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Amazing how really big, intimidating things just come together once you sit down and say, "Tonight, I do this!"

I worked on the steering column tonight. My design is pretty similar to Keith Tanner's, although I think I have one more u-joint...three in all. (I haven't been able to find Keith's book for about two weeks...VERY annoying!)

I parted the last 1" off the first shaft (that is, the one that goes through the firewall) and added about 6" of solid 3/4" bar in the middle. I was going to use some light 3/4" tube I had laying around (16 gage, maybe?) but chickened out. I suspect it would have been plenty stout, but we are talking about a mission-critical component here, and it was only 6" so I didn't worry about the weight. I tapered, welded, and turned the 1" section with the splines onto the extension. I aligned this one by setting the 6" shaft and 1" end on the side of a triangular welding magnet. This held them perfectly straight. However, the end turned out slightly askew. Not enough to matter, especially on a part only 1" long. I really need to practice that process and get it down pat.

I couldn't do the same for the other end of the extension, as I couldn't put it in the lathe. So I planned on sleeving it with some 1" x 0.125" wall DOM left over from bending Jag's roll bar. But I got ahead of myself and welded the pieces together, making it too big to sleeve. It seems plenty strong, so I may leave it as is. Or maybe I'll grind down the weld and sleeve it yet...we'll see. I aligned this piece in a section of angle iron. This came out quite true, I think because both sides of the weld were over 5" long and therefore easy to align.

[Edit - more info here: http://locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=44696 ]

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...nowadays people are so intellectually lazy and lethargic that they can't build ANYTHING with their hands. They'll spend hours watching whiny people marooned on an island, but won't spend a second adding anything to the world. -weconway
Visit my [Locost 7 build log]

Not much to describe here. I'm adding a pillow block on the firewall, shown in the third picture. There will be another pillow block just aft of the second u-joint, ala Tanner. Hopefully I can pick one up from Grainger in town Saturday morning.

Other than that, it's pretty much done, all in one night. Cool!

I still have to weld the rack together, and finalize the mounting of the column support in the dash, but I've got those all planned. It seems answering the questions takes *FAR* more time than implementing the plan.

Not sure what's next...probably wiring or brake plumbing.

G'nite,
-dave

_________________
...nowadays people are so intellectually lazy and lethargic that they can't build ANYTHING with their hands. They'll spend hours watching whiny people marooned on an island, but won't spend a second adding anything to the world. -weconway
Visit my [Locost 7 build log]

Hey, Hempy...

If you want, I can ship you my Tanner book, and I still have three extra pillow blocks--two 1" dia and one 3/4, I believe. You ordered them for me, if I remember correctly.

Hey, thanks, Nate! Yep, that was me! I'm sure the book will turn up around here somewhere (maybe I took it to work?) and I need a 5/8" pillow block, but I sure appreciate the offer.

-dave

_________________
...nowadays people are so intellectually lazy and lethargic that they can't build ANYTHING with their hands. They'll spend hours watching whiny people marooned on an island, but won't spend a second adding anything to the world. -weconway
Visit my [Locost 7 build log]

If you can, try to get the same angle on the U-joints...

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Marcus Barrow - Car9 an open design community supported sports car for home builders!
SketchUp collection for LocostUSA: "Dream it, Build it, Drive it!"
Car9 Roadster information - models, drawings, resources etc.

Dave

If nothing else I would rotate the steering rack to reduce angle of the last U-joint. Looks like the rack mount could be modified without causing a lot of work.

I had the same problem going around my exhaust & engine mount, Dave W

Why is that? Maybe to minimize the worst angle of the bunch?

The front-most joint has the most angle. I ensured it doesn't bind, but that's all the thought I put into it. The second joint could be lowered maybe 1.5" before the first one would bind. The third (rear-est) joint is almost straight.

I don't think I'll be changing it at this point, but if there's theory behind it all, I'm eager to learn.

-dave

_________________
...nowadays people are so intellectually lazy and lethargic that they can't build ANYTHING with their hands. They'll spend hours watching whiny people marooned on an island, but won't spend a second adding anything to the world. -weconway
Visit my [Locost 7 build log]

I wasn't sure if the joint covered by the boot at the rack was a U-joint or some type for CV joint.

So they call them CV joints becuse they have constant velocity when they rotate thru an angle. U-joints aren't quite so nice. When you rotate one end and there is an angle thru the joint the speed of rotation at the far end varies. Which adds up to producing a variable steering ratio.

If you have two joints with the same angle and they are 90 degrees from each other, they will cancel out. You can see this on drive shafts and half shafts, they are always set at 90 degrees.

Keith, somewhere in his book, mentions the issue for driveshafts, if the diff isn't installed with it's shaft parallel to the crank. It's tempting to install it pointing at the engine and minimize the angle at one end but that causes a throbbing or vibration as he described it.

So I don't know if it's important, it would depend on how drastic the differences are, but it looked like you where still assembling so thought I'd mention it.

_________________
Marcus Barrow - Car9 an open design community supported sports car for home builders!
SketchUp collection for LocostUSA: "Dream it, Build it, Drive it!"
Car9 Roadster information - models, drawings, resources etc.

Nope...just a plain old u-joint.


Ahh...gotcha. Yes, I'm familiar with the theory as applied to driveshafts. I never considered it for the steering shaft. I guess the only way I could (reasonably) get the steering column and the pinion parallel would be to roll the rack *way* back. I guess I could do that without too much trouble...but probably won't at this point. Do the rest of you design for that?

Thanks for following up and clarifying, Horizen.

-dave

_________________
...nowadays people are so intellectually lazy and lethargic that they can't build ANYTHING with their hands. They'll spend hours watching whiny people marooned on an island, but won't spend a second adding anything to the world. -weconway
Visit my [Locost 7 build log]

Just to be clear, you don't need the shaft to be parallel, you need the angles equal. So parallel is one solution ( which gives equal and opposite angles ), but you might be able to raise the longer part of the shaft a bit to sharpen the angle on that joint - or split the difference a bit. So the same angle but not opposite, if that makes sense.

_________________
Marcus Barrow - Car9 an open design community supported sports car for home builders!
SketchUp collection for LocostUSA: "Dream it, Build it, Drive it!"
Car9 Roadster information - models, drawings, resources etc.

Man...first Kurt's worried about my ball-bearings (arghhh...it drives me nuts, ye scurvy dogs) and now you're worried that I've got two left feet. Can we keep this on-topic, people?

-dave

_________________
...nowadays people are so intellectually lazy and lethargic that they can't build ANYTHING with their hands. They'll spend hours watching whiny people marooned on an island, but won't spend a second adding anything to the world. -weconway
Visit my [Locost 7 build log]

Did a little more work last night. The steering shafts are all in place now. I had to install the diagonal engine bay tube on the driver side to support the pillow block.

-dave

ps. Found my Tanner book! Yay!

_________________
...nowadays people are so intellectually lazy and lethargic that they can't build ANYTHING with their hands. They'll spend hours watching whiny people marooned on an island, but won't spend a second adding anything to the world. -weconway
Visit my [Locost 7 build log]

Steering shaft support bracket

_________________
...nowadays people are so intellectually lazy and lethargic that they can't build ANYTHING with their hands. They'll spend hours watching whiny people marooned on an island, but won't spend a second adding anything to the world. -weconway
Visit my [Locost 7 build log]

Your photo <steering.column.5.jpg> is shot from easily the strangest angle I have ever seen in a build log. Otherwise, it's all looking good. Maybe even Kansas City good.

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Locost builder and adventurer, and founder (but no longer owner) of Kinetic Vehicles

I agree if there is an "artistic photographer award", Dave is a shoe in...

BID