So how does a steering column work?
So how does a steering column work?
The steering column was set up for a column shifter. As such, at the end near the wheel there is a large slot in the cone for the shifter lever which is no longer used. Likewise at the engine compartment end, there is a whole mess of stuff where the levers came out and shifted stuff. I would like to clean that up, so I took a bunch of things apart, and I have very little idea how to put it back together, nor have I been able to actually accomplish the goal. So unless I physically cut off the levers at the end, and purchase a new cone bit with no slot, I can't actually make it happen.
So how do I proceed without just buying another column? Do I source the individual parts? Visit a junkyard? Buy a tilt-wheel van column and clean it up? Spend the dough to get an aftermarket one?
Golly, I should have just left it there.
I think the right answer is a JY special, some on car-part from four speed floor shift trucks of the same generation (no key on the column). I can get that for fifty-ish dollaroos, and it seems to be the only thing to "fix" the problems I have with it.
Two questions remain.
1: What do you paint a column? Body color or black?
2: Can I really sell my bowl like this guy is???
No comments on the column stuff, eh?
Well, I sourced a rag-joint-less intermediate shaft, and I also have located but not yet bought a replacement column from a manual floor shift truck. I am still not sure what to paint it though, but it should be a roller again soon.
I also have an easy swaybar solution planned, agaian.
My color choice would be to match the rest of the painted parts of the interior.
IIRC, that generation of p/u has a lot of exposed steel inside doesn't it?
tuna55 said:No comments on the column stuff, eh?
Well, I sourced a rag-joint-less intermediate shaft, and I also have located but not yet bought a replacement column from a manual floor shift truck. I am still not sure what to paint it though, but it should be a roller again soon.
I also have an easy swaybar solution planned, agaian.
Black goes with everything. Especially if you are fixing it by cutting, grinding, welding, I'd want t as low key as possible.
While I wait on steering column parts, I decided to take a moment to re-explore my swaybar options.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9W8VamDsl0
That won't work without a totally sketchy modification because the arms are not long enough. Unless someone has some other idea.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cW2VzO4QsOc
That won't work -either- it turns out that the bar wants to move closer to the axle than GM intended, and also either the arm needs to bend more, or the arms need to be longer yet.
I need a swaybar with an arm about a foot long, and a horizontal reach of like 56". Does anyone know where I can manage something like that without going to the JY again to measure everything?
Last night we found out our farm CSA is closing and has $1500 of ours for the year. One kid had a panic attack about a stomach ache I am pretty sure he made up, one kid would not shower, and everyone screamed at me because of all of it.
So I got precious little time to stare at the swaybar, but I did stare at it. I was searching for a hole where I could put one closer to the control arm. Happily, I did find one, beneath the oil pan, but I believe it to be too close, and the arm would sort of connect to the rear of the arm, so no bueno.
I am stuck either making a neato bracket for the control arm so it has more forward reach (in front of the tie rod) or searching for yet another swaybar with longer reach.
Had to look up “farm CSA”. Sounds like a farmer selling contracts with no downside risk to him. Good gig if you can get it.
I like the idea of the food collective but with a family tha expects the same appearance/quality level on a tomato that they would on a new car, it would not work out.
Pete
In reply to NOHOME :
It's worked splendidly for eight years. Cheap local food with no pesticides etc.
In reply to tuna55 :
I get it. In return for keeping my mouth shut, the Redhead lets me do pretty much whatever I want in My garage.
Pete
Good news everyone!
So I have a plan, and even some plans for a bracket.
Two revisions of CAD
Then I realized that my grinder had no cutoff wheels and my jigsaw had no metal blades, but I tried to make it with the sawzall
Tunawife said it sounded like someone was using the wrong tool for the job. She was right. I stopped.
That's not a Sawzall, for starters... ;-)
NOHOME said:I like the idea of the food collective but with a family tha expects the same appearance/quality level on a tomato that they would on a new car, it would not work out.
We go to a local farm stand and often times they have baskets of produce labeled "#2". We buy it all the time and honestly can't figure out what's "#2" about it. The level of visual perfection that people expect in something that grows out of the Earth is astonishing.
volvoclearinghouse said:NOHOME said:I like the idea of the food collective but with a family tha expects the same appearance/quality level on a tomato that they would on a new car, it would not work out.
We go to a local farm stand and often times they have baskets of produce labeled "#2". We buy it all the time and honestly can't figure out what's "#2" about it. The level of visual perfection that people expect in something that grows out of the Earth is astonishing.
Pretty tomatoes never taste like tomatoes.
grover said:volvoclearinghouse said:NOHOME said:I like the idea of the food collective but with a family tha expects the same appearance/quality level on a tomato that they would on a new car, it would not work out.
We go to a local farm stand and often times they have baskets of produce labeled "#2". We buy it all the time and honestly can't figure out what's "#2" about it. The level of visual perfection that people expect in something that grows out of the Earth is astonishing.
Pretty tomatoes never taste like tomatoes.
Mrs. VCH plants around a hundred tomato plants every year in her garden. Few, if any, look anything like a store tomato. Few, if any, also taste like a store tomato.
Bang on, grover. Bang on.
I could care less what a tomato looks like. They all look the same after i get done putting them in my sauce.
Tuna: what thickness of steel are you using for the mounts?
It’s scrap I had laying around, roughly 0.100”. Not super thick. I hope it’s enough.
It's not going to be enough. The issue is that I can't really bend up the thickness I would want, being roughly 1/4", in the garage. Thoughts?
Cut and weld. Thats how i wound up making my 3/16 roll cage plates.
In reply to Dusterbd13 :
yup, I'll buy some stuff and get it done that way.
BFH and a Vise? leave the piece long so you have more leverage, hammer it into the angle you want.
Then trim it to shape.
I think I am changing my mind. I may instead build a bracket off the front of the control arm, so the swaybar endlink goes more-or-less straight down, and the bracket lives on the control arm instead. Still thinking. I may make this quickly with the material I have to see if I like it.
Again?
Yeah, I think if I get a link like this one
Then I won't have to build any brackets. If you're keeping track at home, buying one of these would bring me to two swaybars and five endlinks.
I think this not because I fear building brackets, but because I want a very direct path to the control arm so the swaybar can actually work and not bind.
That's from a 03-05 Ford Expedition. Feb's budget will probably have me buying one and trying it.
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