Got a steering angle problem and need some advice

[Laplander]

Basically I took this car that had been in a 30 slumber and got her road worthy. Just put the 12 spokes up fron and while looking at it from the side, the stearing column looks like it's tilted FORWARD? What do I ned to do to bring it back several degrees, and maybe shorten it a few inches? Any ideas?

 

[tfeverfred]

Can you remove and lean back, the stteering box mount?

 

[Youngster]

To get it to lean back a bit will probably mean a new steering box mount. It definately could be shortened a bit too. That's the best I can do without pic's of what you have now.

Ron

 

[donsrods]

It depends on how "right" you want to make the car. The short fix would be to simply alter the box mount to lean the column back a bit then shorten the shaft so the wheel is lower. That would help somewhat.

But, to really do it right I see some stuff that would need moved and redone. Too much stuff is trying to occupy the spot where the box should be. The rear radius rod mounts are too far forward and are sitting right where the steering box should exit the frame (see red circle on the left). Then, you are trying to run a full exhaust system so the dumps out of the lakes headers come down and take up more space where the rear radius rods could mount (see red circle on the right).

If it were me, I would move the rear radius rod mounts back and shorten the radius rods. Then I would either run traditional T bucket style headers with mufflers built in, or if you want to keep the lakes headers, cap off the exhaust pipe exit and make some baffles to go inside them. That would allow a new mount for the steering box to be put where they usually are, right behind the front radius rod mount. The drag link would also end up shorter and probably improve steering response. It would also lay your steering column back on a much more comfortable angle.

Some people might see making all those changes as extreme, but I am not opposed to cutting stuff up and redoing it if the end result will be better. But that is just me.

Don

This is the most common orientation of the steering box relative to the radius rod mounts.

 

[donsrods]

The last post timed out so I couldn't add something else that I wanted to mention. With your steering arm where it currently sits it is putting the draglink very far outside of the body. Having it there really limits the clearance you have when making a left hand turn, the tire wants to hit the draglink, I bet. If you move the steering box further forward and tuck the steering arm tighter to the body it will give you a lot more tire to draglink clearance.

More pictures of your front end would help too.

Don

 

[Youngster]

I know Total used that placment form the steering box for years but to be theoritcally correct, the drag link should be the same length as the hair pin. That would require the box to be moved in front of the firewall. I'm not a huge fan of the pitman arm hanging down that far below the frame as it dose with the Total setup.

I don't know how far you want to get into a re-build but other than the steering, Don's recommendations are spot on.

Ron

 

[Laplander]

Here's a more up to date pic of the bucket. My son loves it, but wants to know if there is a way to kick the steering column back a little. It's almost forward from perpendicular. What would you guys do to modify it with this side cowl steering? I'm kind of unsure how this set up works.

 

[Mike]

I merged these two threads. No need to have two threads posing the very same question, particularly when the earlier thread already had some answers on how to address the steering issue.

 

[Ted Brown]

I would say the easiest way to tilt the column back, might be to use a U joint at the box, and then cut the column cover (and shaft) at the floor, this will kill 2 birds with one cut, both the angle and shorter problems that bother you... If needed to clear the U joint, you can use a cone shaped piece at the bottom of the column, then use a bigger floor mounting plate... Looks like the steering column is square with the frame now, but the whole car being on a rake, makes it look like it is tilting forward, no real biggy... and the length of the drag link is fine, if it were shorter, then it would also move more while going over bumps, if the front radius rods were longer, then the bump steer would be even less... IMHO

 

[Mike]

Laplander, the e-mail account associated with your forum account is knackered. I'm getting time-out bounces on it, so I would appreciate you taking a look at it for me. Thanks.