D87: Steering Column + Mount

Today I spent some time working on my new steering column. I wasn't thrilled with the first attempt, and kept thinking it was too weak. The drilled out 3/4" tube seemed too thin.

Here is my second attempt. I cut the end off the donor column which happened to be .47" on the inside which is close to the size needed for a 1/2"-20 thread. I threaded the end of a 3" grade 8 1/2"-20 bolt into this end. The smooth end would slide nicely into the 3/4"x.120 DOM that I'm using for the column. The smooth end had a little bit of slop, so I used a piece of paper to ship the bolt to keep everything tight and straight for welding.
Below are the two pieces assembled and then welded and ground. With both pieces .120 wall, and the joint being supported by a 1/2 bolt, I feel MUCH better about the strength of this design. I also plan on drilling a couple of holes on either side of the weld and then welding them up. I'm hoping this will add some torsional strength by transferring some of the load onto the bolt.
With the new column together, I need to check the clearance with the engine mounts. I got the engine back in and THANKFULLY everything fit just fine. It's definitely close, but I don't think the engine is going to shift side to side. In theory it'll more rotate which shouldn't interfere with the steering linkage.

Knowing the new column would fit around the engine mounts, it was time to get the drivers end mount built. I'm using a 3/4" steering shaft heim joint to attach the column to the mount. Below is the mounting hole for that heim. I cut a 1" hole in the 2"x1" tubing and used some of the 1" DOM from the a-arms inside.

I plan on adding at least one more piece to reinforce the mount.

I also played around with placement of the turn signals and ignition switch. I haven't settled on anything that I like yet.

D82: Front Suspension Rebuild #4 D2

I built new mounts for the upper a-arms. I've got the mounting bolts vertical now instead of horizontal. I wanted to try this out and see if it would work better than the old design.

With the new suspension design, I needed to move the steering arm from mounting on the bottom of the spindle to the top of the mount. This required a new steering arm. I've used 1/2" rod ends on the spindle side. On the steering rack side, I cut the threaded portion of the factory arm off and used it as an "M14x1.5" weld bung. Saved me having to buy a random metric tap.

A picture of the completed lower control arm and the upper a-arm along with the new steering arm all assembled with the tire.

D81: Steering Rack and Column Updates

With the newly redesigned front suspension I needed new mounts for the steering rack. Below is the design for the new mounts. From the previous post, I knew how high above the lower control arm pivot I wanted the center of the rack to be and from the original design I knew how far in front of the front cross bar I wanted the rack to be. Thus, the design below.

Below is one of the two mounts for the steering rack that will attach to the front cross member.

Both mounts tacked onto the front cross member and the steering rack in place.

The new design I have for the steering column required a few mods to the firewall. The first was installing a firewall mount for the steering column. I replaced part of the firewall with this 1"x2" piece of tubing.

With the firewall mount in place, I wanted to make sure the the column cleared the brake booster. From the pick below, there is plenty of space.

The new steering column connected to the steering rack. Getting rid of the extra piece of linkage makes for a clean install. I also think it'll be a safer/stronger design.

The last pic is the steering column next to the pedal assembly. The new column will come almost directly out at the driver instead of the previous design where the column was at an angle. Again, a cleaner design.

D79-80: Suspension Redesign and Rebuild #4

I've spent the past week redesigning the front suspension yet again. After getting the last design tacked together I realized that bump steer might be an issue. I did a little research and modeled my design in CAD to realize that, YES, I did have a bump steer issue.

The design below is what I've come up with for the (hopefully) last build. I've raised the steering rack and plan on mounting the tie rods to the top of the spindle instead of the bottom. This allows for adjustments to control bump steer. I need to modify the spindle and build custom tie rods to complete this conversion.

The new design brought the mounts for the lower control arms in about 1.5" on each side. Below is the design for the new control arms. I've gone back to the style of the second design maximizing the steering range. This won't cause the same issue I ran into with the second control arm because the tie rod is on top of the spindle mount and won't hit the rim.

I built the new arm on the frame. It was easier to tack the mounts and build the control arm on the frame than trying to build a jig for the arm. I did the same on both sides and I'm much happier with the latest build than with the previous one. There is much less slop. I also plan on adding some additional plates to strengthen the mounts.

D63:Steering Linkage Stabalizer

With all the steering linkage put together, next up was the stabilizer to keep all the linkage in place. I used the 2 plastic bushings from the linkage of both donors. The challenge was figuring out how to integrate these into a new mount.

Below, is the top portion, that holds the plastic bushing to the mount. The next photo shows the mount with this top holder in place.

The mount with bushings installed along with the steering linkage that it'll hold. The left side has the top cap and the right does not.

The linkage and mount installed in the car.

... and finally my first attempt at a video in this blog. The entire steering system working together.

D62:Steering Linkage and Steering Column Mods

I got some today to work on the steering linkage that I need to complete the gap between the donor parts. The plan was to shorten all the parts that I bought yesterday at the junk yard to make a new piece of linkage.

The first step was shortening the outer sleeve to the extension shaft. I cut about 6 inches out of the middle.

The two ends where then welded together. My original plan was to incorporate one of the giubos (flex disc) into the new linkage. This plan required shortening both outer sleeves and then bolting them together using the giubo.

Step two was to cut and shorten the inner rod. I needed this end as short as possible since I still needed to fit the other half into a 12 inch space. I also needed a length of tube to mount a bushing to hold the linkage in place.

The two ends butted up together just before welding them together.

The final product of the first half. It's about as short as possible with as many pieces as I was trying to incorporate.

I haven't made a final decision, but after getting the first half of the new linkage together I was thinking it might be easier to simplify the solution by eliminating the giubo. Below is a pic of the second option. It is definitely a simpler solution. I need to do some research, but I'm assuming the only thing I'm losing by eliminating the giubo from the steering linkage is a little extra vibration in the wheel.

I plan on mounting a bushing to the control arm upright to fix the position of the new linkage. The entire linkage can be seen below from the rack to the steering column. It's not "straight" or pretty, but it'll get the job done.

Next up for the day was lengthening the steering column. Below you the steering column cut and the extra tube that will be added between. The extra tube is actually a piece of one of the outer sleeves from the extension above. It was a bit too big to fit inside the column, so a little grinding took just enough off for a snug fit. Glad I didn't have to go find a 6 inch piece of tube in some drop pile at a steel yard.

Below is the the new steering wheel placement with the extra 3 inches of column length added. This will give much more space for the indicator switch, ignition, etc. It also feels much more comfortable while sitting in the car with the wheel a little closer. The next step is adding the 3 inches to the outer column tube.

Steering Linkage Find

Yesterday I had a free morning and spent it at the junk yard trying to solve my missing steering linkage issue. This particular yard had 4 BMWs which wasn't very promising as 2 of them were e36 3 series. Since that's what the donor was I knew these weren't going to provide anything of great use. The other 2 were an '85 5 series and an '86 6 series. Both of these have extendible columns with independent u-joints. The only question was whether or not the splines would match up to those from my '92 donor.

After an hour at the first car with no luck getting the u-joint out I almost gave up and went home empty handed. Then a breakthrough. I ended up pulling the back end of the steering rack off and out of the car, then prying the u-joint free on the ground. This was much easier than trying to work a crowbar inside a packed hood. Then the moment of truth... were the splines going to match up? They did! On to #2. With this newly found trick of disassembling the rack, 15 minutes later and I had the second one out. At $15 each, I'd say this was both successful and locost. Oh, and icing on the cake was a $4 set of spark plug wires that I needed.