Kart updates?

Sanders

New member
I've seen on 2 or 3 Fb for sale pages older karts that said they've been updated. Could someone please explain this to me.
 
Ill see if i can find them again. But remember them saying it was a older chassis but all new front end
 
They probably mean the front end has been changed over from using pills to hiems for camber adjustment. I did this to an older Shadow chassis afew years back.
 
Meracer9
Just wondering if it worked for you I have a old Banshee and was thinking of updating the front end
Just wondering Thanks
RICKY WOLFE JR #72
SHED-X MOTORSPORTS
DMM PERFORMANCE ENGINES
 
The 2002 Shadow "Storm" which I updated already had the caster plates welded to the frame but used a pill type set-up. The kit that was offered by Shadow to update the front ended required no welding. If I remember correctly there was some drilling required but the update was pretty simple and straight forward.

As for doing an "update" on a Banshee, it will be alot more involved. There would be cutting and welding required, which personally I would not tackle mayself.
 
We stock conversion kits (weldment plates, L blocks, heims, spindles, etc.) to do just this update.
We also do the conversions here in our shop on one of our jig tables.
Is it worth it? Generally, no. You'll have more invested in updating than what the kart was (or will be) worth when you are done.

FWIW, I have done more than a couple Banshees over the years simply because the customers really liked that kart on short dirt tracks. I get it, but my thought is that you could purchase a newer kart and get it to work better without all the effort to "update" a 20 year old chassis. :)



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Thanks and God bless,
Brian Carlson
Carlson Racing Engines
Vector Cutz
www.CarlsonMotorsports.com
28 years of service to the karting industry
Linden, IN
765-339-4407
bcarlson@CarlsonMotorsports.com
 
Here's another consideration - racing kart frames are designed to flex to help handling (since they have no suspension other than the tires). Flex fatigues the metal, so eventually the frame doesn't work like it used to. Racing contact factors in too. If you're lucky the frame may "take a set" that works very well - but only on certain tracks and only with certain weight drivers. So unless the old frame was never used much the updates may not be able to fix it enough.

If your competition all races old frames then you may not have a problem, but otherwise the newer frame designs usually have better ideas figured out...
 
Don't the front end generally get wider with the conversion kits?

Not necessarily. It depends on how the front axle comes into the yoke area. We've actually narrowed some (kingpin to kingpin) to make them bite harder in the front end. Due to the front axle coming into the yoke at the same point as the rails means that the kingpin location will be moved wider on some chassis after the conversion is done. When this is the case, we try to keep the caster weldment plates as narrow as possible to keep as close of kingpin width as original.
 
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