Building a T-Bucket, Supercharged BMW V8 with NOS

[SuperBuickGuy]

steering - I'd say slide a tube over and pin in it, but too late for that... however, tube/weld/pin would add a great deal of safety to that butt weld. Because of the long shaft - there's a tremendous amount of stress at the joint (think chassis flex). Mechanically tying them together by drill and pin (or set screw) will give you enough bite to at least get the car off the road safely if the weld breaks.

[ejs262]

steering - I'd say slide a tube over and pin in it, but too late for that... however, tube/weld/pin would add a great deal of safety to that butt weld. Because of the long shaft - there's a tremendous amount of stress at the joint (think chassis flex). Mechanically tying them together by drill and pin (or set screw) will give you enough bite to at least get the car off the road safely if the weld breaks.

This isn't meant to sound like I disagree, because I don't, but I will add that this car appears to be very light, I suspect that the load on the steering components would be fairly low relative to the kinds of things you and I are working on.

[Mykk]

steering - I'd say slide a tube over and pin in it, but too late for that... however, tube/weld/pin would add a great deal of safety to that butt weld. Because of the long shaft - there's a tremendous amount of stress at the joint (think chassis flex). Mechanically tying them together by drill and pin (or set screw) will give you enough bite to at least get the car off the road safely if the weld breaks.

I do agree, and considered it. Unfortunately that entire steering shaft needs to slide through a seal on the gearbox. I got lucky that both the steering shaft and input shaft of the gearbox were both .75"

[SuperBuickGuy]

This isn't meant to sound like I disagree, because I don't, but I will add that this car appears to be very light, I suspect that the load on the steering components would be fairly low relative to the kinds of things you and I are working on.

I've actually seen it happen - thankfully the car veered into the center, grass strip of the freeway and he got it stopped...in a similar car with a smaller motor.

I do agree, and considered it. Unfortunately that entire steering shaft needs to slide through a seal on the gearbox. I got lucky that both the steering shaft and input shaft of the gearbox were both .75"

sometimes winging it is the only option - what I was suggesting seems to allow sliding it all together, then cutting a tube in half, fitting it over the shaft, welding the tube back together then pinning through that sleeve when it's all assembled (and yes, it would be an utter pain to if you ever needed to get it apart). That tube wouldn't hold it together unless the shaft broke then would give you control to get it somewhere safe.

just my :2cents: everything else on the car is top notch and I'm certain if I saw it in person that I'd likely agree with what you're doing here too...

[Mykk]

Today's Project: Mock up of the cowl steering. Please note, I will final TIG all the welds, My 135 MIG is good for tacking things in place and welding small tabs & brackets, but not much more then that.

















I still need to order to correct length rod, this one is my steering tie rods at the wheels just for mock up.

The angle of the rod isn't ideal. At this point it is what it is, I'm expecting bump steer.

Edit: It was brought to my attention, that since the tie rod is not in axis with the spindle & kingpin it'll have uneven steering sharpness from left to right since it's already into the radius of the kingpin. I'll do the hard math on the actual parts soon and see what the difference would be. If it's not drastic I can live with that.

[Captain]

Just Saying from experience,
the gusset with the three holes on the draglink
might turn into "Whistles" at speed......
It took me 2 weeks to find where that high pitched whistling was coming from,
Used a Mr. Gasket Throttle Cable bracket for my outside mirror...

[Mykk]

I'm afraid my steering linkage is a fail. It welded together well enough, but unfortunately taking the tie-rod out of the spindle axis made for an uneven left vs right turning ratio. The wheel would turn faster right and slower turning left.



Also, that steering rod angle from the pitman arm would make for some bad bump steer.

After thinking on it for a couple of days. I've decided to get the headlights off the steering arms, fab a new steering arm that will raise the tie rod to get the steering rod angle correct as well as keep it in the spindle axis. Then make new headlight mounts off the frame, lower, so that the new steering arm will clear over top of the headlight housing.

[Captain]

Just a idea,
make the drag link a "Z" bar.
they make them for 4x4's with high lift kits.
something like this, (excuse the caveman art)

[Mykk]

I'm afraid a Z bar would do the same thing for the geometry & bump steer as a straight rod:

[SuperBuickGuy]

Just a idea,
make the drag link a "Z" bar.
they make them for 4x4's with high lift kits.
something like this, (excuse the caveman art)

we Z bar the cross arm to reduce the angle on the tie rod end. Tie rods do not like much, if any, angle. It won't affect bump steer. The long rod should help eliminate bump steer... it's short arms and big tires that cause dangerous bump steer. With those little tires, I seriously doubt it will be an issue.

The problem with a Z bar is you take a great deal of strength out of the cross bar because it can deflect at both bends - again, I don't see any of that being much of an issue with your car - ultimately the change in direction is what will do the most to prevent bump steer...

[Mykk]

I made a thing today, it's big and goofy but it works.











Correct pitman arm & steering rod on order. I think I'll drill some tapered dress up holes on the backside to match and blend in the piece with the rest of the vehicle.

[DanStokes]

Looks like that ought to work.

Dan

[Mykk]

Got her fired up for the first time last weekend, still needs extensive tuning:

https://youtu.be/bv2v7qUwN60

https://youtu.be/M8rLEa3RDeg

[DanStokes]

BIG like on that! Good to hear it.

Dan

[Mykk]

Filled up the cooling system, the car said nope. There is a coolant passage in the valley of the block that has a top plate, it didn't seal. Tore the top end down again, hope I can sneak that plate out & in without removing coolant tubes. Isn't German engineering fun?!





With the replacement gaskets on order I figure now was a good time to finish welding the mufflers to the headers.

For a while now my lincoln 135 has been laying down some really ugly welds, I figured it had to be me and my lack of welding experience. Turned out a wire terminal had fallen off the gas solenoid in the welder. Found the issue, the Argon/Co2 mix flows freely now and the welds look better, although still inexperienced on my part.



As a temporary experiment, for some added sound control I plugged off the straight thru tube running down the center of the auger mufflers. If it sounds good and doesn't choke the exhaust too much I may find a permanent solution. Otherwise I'm interested in seeing these brass freeze plugs shooting out the pipes after some heat expansion.



In the name of covering up my booger welds..., I mean, exhaust heat management to step in & out of the bucket. The pipes are double wrapped with two layers of header wrap, plus those big rig heat shields.



With the vacuum leaks, oil leaks, coolant leaks & exhaust leaks all sealed up I can then let the engine come up to operating temperatures and begin the process of tuning.

Speaking of un-tuned:

https://youtu.be/KXYmC-_l6HI