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TKART magazine How To | Check the chassis before a race
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CHECK THE CHASSIS BEFORE A RACE

Max Bernardi
03 March 2017
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1 INTRODUCTION
Before leaving for a race weekend, it is essential to check the chassis to avoid having problems on the track that cannot be resolved. You must absolutely check the frame of the kart and set the angles of the front end to a neutral position.
In the event of any twisting on the frame caused by knocks taken on the curbs, the issue can be resolved by straightening the frame. However, regarding the camber, caster, squaring and steering values, you need to perform checks using a laser.
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2 REMOVAL
The first thing to do when checking a kart is to remove the tyres and the front and rear hubs. In doing so, you need to check and note down the track width, so that once you have finished working on it, you can reassemble the kart using the same settings. To facilitate matters, we recommend you also remove the front and rear bumpers, while in the case of the radiator it is sufficient to loosen the fastener so that it can be moved easily if there were a need to take some measurements at the rear.
Now the kart is ready to be placed on the flatbed. The rear should be supported by placing the axle on two special stands on the right and the left. The front, on the other hand, should be raised from the flatbed by inserting a stand at the front and middle of the frame.
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3 CHECKING THE CHASSIS
The instrument that comes into play here is the surface gauge: it is a height gauge used to measure the distance of a point with respect to a reference plane. Having positioned the rod of the surface gauge on the highest point of the chassis C, take the measurement and “zero” the instrument. Then, by positioning the surface gauge on the other C, it is possible to accurately measure the difference in height between the two sides. In our case, the chassis had already been set with the C on the right side 4 mm lower in order to favour the side with the most load, given the majority of right-hand bends on the circuit of the previous race. The check found a difference of 1.5 mm: not a serious twist, but one that nevertheless has to be corrected.
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