Thanks Sid, Stainless
Confession time; during the chassis mock-up phase I moved the 'dash' hoop forward a couple of times to facilitate getting in and out (knee clearance).
I fixed the position of the pedals (now adjustable for shorter legs which complicates things slightly) but I completely failed to push the axle point forward by the same amount as the dash hoop, or, put another way, the required steering column angle got steeper. Why cant I move it forward? There is a lovely cross brace under the floor and in the original drawings the axle was under that with the 'rack' a few inches behind meaning that the column could go through the floor just behind the intersection of those tubes - it made sense at the time.
I can move the axle forward a few inches from the planned location and using double UJs can probably do a nice steering column to a chassis mounted steering box (source please).
The design concept of having the axle under your ankles / calves was to allow 4 bars etc. to be inside the body work (i.e. under the leggies) and put some weight on the front springs reducing the need for ballast weight for weight distribution. That of course assumes that locating the rad, fuel etc. rearward of the engine will put enough on the rear wheels for traction. 65 - 70% I assume is the target - off topic - coincidentally that's what my '69 Lotus Europa had with a Ford Focus 2 litre on ITBs etc and that left the line like
salt off a shovel and handled far better than most moderns.
Vertical pushrods from the front axle are planned to operate rockers in the cockpit activating horizontally mounted coil overs above the legs.
The original plan was to use a 20:1 small rack, mounted on the axle. Since the steering column will now be quite steep it seemed logical to explore a 90 degree steering bevel box (Toyota Hiace, cab over axle HKD model). That creates a need for a vertically sliding column to accommodate bump and rebound. A nylon bushed sliding spline column was sourced but that has received warnings (thank you). I am not sure why double D would be better though?
I was looking at the 20:1 Stiletto rack on axle because I had
1. studied the Seth H Lakester pics and liked it, and
2. assumed that for a steering box in the centre of the vehicle any drag link from a chassis mounted box (i.e. a hot rod style front end) would, at only ~half the track width, be too short, and create bump steer.
I guess if there is only 1.5" of front wheel travel in bump then a 20" - 25" drag link (with a full width tie rod) might work. I am not sure what steering box is slow enough. My parts sources are limited in the UK - any recommendation for a suitable steering box and Sid, how long are the steering arms and pitman arm on your Lakester - do you have pics of the steering box etc. by any chance?
Lemming John