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By dry test I mean put the rack through its hardest steering situation. On my car I turned the steering wheel lock to lock with the engine off and the full weight of the car on the suspension with the car stationary. This should simulate the hardest steering situation the system should ever see. I am sure glad I did!! On my setup I finally got the steering shaft and corresponding support set up so that the steering turned smoothly. Thought I had all the bugs worked out until the "dry test". With that much resistance on the tires it caused my shaft support to flex and my double u-joint to move all over the place. My support was made of a threaded sleeve welded to some 3/8" plate but I only mounted it using one bolt hole. I then set it up with the same threaded sleeve welded to a piece of 3/8" plate that bolted to the frame in two places. This helped a lot but there was still a little flex in the system so I am going to move the joint closer to the double u-joint which should eliminate any remaining bind.
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Ok... will do. Thanks for the heads up. I guess I should have done that before putting all the sheetmetal on.
Haven't had time lately to work on the car.
Did you take any pictures of the steering shaft support you made and then modified? I am trying to visualize how you went about it?
I agree with your PITA comment in your other post.LOL. I have felt that way many times with all of the modifications I have done on mine. All of the modifications were firsts for me. I am thinking I will probably never attempt another restomod like this. My next restoration will most likely keep everything the way the engineers designed it!
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I can take some pix on Monday. I don't have any I can post until then. Let me know how your dry test turns out.
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Dry tested today. Good news and bad news. Good news is when I turn the steering wheel, the wheels also turn. Lol. The bad news...the bracket for the rod end bolt which supports the DD shaft does demonstrate a little flex. I think it will be an easy fix, I will add a gusset plate. If that doesn't do the job, I will make a new bracket...have an idea for that also. Minor glitch!
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This is what my final bracket looked like
This is the third incarnation of this bracket. the second incarnation was the same but didn't have the 1" support rib. I don't have any pix of the first bracket but it basically looked like the picture below if the red line was the edge of the bracket. I don't know what possessed me to only mount the support from one hole.
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Thanks for posting. Really nice work. Interesting how you mounted that bracket on the inside of the frame rail. Good idea.
Judging by your fab skills...you must work in a machine shop or have a really nice work shop loaded with some pretty nice equipment? I'm jealous!
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dan_6776 wrote:
Judging by your fab skills...you must work in a machine shop or have a really nice work shop loaded with some pretty nice equipment? I'm jealous!
Thanks!! I just have the basics, welder grinder, drill press. I do also have a small lathe but didn't use that for this bracket 
I am sure it is the rounded cuts you are referring to on my bracket?? In this case the 3/8" bracket is made of a piece of scrap. I sell a 3550 hydraulic clutch kits as part of my business and one of the orders I placed at the water jet cutter were not correct. The owner let me keep the "bad brackets" as scrap and that is what I used to make the shaft stabilizer.
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Took the rack system appart yesterday to address the support bracket flex issue for the rod end bolt. When I dry tested the system(after Daze's recommendation), I noticed two things that were happening to create slight u-joint bind. Firstly, the DD shaft was moving around in the rod end bolt swivel. I noticed this when I got the parts delivered from Jeggs but didn't think it was going to be a problem. However, it seems that any little bit of movement is multiplied thru the system and does create some issue. When turning the steering wheel I noticed a bit of play in the steering wheel and a little bit of clicking noise as a result. I fattened up the DD shaft, now it fits very snug. Second thing I noticed at dry testing was a little flex in the bracket. I wanted to retain the original bracket so I added some support to strengthen things up. Firstly I added a gusset plate to the bracket and secondly I drilled and added a bolt just behind the gusset plate. I also drilled a hole and tapped some threads on the top of the frame rail on the car. The bolt better holds the bracket in position. Drilling and tapping that hole was very challenging with everything back in the engine compartment.
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looks good. let us know how dry test 2.0 goes. After I finished mine, durring the dry test, I still get some slight flex in my support even with the 3/8" plate and the 1" rib so I would expect that yours will still flex slightly. The reality is the dry test puts the system through the worst possible condition and the system will probably never see that much stress in real life. The power assist on the rack eliminates 99% of the stress on the steering link.
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Will do. I just don't understand how there would be any flex from your support bracket. That thing looks rock solid! Could it just be a bit of play from the steering shaft in the swivel eye of the rod end bolt and what your seeing is slight movement rather than flex? That bracket just seems to strong to move in any direction. I just wouldn't think there is enough stress created from the steering system to budge that bracket.
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