Got a bit more done today .....made a start on the steering and nearly finished it ...I've about an hour left to do on it ...
I needed to change the angle of the steering due to engine setback and Grahams exhaust choice , a straight path wasn't easily achievable ... I could have gotten away with one u/j to change direction , but felt the column and wheel would be too upright , fine on a Hot Rod , but the cars of this style and era tended to have columns nearer the horizontal with slight inclines and not the 45 degrees that one u/j would have created ...
So , with the help of a pair of TR6 u/j's and a spare inner column from a Herald , I first cut the upper column off , both inner and outer , added one u/j to the bottom of this using the spare inner to create an inner sleeve , the flat section was used so the cottle pin bolt could go in and it was bolted up tight and then fully welded ....then another piece of the inner was welded to the bottom of the u/j , an outer section sleeved over it and fully welded , but leaving the splines exposed .....the outer aluminium colum that had been shortened was fitted with an oil lite bearing at the base to replace the rubber bush that was cut off ..
I then made the centre section using the second u/j , slipped a rose joint over the first part and clamped the lower part on using splines and pinch bolt ..this means the column can be split to remove it easily and the rose joint can be taken off if required ..
I mounted the column to the stock mount on the frame , the second bracket that normally bolts to the bulkhead was hung from a suspended steel plate , the rose joint has been bolted through a plate bolted up through the bulkhead just to the left of the pedal mounts ...see picture ..
Although its all working fine , there is a bit of twist on the rose joint bracket where it flexes through the thin bulkhead ...so I need to brace and re-inforce the bracket and its mounting plate , making it wider to spread the load a bit better .....also , although the lower shaft is straight and turns fine , it flexes a little due to its extra length and the fact they are generally pretty spindlely from the factory ...so I think I'm going to add an extra rose joint along its length mounted off a bracket attached to my inner wing framework , just to give it a bit of extra support ...
I think the revised column angle is much better now ...