I am starting to learn about how to setup my kart. The way I am going about this is by making changes to one setting and feeling how it changed the karts handling. For example, my last day at the track i tried the full range of front track width settings.
Its coming time to start adjusting camber and castor. I can see that theoretically you can adjust castor and camber independently with the OTK eccentric Pills (within a range, I understand you cant be at the extremes of both camber and castor). I am stuggling to figure out how to dial in a specific castor and camber combination. Does anyone have any tips to make it easier.
I have been trying to map all the possible settings but there are 400 combinations and it takes about 3 minutes to make each change. Life is just too short for that.
Those camber settings you’re referring to would be really really extreme, basically undriveable. Try just doing two clicks positive and negative on each pill (can do this by one click change on top, opposite one click change on bottom to eliminate the caster change), and then do full caster and min caster at neutral camber. You’ll feel a huge difference.
David is pretty much right. No need to worry about the 400 combinations; a couple dots of camber either way is generally as far as most adjust on an OTK.
You can buy different degree pills to adjust caster specifically.
If you have two zero pills (use them on the bottom only) it makes everything easier.
You can simplify caster to 5 settings and of those 5 you’ll probably only use 3.
Both arrows forward - neutral
Top arrow forward/zero pill bottom - half caster
Top arrow forward/bottom arrow back - full caster
Top arrow back/zero pill bottom - half caster out
Top arrow back/bottom arrow forward - full caster out
And you can limit camber to probably 5 settings as well by using the top pill and sticking with neutral to 1-2 clicks positive or negative. The amount of caster change when adjusting camber in the narrow of a window is pretty minor.
Still a lot of combinations but rather than thinking of caster and camber as a compound equation you can make them two independent changes that are easier to quantify/assess.
If you do some searching in this forum there are a couple people made some pretty great charts/tables quantifying those 400 options.
…Or you could just ditch the eccentric pills all together and go with the Sniper adjusters for OTK. Makes adjustments more simple and straight forward.
I have used it. Worked ok, except for 1 problem. However, we are now on CRG and I have learned it is an artifact of the sniper adjustment. The 1 problem was that camber would repeatedly drift 1 to 1.5 boxes from where I last set it. So if I sent the kart out at 0, it would come in at -1 to -1.5. If I sent it out at -1.5 it would come in at -2.5 to -3. I got frustrated with chasing it and pulled them off the OTK and went back to standard pills. Now that we are on CRG I see that it is just part of the process on these and we have to allow for some drift.
I don’t know that its terrible. It is annoying. Most importantly it is something to be aware of and check for. If you know you have drift, then you account for it in initial setup.
I have only run OTK pills, Sniper/OTK conversion, and CRG pills. I have worked on some older American karts for others that have really crude adjustments on them. So it could always be worse…
I have broken several of the top “cookies” from overtightening on the OTK while trying to stop the behavior. I have broken 1 and my son has broken 1 on the CRG so far. So we are definitely getting it tight. I think on the OTK the adapter stack up was introducing some float. On the CRG the stock neutral bottom pill has no screw holes and has a small amount of movement in it. I think much of what I see is coming from it moving? Only option for that is tightening the kingpin more, but if you tighten the kingpin more you make other issues, so that is no help.
I am considering drilling the bottom pill for a small screw just to insure it cannot move. I dunno.
On the OTK I think it was the stack up on top with the adapter plate. On the CRG, I am not 100% sure. As I said in response above to Mark, I think the bottom pill is moving some in the C hub hole. However, I do not think that is all of it. I have put new pills and new kingpins in chasing the issue. We just dropped in a single new spindle after Amarillo finals bend some stuff up. Son had it out last weekend without me, so haven’t had a chance to check it out and see how its doing.
Consistent 1 box of camber gain over 1-2 sessions of running though. That screams something isn’t tight. But after 3 years of wrenching on these things, I am pretty confident I am not doing that, but am instead prone to overtightening. Whoops…
One thing I do when making adjustments is I only loosen the inside set screw when it’s on the stand. The weight of the hubs will rest against the outside set screw while you make your adjustments. This is assuming you are only making Caster Adjustments. You could even put a tiny dab of lock-tite on the outer threads, so when you tighten the inner screw, it always returns to the last setting.
This problem of drift is not unique to the sniper system, and is instead a result of some slop in the kingpin/spacer assembly. The solution I’ve found has been to either 1) account for the drift as you’re doing currently, or 2) pre-load the spindle when tightening to eliminate the drift.
Are there certain ones you use more in the set? I don’t want to buy the whole set just to only use one or two of the pills. I have the standard OTK pills and the centered ones.
I do but for different reasons. I have some drivers that like the 1B spindles and as a result use the 4 a lot. And then as a result will use the 1 & 2 with that combo for a little more castor as needed. Use the 5 the least and the 0 & 3 are just the same as standard
