Landracing Forum
Tech Information => Steering - Suspension - Rear End => Topic started by: jdincau on September 25, 2017, 02:34:28 PM
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Hi all,
I am looking for ideas. In my Street Roadster I have a sprint car style front axle. Currently the tie rod hitting the shocks is the steering travel limiter. A spin at speed week with a tank slapper while traveling backwards resulted in a bent tie rod and dents in the shocks. I cant use the standard early Ford solution with long nuts replacing the ones on the king pin retainers as this axle has a set screw in the end of the axle to retain the king pin. First thing I thought of was a stop on the tie rod hitting the frame, while straight forward it is not very elegant. A site search only found motorcycle solutions.
Jim
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I welded stops in the form of sections I cut from a steel circle I made, to the king king boss. I put both on the same side. But you could do one on each side if you wanted.
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Hi, Jim -
I just pulled up my pictures of your car from last year at Elmo - any possibility of choking it off at the steering box, under the skin?
Keeps any additional pieces out of the wind.
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Welding some to the king pin boss is probably the most simple way for you by the sound of it but you might want to add a steering damper while you're in there, might save you getting broken thumb's "next" time.
Sid.
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If you use a rack & pinion, simply place a length of tubing over each end of the rack and add a big washer behind the ball joints.
Regards, Neil Tucson, AZ
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If you use a rack & pinion, simply place a length of tubing over each end of the rack and add a big washer behind the ball joints.
Regards, Neil Tucson, AZ
Or just "shaft collars" bolted on to the rack in an appropriate place.
:cheers:
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Jim, what type of rack are you using... I ask because we found center load racks to work well in these situations. Since the tie rods connect in the center of the rack, not the ends, you can resize the rack to fit space and keep tie rods long enough. So if you want to limit travel, you just cut the ends of the rack off and install stop blocks inside the housing... or if you need the rack to be smaller, you cut the housing off as well and limit steering as much as you want. I would take a picture of the rack I shortened for the liner, but it is in Australia being mounted in the SoS.
I trust your rack is mounted on your axle to prevent any bump steer.
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Hi all,
The setup in question is a custom made straight axle like a sprint car. The steering box is standard right angle modified Japanese mini pickup unit. The rotating components are all out in the breeze already Chris so I cant hide anything from the air. I like Rich's idea seconded by Sid but the axle is chromed and one of the few shiny parts on the thing so I am loathe to weld on it. I am toying with the idea of something that clamps around the axle inboard of the kingpin boss with lugs that bear on the back of the spindle accomplish ing the same thing as Rich's idea. More later.
Jim
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Does your steering box have an arm with rod end on it?
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Can you attach a small wedge or something to your backing plate/spindle that will work?
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Good idea Rich, I will look at that. Meanwhile here are some pictures answering the other questions.
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Tried to take a picture of mine but file is too large. Here is what I did on my roadster. If the rod end in your steering arm has a .500" bolt, make a .500" ID x .620" OD x .25" long steel bushing. Obviously you will need a longer bolt. Take a piece of 1.00" wide x .125" thick steel strap and machine a .625" slot in the strap as long as the travel of the steering arm. Weld a threaded bung (.312" or .375") on frame to secure the other end of the strap. The bolt holding that strap will need to be slightly loose allowing strap to pivot so it will need to be safety wired. I even put thrust washers on mine. The .620" OD bushing on the steering arm bolt slides in the slot until it reaches each end of slot.
Does it work? I hate to say it, but I spun my roadster at 220 MPH on the salt. The hard left hand turn my car took was so violent it literally took the steering wheel out of my hands. After several revolutions and the steering going lock to lock I was finally brave enough to grab the wheel and hold on. Nothing in the front end was damaged at all. I'm sure had I had simple spindle stops, the front end would have been severely damaged.
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jww,
A elegant solution, I am going to sketch it and save it for future use. Unfortunately the bolt in question is 3" above the frame rail and the radius rod mount is in the way. It's still neat though.
Jim
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Rich,
What do you think of me drilling and tapping the back side of the spindle and using bolt heads as stops against the king pin boss?
Edit,
Now that I look at it perhaps aluminum wedges as you described would be better, I might be able to counter bore the bolts into the wedge so just the aluminum would bear against the axle.
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In think either will be fine. Aluminum might be better on the shiny stuff. You might put the bolt head on the wheel side and thread the wedg. It really isn't going to be stressed if it's located right.
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Jim --
PM sent.
Stan
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Jim;
Wow, those are really thin rotors! :-o
Regards, Neil Tucson, AZ
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Clean and easy, if yours wasn't already chrome plated. The bumper on the king pin boss could just as easily be on the spindle. You could maybe get an acorn nut the right height and just drill a hole, run a bolt through from the other side and your golden.
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Thanks for all your input guys, I am going to use Rich's wedge behind the spindle approach. I will post pictures of the result but not right away. I had a cataract removed from my right eye today and it turned out so well I had them schedule the left ASAP. No lifting bending or laying on the floor under roadsters allowed till recovery complete.
Thanks again,
Jim
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If you use a rack & pinion, simply place a length of tubing over each end of the rack and add a big washer behind the ball joints.
Regards, Neil Tucson, AZ
Or just "shaft collars" bolted on to the rack in an appropriate place.
:cheers:
We'll be working on a roadster right after we finished the installation of tires, mickey thompson rims (http://4wheelonline.com/mickey-thompson-wheels.1941), and alignment on the current truck project. We'll be using a rack and pinion, will try the shaft collars.
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I have a stop @ the steering arm on my mini sprint i will see if i can find a pic /or take a pic when i disassemble the sheet metal and covers next wwek.
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Well that was a lot easier than I thought it was going to be. I drilled and tapped the spindle for two 5/16-16 Allen head cap screws. They are even adjustable.
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That looks great!
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Thanks Stan.
To reply to a PM sent to me on this subject by someone else, here are the pictures of the Panhard rod installation. I built provisions for one back in 1998, thanks for making me realize that it cant hurt.
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Like the stops. Lots of times people overthink simple things,