Steering clearance mods / Chain Steering

Oh I know a whole bunch of folks will find all kinds of fault but I ran into this on a rat rod board and find it to be a great idea on how to deal with engine fitment and the steering shaft, instead of your limiting factory be what fits and doesn't interfere with that, you could ignore all.

Put in the engine where you want it, the header n exhaust you want, put the steering wheel anywhere you want for comfort and only need to make sure and have a bit of firewall room.

Cause it can't be any worse then when ya seen someone has 2-3 joints and several supports to zig-zag the stock rod around some headers.

 

Yeah and alot of those guys run old drum brakes and no seat belts. Just because a hot rodder does something doesn't make it smart.

 

that sure looks safe. NOT!

 

Good idea for a farm idea. Bad idea for a street driven vehicle. Might look good at a car show but I wouldn't want to rely on it for steering.

The "2-3 joints and several supports" is far better and safer.

 

Why not use a tiller!
I can imagine the lag in steering response that must have!!

BTW, i see one u-joint on that system, bet it has another at the steering box.

 

I think I once saw something like that but it used gears instead of chains, a better way to do it for sure.

 

Kinda cool either way. I like funky stuff like that for old rods.

 

FWD trans axles use a chain to pull, not too far off that. Get a quality dust cover, fill it with grease and that should be fine. Assuming you use quality chain

Not sure how that design would work on a 3rd gen though

 

I saw that on HOT ROD TV. That was done by a pretty well respected hot rod shop.

 

Transaxles don't have to worry about backlash.

 

I'd trust it. I mean I do trust a chain to keep my motor in time... I'm sure if done properly this could be a completely viable option

 

As well as all the transfer cases using chains to drive the front axles of 4x4 trucks...

It's far from optimum but its kind of cool.

 

Those are backlash-free applications again. Chains have their places, I'm just not sure that in the middle of a responsive steering system is one of them.

 

As it was explained on the show, that hot rod has a WW2 aircraft theme to it. They wanted to do away with the steering column and use something similar to a WW2 bomber control wheel.

If someone can find some more pics, you'll see what I mean.

 

Why not just use hydraulic steering?

Danfoss boxes will steer even if the motor stalls and it has no pressure.

BTW, on cars that have two steering wheels (i.e, instructor cars) they are linked together via a chain.

-- Joe

 

If anyone is interested in more info on the hydraulic steering, heres an in depth read on Pirate4x4:

http://www.pirate4x4.com/tech/billav...ng/index3.html

http://www.pirate4x4.com/tech/billav...ng/index2.html

I must admit though, the lack of a steering shaft may raise a few eyebrows for vehicle safety inspections.

 

atleast its two chains one breaks he has time to soil his pants before he pull over