Swoopster steering shaft

[Brad Rose]

I am restoring an early swoopster with a 1/2 inch steering shaft. My question is should I upgrade it to 5/8 or leave it stock? I’m afraid if I don’t upgrade it I would be turned away if I ever wanted to run it at an event. But to upgrade it is going to take considerable modifications.
Thanks for any input!

[ted johnson]

Brad, you might want to add a pic of the lower shaft bushing holder to illustrate the difficulty in upgrading to the 5/8" shaft on the Swoopster kart. This whole frenzy to change every vintage kart to a 5/8" shaft is a total non-necessity. The only karts I ever saw with bent shafts were ones like the Larc-Douglas karts that had several inches of naked shaft above the upper steering bushing; karts that required horsing the kart around the turns by main force on the steering wheel rim. The Swoopsters had only a little over an inch of unprotected shaft, as the rest of the shaft was encased in the elongated steering wheel hub. The way the Swoopster team drivers drove those karts, if they COULD'VE bent the shafts, they WOULD'VE bent them!  I have a number of old magazine pix of the Swoopster team guys driving. Man, those guys were SERIOUS!  Ted

[Brad Rose]

Brad, you might want to add a pic of the lower shaft bushing holder to illustrate the difficulty in upgrading to the 5/8" shaft on the Swoopster kart. This whole frenzy to change every vintage kart to a 5/8" shaft is a total non-necessity. The only karts I ever saw with bent shafts were ones like the Larc-Douglas karts that had several inches of naked shaft above the upper steering bushing; karts that required horsing the kart around the turns by main force on the steering wheel rim. The Swoopsters had only a little over an inch of unprotected shaft, as the rest of the shaft was encased in the elongated steering wheel hub. The way the Swoopster team drivers drove those karts, if they COULD'VE bent the shafts, they WOULD'VE bent them!  I have a number of old magazine pix of the Swoopster team guys driving. Man, those guys were SERIOUS!  Ted

Here is what I got.

[louie figone]

I am restoring an early swoopster with a 1/2 inch steering shaft. My question is should I upgrade it to 5/8 or leave it stock? I’m afraid if I don’t upgrade it I would be turned away if I ever wanted to run it at an event. But to upgrade it is going to take considerable modifications.
Thanks for any input!

Brad, leave the kart as it was manufactured, you do not need to upgrade the steering shaft to run at a VKA event. 

Louie Figone

[Brad Rose]

Sounds good!
Not like it’s going to be ran hard.

Thank you!