cowl steering woulkd this work ??

With some additional bracing and plating with some 1/8" material to spread the load out on the floor and firewall, that steering box would be fine, after all, how many of us have cars with brake pedal mounts, brake boosters, master cylinders and steering columns mounted to sheetmetal floors and firewalls.

 

Brake pedal, master cylinder, and booster mount are irrelevent here, they just have to support the wieght of the part and very little stress compared to a steering box mount that is the only thing keeping the front wheels turned under hard cornering and preventing the cars tendency to keep going straite. Besides if there is any question that a part that important is not strong enough than its not. just my openion.

 

Dude, did you look at that spindly excuse for a pitman arm? Not to mention every other aspect of the configuration that is unsound. The only word that comes to mind is RAT...

 

Exactly what I was thinking.

 

got this today:
\
The steering is attached to the frame in three places via a bracket, it is mentioned in the text. Although the photo doesn’t show this it appears most people haven’t taken the time to read the story. Our fault for not showing the photo with this bracket. Car works and steers fine as we have miles on it

Sincerely,
Brian Brennan
Editorial Director
Performance Automotive Group
Office: 714-939-2589
Cell: 714-305-8909

 

That's well and good but without the photos being posted clearly in the article and it being pointed out that there brackets going solidly to the frame some inexperienced builder is all too likely to attach it to the sheet metal and go out and get killed or kill someone..
To do a how to article on mounting steering and not show the brackets off the frame and how and why it was bracketed and mounted solid is irresponsible in my book. I see no sign of a frame mounted bracket for the bearing holding the extended shaft out to the pitman arm. Hit a good chuck hole and it is highly possible that you could rip that out of the sheetmetal.

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This is typical magazine stuff and unfortunately is not funny. And when the Rizzo's in magland use cavalier expressions like 'wing it" it sends a bad mesage to people who should be told winging it could kill someone!

 

So it's attached to the frame and firewall ?

RIGHT.

If it was securely attached to the frame, why does it need
that cheesy after-thought brace bolted to the firewall on the right side ?

 

What size and grade of bolts, loaded in single shear, attach the shaft extension ?





And some people complain about "Rat Rods".

 

ALL my Street Rodder Magazines are now in a box, going here:
http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=398507

 

Before I saw this I though there were two ways to do cowl steering. One was to use a short pitman arm and let it bumpsteer like mad. option two was to use a 2 foot long pitman and subject the steering box to 3 times the force it was designed for.

Seems the Pros use option three: use a medium length pitman arm that looks like ****, but mount the whole kit in such a way that it will rip off the mounts before it will break or bumpsteer.

That thing is a lawsuit waiting to happen, and if I were a little less scrupulous, I would have no problem cashing in on it.

 

I've seen a few ( not many) so called pieces of **** ra--ods with better than that for steering. thats all

 

That F100 box looks easy to mount and "package" - but, IIRC, it's not a recirculating-ball strg box.............which means that it will require slightly higher effort and will wear a little faster. Just my 2¢.

C'ya - RAY

 

Still collecting articles & notes. It seems by keeping most of the steering linkage on the frame with knuckles for angling would be more secure and distribute the torque evenly. 60s - 80s Ford truck steering boxes are popular.