1. pros and cons of center mount vs. stock location mount of a stock box ?

2. i'm thinking of using aluminum either solid rod or thick walled tubing drilled and tapped for tie rods if it will hold up ?

3. what is everybody making there steering shafts out of ( the chrome ones most buggy shops carry are pretty heavy ) ?

4. unrelated to steering, but does anybody know how much difference it is weight wise between a stock vw k/p beam and a stock width warrior k/p beam w/8" towers and adjusters (just bare beams as arms, spring plates, etc. should be the same) ?

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Just Stand On It!!!!

Chris

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Of all the things I've lost, I miss my mind the most.
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maybe it was just the way they were installed but i have had 2 buggys with racks and hated both of them in the woods, one was a saco and the other looked just like it but i didnt see a name on it but didnt really look for one either besides ive already got 4 or 5 used vw boxes on the shelf plus 1 new trw box

and as far as the steering shaft ive never welded any stainless and i may be wrong but dont it have to be tig welded, another "toy" i dont have or even know how to use for that fact

i do like the idea of the dirt car tie rod setup

but i was wandering how well heims would hold up?

the teflon lined heims i had on my rock crawler had a good bit of wear already in them when i bought it and the guy said that he had only finished building it about a year prior

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Just Stand On It!!!!

Chris

Put some boots over them to keep the shit out, no bearing likes running in grit, I like the neoprene ones myself:



We use an old torsion bar for the steering shaft, with mating splines on the other knuckle, so that it can slide on the splines in the event of hitting something solid with the front.

Goto motion and order heims with grease fittings, that will greatly help the life. Im running the dirt car tie rods myself on tuff-e - nuff. I originally built some out of 3/4 hex stock but decided it was to heavy...

and as far as the steering shaft ive never welded any stainless and i may be wrong but dont it have to be tig welded, another "toy" i dont have or even know how to use for that fact

you can weld stainless with a mig.... done it many times

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Smith

I welded my stainless headers with mig,,,but it is something to do with magnetic stainless

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If your clutch ain't slippin,, you probably got it adjusted right!!!!!

I run AFCO tie rods and aluminum heims. I have a couple years on them with no signs of wear.

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Maybe you should chug on over to mamby pamby land....

Where did you get those boots. They look way cheaper than new heims.

Rack & Pinion box is great on road, but hard on the driver off road since it has less reduction. After all weekend riding 8 or more hours a day (and night) you feel like you have been running a jackhammer. Every tree root and medium sized rock will threated to tear the wheel out of your hand. Especially if you are using the other one to hold your cutting brake, shifter, or beer. If you buy the rack... be prepared to buy the rest of a power steering system or a new set of wrists.

The cheapy (not that cheap) racks are a 1:1 ratio, but you can get a saco or find a used wright rack with 1.5:1 ratio (what i'm running) that helps out a lot, then you put a torque generator on it and you can drive for hours with a beer in one hand or even steer with your knees if you feel the need! It doesn't have to be expensive either. I think I have about $300 in adding power steering to my buggy after I had a rack on it. You can find the torque generator on old forklifts and I used a power steering pump off a '83 honda accord for $50 and then you just need to get lines made.

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Maybe you should chug on over to mamby pamby land....

I get them from McGill Motorsports over here, but I'm sure there's a supplier over there too, they actually do a tighter fitting, slightly thicker one now too for heavy duty use, I'll get a photo later.
As you can see I zip-tie them shut on the misalignment spacers and allen heads of the bolts, after pumping them with a couple of CC of grease through a syringe.
Last a good few years like that, we've a pair on the torsion arms at the back that are 8 years old and still going strong!

As for power steering, we weld the quill valve from a Peugeot 306 on the shaft, run a ram on the bottom of the rack (1.5:1 centre mount), and feed the system with an electric pump from a Peugeot 106. About £100 in bits. Hard to get over there but that's what ebay international is for