Manky's Pop.

[Manky Monkey]

Rose joints ordered & on their way & McGill Motorsports added to the Links for Commercial Purposes list.

[TwistedPatience]

I have been modifying a few parts for Andy's Pop,thougt it was only right I put up photo's.

Have been machining one of the UJ's for the prop shaft.

[TwistedPatience]

Question for  you Andy, is the dimension of 45mm going to be a TIGHT FIT in the tube? It should be

I could really do with the tube it is going to fit.


Finished at 45.07mm

[Manky Monkey]

Hi Doc.
Ahh, now I can see it -the snap you sent to my mobile phone was so tiny on my screen that I couldn't really make it out.
Yes, that's a good fit measurement. The prop shaft's about 3 feet long with a joint in the middle so a bit awkward to post to you!

[Manky Monkey]

Another tiny step forward yesterday.
Loony's busy prepping a V Dub camper van for paint at the moment, so I'm doing all the small jobs I can till he's done. I've been bringing homework back from his workshop to do in my shed. The Pop inner steering shaft is now shortened & welded back together, cut down from about 3 feet long to about 10 inches -why did I file it nice & smooth? It's going to be hidden inside the outer sleeve. Anyway, next job is to attach a universal joint to the end of it. I bought a steering UJ from Chris at Pop Browns. So yesterday I hopped in the car after work & drove 20 miles up the road to Newbury in Berks to a local tool shop. They have a small lathe in the back of the shop & for a couple of quid machined the end of the splined shaft that came with the U.J until it slots inside the end of the steering shaft. I'll weld it up & also drill & pin it just to be sure.

[Manky Monkey]

The steering box will be welded to the underside of the right hand chassis leg, just forward of the engine mount. It's then connected to the wheel on the other side of the car by a linking rod. This is known as cross steering & is apparently the best set-up for minimising bump steer. So after a bit of juggling of parts, I scribbled down some measurements & headed for a welding shop while I was in Newbury. They let me blag their off-cuts of steel, so I picked up a 650mm length of 16mm diameter mild steel bar for a fiver. Then it was back to the tool shop for them to cut 10mm threads on each end while I waited. The rose joints had arrived from McGills, (great service -less than 18 hours from the other end of the country), so I could screw them onto the ends of the bar. Back to LoonyLand to try it all in place.
Woo hoo! it fits! The 2 front wheels are joined by a rod called the "cross link". The steering rod is called a "drag link", (correct me if I'm wrong guys), & should ideally follow the angle of the cross link to avoid the steering being heavier in one direction than the other. So as the cross link lays horizontal to the ground, the drag link should too. With the steering box held in place under the chassis, we measured the distance from the ground up to each end of the rod. Bang on 10 inches both ends, so it'll sit perectly horizontal. Cool!
Next job is to weld the UJ splined fitting in the end of the steering shaft & fit the outer sleeve to the steering box. Then we can tack the box in place on the chassis, attach the drag link & work our way up to the steering column & steering wheel inside the car.
I wouldn't have a clue how to go about this from scratch -looked at loads of hotrods at shows but never really studied the steering geometry. Working through it all bit by bit though, it's all making sense now.

[poprodder]

thats some excelent progress.
seems like you've got everything ok, have you got caster angle set?
are you going to run a panhard rod on the front,as you've split the wishbone?

cheers chris.

[Manky Monkey]

Splined shaft to accept the Universal Joint, welded into the end of the shortened steering column shaft.
We're running 7 degrees of castor, as recommended by Jimmy Hibberd at Valley Gas Speed Shop.
With the transverse spring attached to both the front beam itself & the chassis, it can't really move sideways, so shouldn't need a Panhard rod should it?

[poprodder]

could sway and shimy on shackles.

[Manky Monkey]

Hmm, I'll look into it Chris.

[Manky Monkey]

O.K, looked into & agreed -yes, we do need one. Here's an explanation, found by Brock elsewhere on the 'net.

 http://www.srbymichael.com/help/pete5-1.pdf

Basically, there's a certain amount of sideways movement in the spring shackles, (has to be, otherwise the spring wouldn't be able to move). When cornering, it's possible for the weight of the car to move sideways on the shackles. As one end of the steering drag link's attached to the steering box, which is in turn attached to the chassis, if the car body moves sideways, so will the drag link, pulling on the cross link & increasing the amount of turn. So the car would turn further into the bend than intended -not a good thing.
Easily cured though. A panhard rod is a length of round bar attached to the chassis on the same sid as the steering box & running across to attach to the opposite side of the axle itself. Hopefully I can use a couple of 8mm rose joints I have spare in the shed to attach one end of a 1/2" round bar to the front corner of the chassis, running under the spring perch to attach to the inside face of the axle somewhere near the spring shackle. According to the diagram in that link, the panhard rod needs to be parallel to the drag link to ensure their ends move in similar arcs to eliminate bump steer. So ours will need to sit horizontally,
Thanks for the heads-up on that Chris. I don't pretend to be an expert -I've never built a hotrod before, so this is all an interesting learning curve. 

[brock]

                "....attached to the chassis on the same sid as the steering..."

  is this the same sid as has the dragster ?

[panthershaun]

Could be Sid Little, haven't heard much from him recently 

[Manky Monkey]

Don't you just hate smart erses. 

[panthershaun]

Only when they repeat on you