I spliced my steering column shaft

well I did it, today I went out and removed my steering box from the f1 for an upgrade to a gm tilt

I took off the outer tube cut the shaft where I wanted then made a small tube with a near perfect fit around the shaft to keep out as much crap as I could, clamped the rubber flex joint to the shaft to mark the splines then cut some splines in the shaft with a dremel tool clamped it one and put in my tilt unit, I might put a pin in it as well for some extra insurance

I still have to make a bracket to secure the column to the dash ( gonna use a connecting rod from an old willys jeep, thanks to oldbeet and his tailpipe clamps), then build a floor pan thing where the column goes thru the floor to secure it there

 

I brazed the washer to the tube

 

last one

 

damnnnnnnnn, ya done good ....joe

 

you are a very brave man..........

 

Not a good idea, would have been better off reworking the two shafts to take a DD Universal joint.

 

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cut some splines in the shaft with a dremel tool

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Upchuck, you are making me just a little, uh, concerned..

Paul

 

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Not a good idea, would have been better off reworking the two shafts to take a DD Universal joint.

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I can still do that later if it feels loose or something when I get the kids to pretend they are driving with the front wheels on the ground for a few hours, the 2 shafts are only about 1/2" apart

 

Upchuck, you are making me just a little, uh, concerned..

Paul
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there was only about 8 splines to make and I did touch them up with a 3 cornered file, really its not as crude as it sounds!

I never did nothing like this before and so I made it as close to an original hookup as possible but if you guys with the experience say it ain't safe I'll redo it another way. I'd hate to have it come apart on the highway

that universal joint setup a better way to go?

 

definately

 

u-joint... or a sleeve connecting the two shafts... either rosette welded, or pinned... and welded... and then weld the shit out of it all!

You dont want to do an Ayerton Senna.... or whatever that F1 guys name was whose column weld broke and he hit the wall at close to 200 mph...

 

Should be able to put a flat on the column shaft and one on the steering box shaft,
Go slow with a 4 inch grinder and don’t put too much heat into the hardened shafts, you should be able the make it a bolt up.

If you weld the uni on, it will stuff up the hardening and make it impossible to replace the uni. Drilling a hole through the uin and shaft will weaken the body of the uni and the whole thing will be just relying on the strength of the pin/uni body.

This is one part of the build (steering) that has to be done right.

 

prolly a good idea to shorten the outside sheath so you got some room to weld, at least weld the rag joint to the stock shaft, clampin ain't gonna cut it, even with the splines. one thing to keep in mind when dealing with steering components from the box up to the wheel, most "late model" cars have power steering, so the steeing shafts don't need to take the brunt of the force, the steering BOX is doing all the work, the driver is just guiding the car, we go and put this stuff into old cars with manual steering, where the driver is putting ALL the effort thru the steerign shafts, power steering is a bigger steerign wheel...thus more leverage on the shafts.

 

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prolly a good idea to shorten the outside sheath so you got some room to weld, at least weld the rag joint to the stock shaft, clampin ain't gonna cut it, even with the splines. one thing to keep in mind when dealing with steering components from the box up to the wheel, most "late model" cars have power steering, so the steeing shafts don't need to take the brunt of the force, the steering BOX is doing all the work, the driver is just guiding the car, we go and put this stuff into old cars with manual steering, where the driver is putting ALL the effort thru the steerign shafts, power steering is a bigger steerign wheel...thus more leverage on the shafts.

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Ray you just summed it all up, I can't make the "sheath" any shorter because part of the box comes up that high with a little foam/sponge seal thing , thats as low as I could go

I'm taking some time to give this some more thought and some options using my stock suspension

 

I had to extend the shaft on the Hup 16". I used a Jeep column and a Mll power rack. The jeep had a short universal section. I cut this in half and welded in a section of a tire iron in to extend it. Then I welded a section of pipe around that to give it a more uniform overall dimension and added strength. All I had to do after was grind a flat side on the Mll rack shaft.