Bent Steering Shaft Questions

I have a slightly bent steering shaft and it seems my tie rods are also bent. The kart doesn’t seem to wander in straights but it’s acting kinda twitchy on turns.

Does slightly bent steering stuff have much of an impact?

It depends on how bent it is. I’ve straightened a steering rod out to get through the rest of the weekend, but then replaced it right after the weekend is over. If it’s bent, I’d just replace it. Same with the tie rods.

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Do you still have the bent rods on there?

What I do now is straighten the parts and replace them. Then they become spares to get through a weekend. I would do that for the steering shaft. Probably not the tie rods. If money is tight, and you can not straighten, you can probably use as is with minimal impact if you do an alignment.

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I just removed them to replace them. I plan on replacing them just curious how much of an impact slightly bent has and if its usually noticeable

Depends how bent, slightly bent is.

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If it’s visibly bent, I would replace. It will change the steering dynamics.

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I recently tore down my kart before rebuilding it during lockdown here in Oz. Found out my steering shaft was bent like this:

Will report back once I drive the kart with a straight steering shaft

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So I drove with bent steering shaft due to mid-race shenanigans.
It sorta reminded me of a bad Ackerman setting. The balance of the steering gets thrown off and the turn in became too quick.

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