Dart A-Bone steering

[philrock]

I'm thinking about buying a kart that the owner says is a Dart A-Bone. Pictures below. The tie rod and spindle arrangement looks a little odd to me.
In the picture looking more or less down the steering shaft, the tie rod angles look normal - pretty much straight across. However, in the picture looking from above/front the tie rods angle down/forward much more than I would have expected.

In the picture of the left spindle turned slightly toward the right, it looks like the steering arm has very little room to turn farther to the right, which it would need to do for a hard right turn.

Any comments would be appreciated.

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[Terry Bentley]

Is the steering shaft only 1/2" diameter? If so that is one thing wrong. Front bumper appears to have been pushed up , back, or repaired and shortened. That is a later model Dart, like 1968 or newer. There is some serious filler around front axle and bumper. You should be able to see the welds. Looks like either someone built up the welds from repairs and the ground down or used bondo to hide previous repairs.

This is the what everything should look like. With exception to having early model spindles here, its all original.

[Terry Bentley]

It also looks like the steering shaft is bent 90 degrees at the end instead of having a flat arm welded for tie rods to bolt on.

[steveohara]

Here's my analysis for what it's worth.....
I think the main frame rails between the seat and the front axle have been lengthened and when they reinstalled the front axle they made two mistakes. One is as Terry pointed out, the bumper is angled up a little and the other is that they didn't lay the axle back for the correct castor so the spindle arms are pointed down a little compared to original so the line from spindle arm to spindle arm is lower than normal.
Combine the two mistakes and the steering rods didn't fit so they hacked off most of the tube the steering shaft goes through at the front axle to allow the steering shaft to be pushed back about an inch and then they drilled extra holes in the spindle arms to reduce the forward angle in the tie rods they created by moving the steering shaft back. That would change the steering speed along with the castor change and the wheel base change which can be summarized as a real big mess.
I must qualify these remarks by saying the pictures are not very good for analyzing the kart. It would be much better if there were a picture taken from directly above and one from ground level so the alignment of the parts could be more easlily comapred with correct karts. If my suspicions are correct I would pass unless the kart is dirt cheap.
Steve O'Hara

[philrock]

Terry, Steve,

Thanks a million for your comments - I think you are right on the money, and I'm going to pass on this kart. If you know of an A-Bone, Grand Prix, or Chapparal for sale for a reasonable price, I'm interested. Does not have to be in cherry condition, but I don't want to have to do major surgery on the frame.

Phil Rockwell