Here is my situation:
I have an old (1939) MG that I am preparing for vintage
racing. Some of the critical things I am trying to make
certain to repair properly are the steering and brakes.
The original design for the steering was poor in that it
wore quickly leading to a great deal of play and difficulty
in controlling the car. There is a fellow, Phil Marino, in
California who races a similar car and he has made some
modifications to his steering to improve this situation.
This involves taking the original sector shaft (the steering
box has a worm and a peg that follows this worm that is
connected to the sector shaft), turning a few thousandths
off of it in a lathe to give a smooth surface (the shafts
are invariably worn and scored), hard-chroming the shaft
to bring the diameter back up to specifications, and then
turning the shaft down again on a lathe to make sure it's
the correct diameter. The bore that this shaft rides in
is then turned out to a larger diameter and needle bearings
are installed. This is claimed to give a much longer life
and precise fit.
My concern is that I know of some parts that have been
chromed for cosmetic purposes that failed due to hydrogen
embrittlement. I don't know if this hard-chroming process
is the same, or if it does not have this problem. Is anyone
familiar with this, and are there steps that can be taken
while chroming that reduce the likelihood of hydrogen
embrittlement? This is very important since if this shaft
did fail it would likely be fatal.
Also, I have an electrical question. My cut out (this was
before the days of a proper voltage regulator-there's only
two charge settings and a cut out for the charging system)
will, on occasion, not cut out when the engine is turned off.
This typically happens after I've been running with the
headlights on. Any ideas?
Thanks,
Bill Putnam
hlputnam@students.wisc.edu
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