PHANTOM'S SPINDLE SETUP

Provided by TS Racing, Inc.
From Phantom/Wiggins Kart Shop, Inc.

Congratulations on the purchase of your new Phantom Adjustable Spindles. These spindles will allow you to accomplish up to nine different camber settings per-side with only one set of spindles and a pill kit. You no longer need to have two or three sets of spindles, only one set of adjustable
spindles.

With the karting industry going to larger and larger tires, camber has become a very important factor in the performance of your chassis. To help you better understand camber and how it effects your chassis, we have prepared this sheet to get you started.

A complete pill kit consists of: (2)- 0's, (2)- 0.25’s (2)- 0.5's, (2)- 0.75’s (2)- 1.0's and (2)- 1.5's. {A total of 12 pills.} Each pill can provide positive or negative camber. This will allow you to adjust the camber
from 1 degrees of negative to 1 degrees positive, in quarter degree increments, on each side.

Example: If you install a 1.5 degree pill with the plus sign towards the roll pin the tire will have positive camber. Although, if you turn the same 1.5 degree pill to where the minus is towards the roll pin the tire will then have negative camber. (See fig. 1 & 2)

Note: Due to other variables such as stagger, tire sizes, damaged parts, etc., camber should always be checked with a camber gauge to insure accuracy.

So which pill do you run in which side? Because each track and driver are a little different we do not know what will work best for you at your track. We have provided you with this chart of recommended settings of different track shapes and conditions.

 Track  Left Front  Right Front
 Flat  +0.25 to +1.0   -0.25 to -1.0
 Banked  +0.75 to +1.5  -0.75 to –1.5
 Hard & Dry   -0.5 to +0.5  -0.5 to -1.5
 Damp & Tacky   +1.0 to +1.5   -0.75 to -1.5
 Small & Tight  +1.0 to +1.5   -1.0 to -1.5
 Large & Sweeping   0 to +1.0   -1.0 to -1.5
 Asphalt (Flat)   +0.5 to +1.0   -0.5 to -1.0
 Asphalt (Banked)   +1.0 to +1.5   -1.0 to –1.5

We understand that this chart may not directly address your situation or need so we will give you a quick explanation for how we think the correct camber
setting should be determined.

Stock cars and other "suspended" racing vehicles use camber to get as much of the tire surface on the track as possible. They mainly determine this by the tire temperatures across the face of the tire. This sounds relatively simple but it doesn't work quite that easy for go-karts.

The main objective of a good set up is speed and performance. But one of the most important factors in the speed and performance of a kart is the drivability. Stock car crews have many ways to control the drivability of a car that we do not, such as shock, springs and suspension geometry. Camber also plays an important roll in the drivability of any vehicle. Sense a kart has fewer variables, such as suspension parts, camber plays a major roll in the drivability.

In most cases if you set your kart's camber so that your right front tire temperatures are even, you probably will not be able to drive it or at least not too gracefully. This is because you would probably need to run positive camber in the right front (see right front tire in fig. #4) which would cause
the kart to be extremely darty in the turns. This is caused when the outside of the tire is allowed to "dip" under which causes an excessive amount of bite. The "karting cure" is to run more negative camber (see right front in fig. #3) which will settle the kart and make it more drivable and consequently faster. However, this will cause higher temperatures and wear on the inside of the right front.

Many racers will ask if camber tightens or loosens the kart. In my opinion, camber should not be used to tighten or loosen the kart, it should be used to adjust the drivability and how soon the set up will "come in." Typically, oval track karts will run negative camber on the right front and positive on
the left (see fig. #5). The right front camber is used to stabilize the front end and the left front camber is used to make the kart turn better in the corner. The more camber you run the sooner the kart will come in and run fast laps, but will also go away quicker and slow down.

Troubleshooting...
Kart to darty... Increase right front camber
Kart pushes slightly... Increase left front camber
Kart slows after many laps... Decrease left and right front camber
To make kart come in sooner... Increase left & right front camber
Kart a little tight off turn... Decrease right front camber

We hope you will have great success with your new adjustable spindles and learn to adjust to the ever-changing track conditions. However, if there is one thing that I can stress... Please don't rely solely upon camber and neglect other factors that effect a kart. Remember, all variables must be right to win, but only one variable can cause you to lose!!!

Good Luck...

This information sheet and it's contents are a copywrite of Wiggins Kart Shop, Inc. 1998. All Rights Reserved.
These are reprinted with permission from Wiggins Kart Shop, Inc.

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