Margay Frame Bushings

[steveohara]

Tom,

I'm confused.... the pics show the tie rods crossing over the center.... that would produce the opposite effect from the "Ackerman" typically built into karts. With that layout the outside wheel will turn more than the inside wheel. "Ackerman Steering" is generally understood to be a design that causes the inside front to turn more than the outside front in order to compensate for the tighter radius that the inside tire must follow. Looks like that setup would have a lighter feel due to less weight jacking but might also cause understeer problems.
Steve O'Hara

[Tom Smith]

most karts have the ackermann built in at the spindle by placing the steering arm either less or more than 90 degrees to the spindle axis depending on whether it is front steer or rear steer. On a kart with rack and pinion steering this is the only way to do it.
The other way is to use the double pitman arms with crossed tie rods and straight steering arms at the spindle. The arc travel of the arms cause them to change length as one raises up and the other one lowers when turned which changes the turning ratio between the wheels. This is how Mcculloch , Cates, and some of the other early karts were accurately engineered.
My Max-Torque Kart has 1 short steering rod ( drag link ) and 2 short Tie rods that pivot from a center idler arm which could be changed if for some reason you wanted to bother with changing the ackermann. I guess Max-Torque wasn't too concerned about what their own karts cost to build.

[Tom Smith]

According to Rolls Royce, Rudolf Ackermann came up with his steering principles in 1817.
Wonder when Margay finally got it figured out? 1976?

[Tom Smith]

Steve, reverse Ackermann does have some different driving dynamics. I didn't like it all that much. I thought about completely changing it to what works like one of the other posts suggested but in my opinion what you get then is just another even more modern less original vintage kart and as we all know there are already plenty of those turds around.
The F1 cars use reverse ackermann at Monaco because it's so slow and tight. Tom

[jmendoza]

Rancho suspension makes Nova urethane bushings too.