Hey guys, quick question.

Is there any problem with twisting the stock steering box down to help with clearance of the steering shaft and race bracing?

The tierods can just be adjusted in to compensate for the lower angle on the control arm with no problems right?
Thanks!
Pat

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ive done that befor it will be ok as long as it not bound up. i put a universal joint at the steering box.

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"It is easy to be brave from a safe distance."

Ah, that makes life easier, thanks!

Yeah, that's what I'm going to do, but my universal joint has a different number of splines (36 i think?) than my steering box, so I guess I'm going to weld an adapter on the box for it to work...just more time.

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Get me that hammer, pronto!

you can drill a hole threw it and put a bolt threw it. just a idea.

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"It is easy to be brave from a safe distance."

bump steer check toe in at full drop and full compresion the difference is dump steer you dont want any difference. this is controlled by steering box location/angle if it get to far out directional contoll could become a problem

Gotcha. Anyone know how much is allowable? Because I don't anticipate having my front end together for a little while yet.
I've seen some buggies with the steering box shaft completely horizontal. Is this acceptable?
Thanks kendel.

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Get me that hammer, pronto!

ok what is your set up? link pin ball joint? wider? longer arms? rack and pinion? stock box? centered off set give em somthing to work with

Ah yes, I guess that would make sense.
Balljoint. Everything's stock.

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Get me that hammer, pronto!

braceing can be put up out of the way

Yeah, I've seen some nice setups like that, but I would like to be able to have the front brace tubes come from the cross bar out to the top rails close to the beam mounts, instead of going to the bumper, if you know what I mean.
I will go the other way if I have to, but I like that way better for some reason.
Thanks.

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the cross bar is bent up to give more depth/clearence ect... would that do it? bracing is also higher at the center regardless of where it terminates

Yes, that takes care of the clearance around the center of the steering shaft, but my problem spot is where the x-brace terminates at the driver's side in the front. If I were to run it to a place where the upper rail of the buggy bends down to the beam mount, as the steering box is angled now, it would run directly into the shaft and there isn't really any local place that I could put it so that it would miss it (at the current angle) unless I incorporated it into the front bumper.

Thanks for sticking with me. I would've taken the time to draw it out and post it, but I have dialup and would be tieing up the phone line for an hour, haha.

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Get me that hammer, pronto!

Thru notch that brace and pass the steering shaft thru the brace in a larger tube?

Yeah, I might just end up integrating it into the bumper.

But does anyone know if bumpsteer becomes a problem if the steering box is turned down to a near-horizontal position?
I'm sure someone out there knows!

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Get me that hammer, pronto!

Put your beam on the frame with out the leaves in. Take the shocks off,put the steering in stock location. Using a jack to suport the front set toe in at ride height,lower the car to full compresion recheck toe in that should give you an acurate idea of stock setting. move the box to where you want to run it and recheck to up and down that will tell you what you need to know and kill a couple hours

Let us know your results!

Alright, so I made my measurements in a very primitive way, but it gave me the answer I needed.

Basically, from the few different approaches I tried, I got around the same results: With the shaft of the steering box horizontal, the bump steer is 5 times worse than in the stock location!

That is, if where you measured showed that the toe-in throughout the suspension travel at the stock angle was 1/4", then the the amount of change of toe when positioned horizontally would be 1-1/4" through the same amount of travel.

Therefore, I'm going to have to suck it up and design different bracing for the front.
Thanks kendel.

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Get me that hammer, pronto!

[quote='kendel']Thru notch that brace and pass the steering shaft thru the brace in a larger tube?[/quote]

Thru notch that brace and pass the steering shaft thru the brace in a larger tube?

Well, I plan on moving to a stronger box/rack in the future, so I want to do something that would look good either way.
Sorry, didn't mean to ignore that.

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Get me that hammer, pronto!