If you're used to doing this with cars, you'll probably know most of what I'm about to say already. I messed around with it a couple of years ago, and I think I learnt something, but have tended not to worry too much about corner weights since. Apologies if I'm teaching my granny to suck eggs...
First of all, your flat patch needs to be really flat, and you need to get your tyre pressures set either very evenly, or at hot race pressures, depending on whether you want the corner weights to be correct at the beginning or the end of the race. It does make a difference.
Before worrying about front:rear or left:right, check how far off the diagonal weights are from each other with the steering straight ahead. One diagonal heavier than the other generally means the chassis has developed a bit of a "set", and you need to get the twist out of it before going too much further.
For left:right balance, the end of the vehicle doing most of the braking is the one that needs the best balance. If you're used to setting up single seaters you'll be used to getting the best out of the brakes by balancing the front corner weights. The front wheels are kind of insignificant when you're heavy on the brakes in a kart, so I generally tried to prioritize the rear axle corner weights. My last 2 karts would actually corner weight to within 1 kg across the front and the rear just with movement of lead, so I never had to move the seat side to side. I didn't notice any major change in the way the kart felt if it was a kg or 2 out at the rear, but if you have the opportunity to try it for yourself you should definitely take it. I'm not a great driver (but doing OK), a better driver might notice something. You won't need to move the seat very far left or right to see measurable changes.
Finally, front:rear balance. I started at 45:55, and just kept going back until I ran out of seat movement (nearly 40:60). The lap times kept getting better, and the kart got easier to drive, but there were reasons beyond ideal front:rear balance that I had to address because of it. 42:58 sounds a pretty sensible start point to me.
I don't have the easy access to flat patch, chassis table and corner weight scales that I had a couple of years ago, but I did learn some big lessons from playing about with them. The main one was to not be afraid to move weight around on the kart and see what happens to the way it behaves on track. Compared with other changes the results were amazing. I bet you'll learn something.
Liam
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