pics are worth a thousand words ...
but with a writer you get the thousand words first ....
The pictures are taken with my weight in the kart plus an extra 2 inches of travel "pushed" down into it.
All degrees are measured, not guesstimated.
The steering arms are mounted 76 to 77 degrees in relation to the axle.
The rod ends are about 1/8 below the top of the rim and right in line with the rear of the rim. The inside rim edge is the center of the kingpin, which is inclined 12 degrees. If i had made the arms parallel inside the rims, they would hit the frame when the control arms extend down--just like (worse than) the stock yerf issue.
The steering "column" rod with the pitman arm mounted on it is at 79 degrees angling forwards to the left side of the kart centerline. (as you sit in it). The lower hole I'm using on the pitman is 5 inches below the steering column. The upper hole i tried out was 3 inches below. The stock is about 2 inches below.
I tried bending/twisting the pitman arm 6 ways to sunday. Works best with a slight twist to the right and pushed a little to the front of the kart.
The closest i could get the steering rods to equal length (and the pitman at the karts centerline) was 15 inches and 13 3/4. Being off the CL by an inch or so mainly was an issue of getting my toes clear of the steering column
As you can see below, right turns are really ugly, left is manageable. My favorite corners in my woods are downhill, off camber right handers, loose surface. The left wheel basically just unloads and scrubs and the right doesn't turn enough to keep me from going off the hillside (short, but steep enough to be a PITA to drag the kart nose back up off whatever tree stops me.)
I started with the rods linked to the pitman at its longest lowest point, very high steering effort but the least amount of difference in the wheel angles and best control in the corners.
I moved it to within an inch of the original length and the effort became much easier, but the inside tire barely turns in relation to the outside = running on the flats only, no control whatsover in the woods. Super bad scrub even on the flats. It literally made me afraid to run it after almost skidding straight into my JD's front end loader bucket.
Plan right now is to shorten the steering rods to reduce the severity of the toe-in when the front end compresses. That's just freaky because i can't tell which way it's going to want to go when it unloads. Fun, but freaky. I can live with what i have if i can get the engine running better. I know if i can get a rack that had it's link ends close to the pickup points, it'd improve a lot. It seems to sense upcoming hills and dies out right when i need it most.
I'd swear it knows what i'm about to slam into.
Mike, i hear what your saying. I got ahead of myself the other night waiting for paint to dry and decided to go just a tiny bit richer based on the idea that i'd brought a lot of extra air to the mix by getting rid of the air intake. I'm thinking that maybe the intake tract after the carb was so piss poor that it needed extra fuel just to function. I took a lot of highly obstructive material out of the intake pipe right in the middle of the turn just after the carb bore. It's so sooty now you cant read the porcelain. Looks like an acetylene torch on high blew on it. I don't have any brazing rods, but i do have good ol JB weld ... As far as what a 166 jet diameter is -- no clue. This carb doesn't have an adjustable jet kit out on the market specifically made for it, i'm checking with a few sellers to see what the dimensions on the tec adjustable jets are internally. if they match, i may go that route. I did the work on the tec for kicks and giggles, my bro still has that Robin 9 hp and needs some help in his shop i may just say to heck with it and dump that puppy on it.