well without severe modifications. I wouldn’t chance buying other than OEM for drive/clutch sprockets.
As far as I can tell the OTK Swift axles work the same as OTK OEM.