Just discussing this with a friend, does the rear bearing flange orientation effect anything? I always ran with the flanges facing in, but had to grind a brake disc key to make that work, figured I’d just change it to flange out, but he raised the question of that effectively shortening the length similar to long hubs or axle collars and will that change the spring of the axle?
Any thoughts?
It almost certainly does affect handling, the question is how much and can a driver notice.
Paging @tjkoyen !
Never thought about it. I wouldn’t imagine it would make a noticeable difference. Lots of people run axle collars to keep the axle from shifting and those don’t seem to affect the stiffness in a measurable way, so I would imagine that the position of the bearing would indeed change where the stiffness is, but I’m not sure a driver could feel it.
If you are looking to change rear ride height I found on my Birel chassis I could not run the flange out as it would hit the bearing carrier in the lowest bearing position/highest ride height.
Thats worth checking!
Funny thing is, i looked at pics on tony karts website and the show the karts on their site with the flange facing out on the left, and facing in on the right.
I had always assumed they assemble them all the same way and throw them in the bin so they can just grab them and not worry about orientation.