>Hi Mark,
> I don't remeber if I asked you this before. Did you mount your
>steering box about 1/2" outside the framerail. I remeber you saying
>something about building a spacer of sorts, but nothing specific.
I did build a bracket from 3/16" mild steel which mounts the box about 2
1/2" from the frame rail at the front tip and about 1" at the rear portion
of the box. The frame rail is angling together towards the front, so I
tried to keep the box parallel with an imaginary line from the column. My
friend who does this stuff for a living, and has been doing it many years,
welds an ear on the top of the frame rail in two spots, then uses thick
wall tubing as spacers, between the ears and the box. His setup looks and
is simpler than what I used.
Check here <http://home.utm.net/bfischer/pix/updt2e.jpg>
> The reason I ask, is this. Do you use the stock rag joint and a u joint
>at the firewall or did you use two u joints?
I used no U-joints. I'm lo buck, and I had a U-joint from an old setup, but
I went with the stock rag joint on the bottom, and the stock CV joint on
the top. Note there is some angle to the shaft from the column to the box,
but nothing is stressed or binds at all. This is obviously one area where
lo buck has to take a back seat to safety and common sense, and I wouldn't
have done it this way if I didn't feel comfortable with it. My set up uses
a power box so the joints are not stressed much when turning the wheel. If
I recall you were going w/o power steering, thus you may want to engineer a
little more strength into the column joints.
Check some more here <http://home.utm.net/pix/updt2i.jpg>
> It appears that my steering box is to the left of the stock steering
>colum by abot 7-8", and the shaft from steering box to steering column will
>be about 30" long. I've been to;d that when you run the MII crossmember the
>Chevy truck require 3 u joints. But, it appears with our setup, you can do
>it with two u joints. Is that right?
>
Don't know about the MII. I did lengthen the shaft about 6-8" just above
the rag joint. I cut a tear shaped hole in the inner fender for the shaft
to go thru to the box. My column is angled ever so slightly to the left,
but nobody has ever noticed, and I can't while driving. The lower column
mount to the firewall is a piece of angle iron bolted to the firewall and a
muffler clamp
(u-bolt style) holds it to the angle iron. Simple and strong, I've used
this on several cars/trucks. The upper inner mount is adapted off the 77
GMC pedal assy I used.
You must be getting close by now.
"Nothin lasts forever except old Fords and a natural stone" - Willie Nelson
http://home.utm.net/bfischer e-mail -->bfischer@utm.net
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