Currently dealing with all sorts of handling issues with the kart. Bought it used this season and it’s been amazing to drive out of the trailer. We had it looked over and it was straight at the beginning of the season. However at some point, possibly months ago the kart was bent but we didn’t notice until recently. It’s always handled well and been really fast.
We got it straightened but when they were doing it one of the welds cracked and that had to be redone as well. This past weekend the kart was completely undriveable in practice but we fixed all the camber and toe which helped a lot.
Still, while it was better, the rear is super loose all the time which it never has been before. There is a lot of turn in on left handers and some understeer on right handers as well. We’re still new to karting in general so any advice would be appreciated. What could we check and/or might be causing to kart to behave so differently now then before? (we didn’t make any setup changes and the track is the same)
Thanks
Once a kart has a weld crack repair (which will put heat into the chassis joint again i.e not ideal etc…) and straightened it can just lose performance and you’ll be chasing set up forever. There isn’t really much you can do other than try your best to find a comprimise on set up.
Agree with @KartingIsLife , sounds like it’s not scaled properly. Check the seat position compared to manufacturer recommendation, and the weight distribution should be roughly 43% in the front and even side to side.
When a kart turns in well one direction and understeers the other, that is very likely cross being off. These recommendations above are spot on. Get it on the scales. Get your corner weights evened up. I think you will find that the chassis has “settled” or “flexed back” a little bit and will need to be straightened again. Very common when having chassis straightened. Some chassis work very well after being straightened. Some will never be the same again.
You need more LR and RF weight. When mounting rear bearing carriers make sure you are lifting up on the axle when you do it. Otherwise they have some vertical play that can slightly mess it up. Like others said, get it straightened again, get all your camber/caster, toe right. Then put it on the scales.
Yeah just to answer a common reply here. Yes I have had it on scales after it was straightened. It was reletively even on all 4 corners (much better than before it was straightened) but it could still be pretty off I guess.
Look over the welds very carefully. Especially around the seat mounting tubes/stays at the main chassis connection. Cracked seat tubes welds will drastically alter the handling. I’ve had the right stay partially crack at the main frame and it was rear end loose. Had it welded and the handling was back. This is an OTK.
I’ve had karts straightened by the best after a serious shunt but they were never the same.
On the other side of that, we have karts around here that have been broken half, rewelded, had tubes cut out and replaced… Heck, I know of one chassis that had a socket shoved into the tube as filler and then welded back together… I know of another one that wore through the center cross tube, which was fixed with a piece of flat stock… All of them still as fast as they ever were.
In what sense was it bent? Was it one yoke was higher then the other (the typical)?
Have you checked the middle of the kart, the yokes themselves (sometimes they are twisted but the heights are the same, can be checked with lasers), the rear of the kart?
I was told it was bent up in the right rear. Earlier in the season I hit wheels with another driver and got launched up which bent the axle on the right rear. Probably the cause of the bent chassis as well. The weird part is the kart was arguably faster after that.
Thanks I will try to throw it back on the scales just to see. It’s also a 2016 frame so there’s a chance it might just be time to get a new one if this one won’t/costs too much to get back in order
If the individual frame rails are not geometrically correct or twisted along the length, the kart could scale right and also show as straight in the table. I believe in most cases only the C bracket height and orientation, rear tube height and sag are measured.