Tighten up Direct Steering?

hey guys, some of you fallow me on youtube and you know i built a racing mower and i did my direct steer, it turns perfect and everything but when i get up to speed the steering is loose, does anyone know how i could make it tighter? i think i will try and make sure i have perfect toe tomorrow and make sure theres no toe in or out and see if that helps, and also i think im gonna upgrade to heim joints to reduce play too. everything is on bearings so idk if that could be it too? if anyone has any input it would be greatly appreciated

this is a picture of it when it was not yet complete without the one arm mounted that connects to the arm on the steering column


and here on the left you can see that arm on there now, my teacher said something about trying to make it more level and not that bent down but i dont think that would make a difference ?

Upgrading your heim joints could help, your spindles should be tight in the king pin area ( the bolt that runs through the two pcs of your spindle that gives you the ability to steer). You want every thing up front as tight as possible, the faster you go any movement or play can feel like it is or it even could be multiplied to the ground. Check your squareness to the rearend, and you can have some toe in or out on ether side it just depends on the type of racing you do. I like just a little bit of toe in on both sides it gives me very good control. Now the problem that I see with your setup is ( judging by the first pic) is you have no castor to your spindles and if your tractor has any rake to it when its sittin on the ground complete that will give you even worse steering at higher speeds. Look up "How castor affects steering" on the net and it give you good info. What I would do is have the tractor complete on the ground (needs to be flat and level) or a big table /work bench (needs to be flat and level),block up the front end on the frame till there is no weight on the tire but dont let the tire be any more than 1/16th off of the surface (make sure both sides are the same too). Take the front tires off and then cut you spindle off the square tubing, clean up all old welds and make sure that both sides are square. Then you'll need an magnetic angle finder and put it on the C part of your spindle, I usually run a castor of 5* to 9* back from 90*. Make sure its kicked back in the right direction (the top part of your king pin/or could kinda call it a upper ball joint goes back towards the rear tires and the bottom goes out towards the front. Tack them in place and make sure its square all the way around then weld em up. But read up on castor and you,ll understand, I made a wagon before and had the same issue my spindles were 90* to a level table and when driving it at say 5mph no real issues but at 30mph it was all over the place.

Whats your youtube name?

dylansrockinrigs wrote:

Whats your youtube name?

redzz02 https://www.youtube.com/user/redzz02/videos

I would presume atleast..

there are some good sites out there, cant remember the name ....gokart guru (or something like that) has a big section on front end setup and how/why it all works. there is a lot more going on in the front end than what most people see. read up on "ackerman effect" too, you are gonna need some of that. this guy tells you how to do it right.

for just a 5mph off roader, the front end set up is not too important. at 15mph its a little more critical. if you are building a competitive racing machine, its the most important thing on the whole set up

Ive researched alot of modding tractors for 'speed' - heres a pic of what the 'pros' use:





Its best to have adjustable spindles to change the caster/camber - minute changes make drastic driving changes - also tire pressures have a ton to do with it as well.

not trying to thread jack, but I usually run the clutch on the slack side ( right side of the motor pulley from the view in the pic ).
you get a lot less pedal bounce that way and doesnt rob as much HP

Actually the pic is of a real racing tractor that i 'borrowed' from a tractor racing site - mine arent that complex by any means. I use them for reference on stuff i build.

Speaking of steering , I bot a set of 4 bolt 10" golf kart rims with low profile tires off my nephew , i plan on using those with the hubs i bot for another project to resurrect my 94 murray mod - im going to use a MTD front axle, with possible custom spindles, along with an MTD steering setup( worked REAL good on a mod MTD) - damn murray stock setup is loose as hell top to bottom - no wonder it had vague steering- one reason to not use stock steering.

Is it loose as in you get a lot of play ("dead zone")? Or is it loose as in its easier to steer?

By the way, thanks for those pics dangeroustoys56. Ill need those.

Most the slop was in the steering arm to the front spindle on the murray - the end bushings were loose as hell . I imagine if i had bolted the axle it still wouldve been a handful to drive.

The steering was either vague or 'instant' when a bump was hit - it would dart side to side.