Loose Kart Help

Chassis Setup, Tires & Handling Forum
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Hi Guys,
I have an older, not sure what year, GP kart running World Formula in the Northeast. We had a double race weekend this past weekend and the kart was super loose all weekend.

I played with tire pressures up and down, I also removed the extra seat strut on the left side of the seat. I started Karting this year after getting my boy going last year and don’t know all of the best ways to adjust the kart.

I know by the end of the weekend i was over driving the kart and likely made the loose condition even worse.

I did read through a bunch of other posts and I will be losening my third bearing as it is currently tight.

Let me also say the kart has shifter front hubs, not sure if I should be looking to replace those or not?

Can you guys tell me where to begin to tweak?
Thanks
Shaun

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Four things to do;

  1. Put all the bracing back on the kart!!
  2. Find someone with scales and weigh the kart. Post numbers.
  3. Loose = too much front bite / not enough rear bite. “Interchangeable”
  4. Widen the front - or - narrow the rear.
    A more drastic solution is move the driver (seat) to the rear, put more weight on the rear wheels. A little goes a long way! Keep that 3rd bearings where it is and tight. The Europeans have been building Sprint karts for many years, they tend to know what’s right and what’s wrong.
    Al Nunley; 50 years of go karting experience.
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Has this loose condition always been a problem?
Is it isolated to specific direction or types of turns?
When during a turn is it breaking loose?
Could the tires just simply be shot?

This is the first thing that strikes me. Typically with extended hubs you’re going to have a wider track width and therefore more rake. In basic terms the outside front wheel is going to “drop” more and therefore lift the inside rear wheel more aggressively. Sometimes you want this, sometimes you don’t.

If you put your kart on the ground, put it on full lock and you’ll see how much you can rock the kart diagonally.

As you can imagine, if you have too much of this, the kart is going to be loose on entry.

I will say in Europe, with European chassis we would often leave the center bearing out in both lower and higher HP classes with harder tires.

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Hey Shaun feel free to find me at the track, I’ll help you out and get you going.

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Thanks Rick I will come find you at Canaan!

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