I have a borgeson 3/4 smooth steering joint that I had planned to TIG weld to the end of my 37 ford steering shaft. I was going to fill the hollow shaft at the end with weld, weld the joint on, and then install a roll pin through the joint as extra insurance but now i'm wondering if this is a good plan. I know about not grounding through the joints when welding, and keeping them cool during the process, but would you guys trust this setup? I trust a good tig weld, but what kind of torque/stress is really on the steering shaft? Another way would be to weld a piece of 3/4 DD shaft to the end of the ford shaft and then weld a sleeve over the joint, but i'd still end up with a welded joint really, and i'll have to order two new DD joints, and wait for them to get here. opinions please, worth it to ditch what I have?
take the ford shaft over to your trusty grinder and grind a flat spot on it to fit the proper borgeson U-joint. that's what I did in my chevy. grind-fit-grind-fit-grind-fit until it is perfect. I don't think borgenson wants you welding thier joints. cooks the grease for one thing
some of those joints are made to be welded,i've welded lots of them for drag racing,circle track and landspeed racing. no problem
I have done the weld the joint to the shaft. It has given me no troubles at all. If you can weld real good and if you can run the tig right i would say that you weld just fine. There is no reason to not trust the welded joint. if you think about the spindley little jeep front drive shat, its not much bigger in diameter than the steering shaft and it deals with much more tq. than what your shaft will. the most you would be able to wrech on your wheel is mabe 150 to 190 pounds of torque and that is not much considering what the thing can take. My advice is weld the son of a *****! I would not pin it. if the weld breaks (and it wont) it would twist the shaft off at the weld or break the shaft and the pin wont save that. If you dont trust it dont do it. Doing this will help you in the road of rodding. Plus be carefull how many people you ask how to do it it only complicates the task. and never ask a farmer
If it were me I would double D the shaft and pin it. I just don't like welds in the steering linkage. I am sure RandyD knows what he is talking about but it just one of my phobias. I have even hand filed double D's on round steering posts with no problems. It just takes a lot of patience. Good luck
are you talking welding the DD shaft to the end of the ford shaft (the ford shaft is hollow by the way) and then sleeving it? Still going to leave you with a welded shaft, right?
I used a weld on joint on my steering shaft on the Hudson. The column came out of a 67 Ford PU. I had a friend who is a welder do the job for me with his 440 volt tig welder...I'm not worried about the joint coming apart.
The Jalopy Journal
