Technical Tell me WHY this is going to kill me. UPDATE** Not going to die.

I eyeballed the steering rod angle when I set up the box and built the headers around the box location. Well, I must have been using my left eye, cause the steering road angle is not good.

I know the steering rod is supposed to be close to parallel with the drag link, but before I build a new set of headers, I need to know WHY this is so bad. Don't tell me I'm a moron and will go careening into a guard rail at 80mph, tell me geometrically what would be going on in real life driving if I let it fly.



Thanks, -Abone.

 

move the steering box instead of the header

 

Bump steer. Instead of pivoting with axle the rod will be pushing and pulling the pitman arm.

 

It's cross steer, so this wont create bump steer. What will happen is as you turn the steering wheel left or right, this angle will get even worse than it is now. The response to the wheel will also get worse as the arm moves far left or right and the pitman arm is pointing more at the off side. So it wont be precise feeling, and it will take more turn of the steering wheel to get the wheels to react.

 

Just a thought, without seeing the pitman arm, it looks like you could get a straight lock or possibly go over center on a hard left turn? Could that geometry cause harder steering in one direction than the other? And cause steering wobble? I don't think I could go with that myself. But that's just my opinion. I too would move the steering box forward.

 

I thought that too. It would steer faster/ slower left and right.......

 

Ha! I thought the rod was pointing up. After reading more replies, I looked again.
No bump steer, just wonky steer.

 

I didn’t build it but I have driven it quite a bit. My survivor roadster is set up pretty much the same way and it goes down the road great. But, I’m sure it’s wrong and someone will not like it…

 

I feel better knowing yours is more dicked over than mine and you haven't died yet, but I'm most likely gonna fix mine, just in case.

-Abone.

 

Probably for the best. I’m a bit of a rebel…

 

You're a moron. Not because the drag link is at a weird angle but because the engine is obviously not a Pontiac, nor is it even related to a Pontiac engine! What is that thing?? a Studebaker 259? Man!

 

I plan to move my vega box again. Mine is not off horizontally. It was originally mounted low to accommodate header and steering shaft clearances. I eventually installed the engine mounts higher to resolve those issues. It is the lowest point of my ground clearance and now can be raised higher to make it all parallel. More cutting/grinding/welding.

 

Can't quite tell from the photo, does the pitman arm point straight forward when the wheels are straight?

If not, maybe it should?

 

Just put your Pitman arm pointing to the front instead of the rear and you'll be fine.

 

steer the car all the way to the right. Take a picture of the steering arm, looking straight down, so we can see where the drag link and the king pin are.

And read 1935ply's post again a few times.

 

I'm thinking that is going to be the real issue. Maybe not going over center but you are going to have a lot shorter turning radius in one direction than the other. The feel while steering may not be as constant as it would be with the drag link being parallell with the tie rod. Simply meaning that at places in the lock to lock rotation of the wheel the spindle may be moving at a slightly faster or slower rate than it would otherwise. That may not even be noticeable to the majority of us but may feel twitchy at times.

 

Would a longer pitman arm solve the problem?

 

A longer Pitman arm would increase the steering ratio. This would speed up the steering, and make it heavier.

 

So I guess correct answer would be move box forward and add a couple of u joints to get shaft lower to clear headers.

 

Some more detailed pics from @flamedabone would be good, especially showing the steering box and Pitman arm, but yes, moving the box forward is probably the best solution.

 

I don't think it's the angle of the drag link to the tie rod that's the issue. The pitman arm and the steering arm should be parallel and at right angles to the drag link when the wheels are straight. The pitman arm could be re-clocked to fix the one end, but the steering arm can't.

Gary

 

Like other have said, move box forward,
You will be dealing with death wobble unexpectedly

 

I’d move the box forward.
Never seen one like that.

 

https://www.peteandjakes.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/facts-about-cross-steer.pdf

Sorry it's upside down.

 

I have U bends on the way to make a new header, so I am committed to moving the box. Might have been OK, but it would have bothered me the rest of my life.

Thanks for the input, guys.

-Abone.

 

Then it will steer backwards, steering wheel left, wheels turn right.

 

Well, that may not have been such a long time.

 

"You're a wuss if you don't" fix it so you're not worrying.

 

Leaving it as is might shorten the time you worry about it.
I'd be leery of driving it around the block at low speed.
As an old 1% er once said "It's fucked up like a soup sandwich"

 

Over my 50 plus years playing this car game I've seen this system many times and heard many comments from the bleacher section. To date I have never heard any reply's as to it creating any negative problems or causing a wreck. Does it look weird? Yes. Would I build it that way while in the Fab stage of chassis work? No. But that would only be so I wouldn't have to listen to people making comments without any knowledge of it actually being a problem. If it works and was the easy way to get things together, leave it. I've learned this also, if there isn't something obvious to make comments about, they will look harder to find something. If they can't find it, they will say you paid too much to have it built. If you can't live with it, I'd change it too.