Setting toe with toe plates

Anyone ever done it? What method did you use? I just bought a set. From my understanding you measure from the spindle to the axle on both sides and make sure they are even. Then measure the distance from the front of the toe plates then measure the back. The difference between the two Is your toe in or toe out. Is this correct??? Thanks

Back in the seventies we weren’t nearly as sophisticated as people are today, so when I set the toe on my kart, I just spun each wheel and put a pencil mark on the tire as it spun. Measure between the 2 pencil marks and you know what your toe is. Hardly sophisticated, but then I think things might be getting a little too sophisticated. I always set my toe at 1/16 total, 1/32 on each wheel. I have no comparative data, my kart always handled, so I just assumed I had done it correctly. If you can run competitive laps, all within 1/10 of a second, you might see some improvement if the toe is set “just right”, but if you can’t, I have my doubts you’ll see any improvement with the toe set “just right”. Don’t take this as a negative comment, just trying to help.

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Your method works and many people use it. The hardest part can be making sure the steering column is actually centered. Removing the Nassau panel can help with this.

Here’s what toe looks like from kartpedia.com:

image

Note on toe in general:
Depending on the method and tools, you can measure in degrees or a linear measurement (in or mm). For the linear measurement it is essential that the distance from the spindle to measurement point is consistent.

Often folks will quote “xx millimeters of toe”, but unless you know where they are measuring from the actual degree amount of toe could be widely different. For example if you’re using plates bigger than a front wheel and that person is measuring rim-rim.

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Thank you for the input guys! I did the measurements with the wheel centered and held straight with vice grips. Right spindle to axle was 35 1/4. Left spindle to axle was 35 11/16. So there is a 7/16 difference from right to left :thinking:

Next measure your kingpin to rear axle and compare sides to see if the chassis is slightly off.

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Thanks James! Assuming I did this right both sides were 40 5/8 Uploading: 20190904_163352.jpg… Uploading: 20190904_163046.jpg…

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Ah I was thinking the edge of the axle when exposed with hub off. You could do hearing carrier too.

I think reading off the outside of the axle might be difficult to do accurately.

Okay lol I was going by the grooves for the key way but I’ll give that a try

40 1/2 on the right side and its really close on the left side but it looks to be 40 9/16

I did all the measurements both sides at 35 1/2 from spindle to axle.
Front of the toe plates were 39 2/16
Back of plates were 39"
Giving me 1/16 of toe out per side. Is it normal for tie rods to look like this? Right side is almost all the way screwed in and the left side is pretty far out from the rod ends.

That just means your steering wheel isn’t centered. You can extend the one tie rod and shorten the other the same amount and the wheel should be more centered.

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Awesome! Thank you Tj!

Yeah typically the steering column (and seat) are offset slightly. So it’s not unusual to see different length tie rods on each side.

Of course you want to ensure the rose/heim joint has sufficient thread inside the rod. Perhaps even a small dab of blue locktite on the locknuts too.

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Assuming you have the correct length tie rods. I have seen karts with replacement tie rods a few mm’s off.

In your pic the steering looks off center, based on left rod end being hidden more than the other from that angle. Right also seems misaligned a slight bit.

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