Audit help request

[wrp]

I bought my kit used and it had been put together hastily so potential buyers could see it. The seller warned me to take it completely apart and rebuild it from the ground up. Of course I couldn't take such excellent advice. To be fair I did take a year to pull it mostly apart and reassemble it. Got it registered last Friday took it out and curbed it when the steering shaft fell off the steering wheel assembly. Fortunately worse damage was my pride though I screwed up the lower A arm on the passenger side.

So I stopped and really poured through the instructions and removed the entire steering assembly except for the steering box. I found a couple of problems that contributed to the fiasco not the least of which the fitment of the knuckle just outside the firewall's retaining screw and no locktite. So I have put the appropriate set screw in the firewall knuckle and locktited everything else. Would appreciate it if you guys that really know what you are doing take a moment and peel through my pics to see if anything looks awry. Also any suggestions would be appreciated.

Here is a question. When you put the se3t screw in, it leaves a witness mark on the shaft rod. Anyone ever drill a 1/32 inch how e over the witness mark to give the set screw a place to bite?

Steering Column to firewall inside
Steering-7.jpgSteering-8.jpg

Firewall knucle
Steering-9.jpgSteering-3.jpg

Frame Bearing
Steering-4.jpgSteering-17.jpgSteering-18.jpg

Steering Box
Steering-5.jpgSteering-6.jpg

[michael everson]

In your first picture, I notice the shaft is protruding pretty far into the joint. Make sure its not hitting as you rotate the steering column.
on the 4th picture, I cannot tell if the bearing retainer is installed correctly. The bearing should be sandwiched between the bearing retainer plates with nothing in between. Not one on each side of the firewall. This will cause excessive slop in the bearing. It looks like from the picture that its installed wrong.
Mike

[Jeff Kleiner]

I'm not as familiar with the Hot Rod steering shaft as Mike is but I noticed the same thing on the bearing retainer---when zooming in on the photo it certainly appears to be sandwiching the firewall which is incorrect.

Jeff

[wrp]

Thanks. I bought the kit partially assembled. The polished firewall is not from the original kit. The plate under the collar seems to be reinforcement for the metal firewall surface. Unless I am misunderstanding, nothing is sandwiched. I will correct the overextended shaft

Steering-19.jpgSteering-20.jpg

[michael everson]

ok. Maybe they lost the back part of the bearing retainer and they are using the other plate to take its place. Can you tell if the retainer is one piece or two pieces stacked together? It should be 2 identical pieces sandwiching the actual bearing.

[wrp]

I think what you are really telling me is that I need to pull the entire bearing off and check it. There are no drawings, schematics or diagrams that indicate to me what the components of the bearing and sleeve assembly are. Blowing up the last photo I can see clearly the firewall, what looks like a lip from the middle plate attached to the firewall on the outside, the bearing assembly (I presume, which appears to be sandwiched between the plate mounted to the firewall and the outer plate. The bolts and lock nuts appear to sandwich both plates and the bearing to the firewall.

Steering-20.jpg

[michael everson]

Here is a picture of the bearing 3 pieces.



And this is how it should be assembled. Note the 2 halves have been deliberately skewed so you can see them.




Line them up when bolted to the firewall. Both halves should be on the outside of the firewall.
Mike

[wrp]

Thanks I really appreciate that

[wrp]

So I pulled the entire steering shaft assembly, steering whee, steering column, and steering Universal joint. I pulled the bearing at the firewall. In the picture there are two plates just like the examples you have shown. The aftermarket firewall is thinner than the kit component firewall so the larger rear plate was fabricated to give it a larger contact patch. The two F5R plates encase the bearing and are mounted to the larger round plate then to the firewall. It is not sandwiched on the firewall. both plates and the bearing are assembled just like the recommendation. Check this picture out.

Steering-2.jpg

[michael everson]

Perfect.
Mike

[wrp]

Thanks Mike. We got her on a rack Saturday and went over everything with a fine tooth comb. Car lined up perfectly. I had to replace the Factory Five top steering joint with a Borgeson unit. I like the double set screws. We dimpled the contact point beneath the set screws and locktited them. They are not moving. Also I corrected that one joint where the shaft stuck too far into the joint. I think the real issue I had was using a long set screw on the outside of the firewall joint where it met the bearing. The collar contacted the set screw and pulled the joint off the shaft connection to the steering wheel. That one is on me for not checking it in the first place. After double checking the entire running suspension we aligned it. The car actually lined up better than the first attempt before we curbed it. We were spot on all the way around, I guess the lick did it some good. While we were there. Gary who did the alignment and who is an old school mech helped me tweak the carb and we played with the timing. The car runs great now.

Steering-22.jpgSteering-23.jpg

[wrp]

Also stopped by a local car show. video starts out with an awesome boost C1 blasting off. I couldn't get a good shot of him.

[DarthTedious]

Glad you posted this thread, I just realized I did my bearing wrong and sandwiched the firewall!

[wrp]

I'm still not 100% happy with my setup. I have lactated it and it is problematic to get it back apart and redo it the way I want to.