I chose Woodward Steering for their splined u-joints and splined stubs beacause I favor the idea of welding the splined stubs into .750" x .120" wall 4130 tubing I'm using for my steering rather than welding directly on any u-joint.
The other feature I like with the Woodward joint is that they're plated and less expensive than some others. Speedway has cheaper joints, but they're not plated. And as much as I love (welding) stainless, I chose not to spend the extra for stainless.
The stubs are not plated which would only be a hinderence when welding them into the tubes. A spot of paint and dab of grease will stave off rusting.... that's funny when you consider I'm a year or more from the road given my ...... ah, propensity for procrastination and I'm worried about rust?.... LOL . A year ago I said I'd be another year.
Mine will be a three joint system. I have a joint from some unknown car that was given to me by a pal along with a chunk of shaft that fits that double D joint. It was a lucky score as I was able to use this on my center take off rack by machining .0055" off each side of the rack pinion. Sure I could have taken eleven-thou off one side, but that would be too easy. I cut the shaft down to press it inside my tubing and will weld that item in.
That shaft was part of a collaspible column . Since I had no idea what the other half of that might be, I submitted to not having a collapsible column.
Woodward makes the coolest steering stuff including a niffty collapsible section that goes in the engine area. I really wanted that also, but the helicopter parts biz is not doing well enough at this time.
When I talked to Woodward about a .750" double D joint at the rack and then I would have to EDM an adaptor to my rack, they said double D's that have set screws are not recommended. One should only use a pinch bolt design double D. My double D joint has pinch bolts on both ends. Lucky huh?
Having said all this, I hope my pictures arrive below.
We drove through Evergreen, Colorado this afternoon and "the Herd " was on the north end of town.
The Simple 2 Special tag is something from my wife's artwork... ooops
The other feature I like with the Woodward joint is that they're plated and less expensive than some others. Speedway has cheaper joints, but they're not plated. And as much as I love (welding) stainless, I chose not to spend the extra for stainless.
The stubs are not plated which would only be a hinderence when welding them into the tubes. A spot of paint and dab of grease will stave off rusting.... that's funny when you consider I'm a year or more from the road given my ...... ah, propensity for procrastination and I'm worried about rust?.... LOL . A year ago I said I'd be another year.
Mine will be a three joint system. I have a joint from some unknown car that was given to me by a pal along with a chunk of shaft that fits that double D joint. It was a lucky score as I was able to use this on my center take off rack by machining .0055" off each side of the rack pinion. Sure I could have taken eleven-thou off one side, but that would be too easy. I cut the shaft down to press it inside my tubing and will weld that item in.
That shaft was part of a collaspible column . Since I had no idea what the other half of that might be, I submitted to not having a collapsible column.
Woodward makes the coolest steering stuff including a niffty collapsible section that goes in the engine area. I really wanted that also, but the helicopter parts biz is not doing well enough at this time.
When I talked to Woodward about a .750" double D joint at the rack and then I would have to EDM an adaptor to my rack, they said double D's that have set screws are not recommended. One should only use a pinch bolt design double D. My double D joint has pinch bolts on both ends. Lucky huh?
Having said all this, I hope my pictures arrive below.
We drove through Evergreen, Colorado this afternoon and "the Herd " was on the north end of town.
The Simple 2 Special tag is something from my wife's artwork... ooops
