horchoha wrote:
Thinking ahead, before I mount the rack, I need to know what angle to mount it at. To do that I need to know the placement of the steering shaft as it comes through the firewall. To do that I need to know where the left side engine mount needs to be. To know that I need to bolt the trans to the engine and place it in the frame. Soooo it's not a simple project of just mounting the rack, it's like playing chess. And thats my 2 cents for tonight.
If it helps any, here's a couple of pics of my Chevette rack mounted. Of course, left-to-right, it has to go exactly centered, so there's no question there. Likewise, fore-and-aft, give or take an inch or so for Ackerman adjustment, and as for up-and-down, it has to be pretty close to sitting on top of the lower frame rails. Sooo...the only real question is to the angle of the rack's input shaft. To figure that, I just pulled a string taut from where the middle of the steering wheel would be to the steering rack, and that gave me the angle, so I built the mounts to suit. That worked perfectly.
Of course, I'm using a stock GM column (which ends in a "double D" shape), with a stainless "double D" piece of steering shaft, and a couple of universal joints, to fill in the several feet of gap between the end of the column and the rack. In my case (with a Ford Zetec engine), the steering shaft misses the mounts with lots of room to spare, and my exhaust (only partly fabricated so far) won't be a problem either.
The beauty of doing it this way is that, IF you run into a fouling problem, you can just cut the added steering shaft, ad a pillow block bearing somewhere along the way, and route the steering alongside the frame, closer to the engine, higher, lower, or whatever is necessary. It's acceptable practice to have two universals in line along the shaft without any other supports. If you have 3 or more, there has to be a solid-mounted pillow block or bearing.
Does that make sense? It's hard to explain. But, I have lots of pics if you want 'em...
My pics will give you an idea of the angle of the rack - and, give or take a degree or two (which will be absorbed by whatever universal joints you use), yours will need to be the same.
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Scratch building, at continental-drift speed, a custom McSoreley-design framed, dual-Weber 45DCOE carburated, Zetec-engined, ridiculously fast money pit.
http://zetec7.webs.com/
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