Ol'fogasaurus black buggy

[Ol'fogasaurus]

Since the steering problem has come up in other posts I took the driver's side front tire off and got back at looking at my steering problem.

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These are the two styles of stock VW. One is splined and one isn't so I changed the orange stock style of connector and splined steering shaft end over to the connector I turned and the shaft end that is on a solid mount.

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I pulled the wheel off and stuck the splined end of the connector onto the steering shaft. I had to tap it down as it is very tight. It isn't all the way in place but enough that I can do some measuring.

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At one time I marked, on the firewall (see the chalk mark) but where things are right now it is in the wrong place... maybe. The measurement from the metal connector to the firewall is roughly 9 1/4" or 9 1/2" but I know it isn't a fully accurate measurement but it gives me an idea. I think, but again I am not sure, that I may not need more than one universal. The body has to come off and the driver's seat needs to be bolted to the floor for that.

Lee

[Ol'fogasaurus]

We've been waiting for a tech to show up for our satellite dish so in the mean time, so as not to get dirty or the garage dirty I have been looking at things. Today was steering and the front beam connection to the firewall.

I have attached the bottom aftermarket beam support to the pan and the beam but not the upper support to the top of the beam and the firewall. In a stock Baja for example it should fit but with the firewall tapered forward and the hood slanting down so low it just won't fit to the beam and under the body's hood. With the 3" body lift I expected things to fit but I guess not after playing with it for a while.

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Not sure what the dimensions of the cuts have to be but they are going to be roughly in these areas. The mount to the firewall might require a taper also. I will put a beam inside of the body, connected to this ending up at the front hoop. A big surprise for me for sure.

Lee

[Ol'fogasaurus]

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I've made a decision on how I would like to run the steering but I have run into a problem: the universal I bought years ago will not fit onto the splines of the/a steering box. The spline hole in the one side of the universal and dia. of the shaft are OK but the hole itself is below the tolerance level of the design and won't slide onto the input shaft of the steering box.

Other than re-boring the hole and then re-splining it does anyone know of a trick to change the hole and still leave the spline count the same. To have it redone it will probably cost more than buying a new one which I really don't want to do. This universal is much stronger than stock and the other end is the same dia. as the steering wheel adapter so I would be using a 7/8" dia. tube.

Lee

[Ol'fogasaurus]

It is looking more and more like I may have to bore (or have it bored or machined) the splined hole to the same dia. as the un-splined hole in the universal (7/8"?) and try to get another properly machined/splined universal.

Lee

[Ol'fogasaurus]

I got looking at the universal in detail last night trying to decide if I wanted to modify it and, if so, how to.

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This is something you don't see often anymore but the head/cap of the screw (one on each side of the universal) slightly overlays the bushing/bearing of the pivot slightly, but just enough, to lock the universal's bushings in place. There are several reasons you don't see it that much but in this case I suspect the loading potential isn't considered to be that much as the material on the two sides of the universal is fairly hefty.

To state the obvious: I am assuming that with the locking screws removed the universal presses apart just like a driveline universal does. I haven't done it yet, for several reasons, as I need some more info on whether to re-bore the hole to size (no splines) or turn (enlarge) the hole area on a lathe. This way I could use the universal on the top of the steering shaft just before the upper bearing to set the angle and height of the steering wheel.

I will still need to get a splined replacement that actually fits to the splines on the steering box input shaft.

Lee

[Ol'fogasaurus]

Got the lawn trimmed and mowed and I had some "me" time so I decided to see if I could take this "thing" apart. To the layman this is an engineer's dream: make something so simple so complicated and when torn apart each of the components become inanimate objects to irritate the pudding out of someone. I never reached this point and am so jealous!

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After a lot of farting around I figured out that the only way to get it apart was by hand and some basic tools. The locking bolts have a coating so they do not back out but make the tool work a bit harder than normal (a good thing). I don't have any tooling that would allow me to use my brake press so I used a vice, a long driver and a light weight ballpeen hammer were all used... but carefully!

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You have to be fairly careful as the caps have little tinny-tiny roller bearings in them so be warned and be careful (remember these are inanimate objects and it is their duty to drive you crazy. Also the universal legs are faily short and will want to walk on you.

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This is the area I have to work in. The jam screw and nut are shown but will not be used.

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This is the area I am going to have to try to machine for the tube I am planning on using. Notice the notch on both flange legs.

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This shows the bearing on the universal and the one mounting flange I will be able to use w/o mods.

Lee

[Ol'fogasaurus]

Talked to my machinist this am and he didn't know how the splines were made, broached or what ever but did give me an address of another machinist that might know. He did mention that he thought the universal parts might have been heat treated which is another $$$ thing I hadn't thought about (I should know better too).

I bought the universal quite a few years ago for something in the mid-$30's but the rework of the one part is probably going to be more than that then there would be the cost of re-heat treating... if necessary.

I wonder if it was designed to work with R&P instead of the stock VW splined input to the steering box.

Oh double &%#$R@&* !!!!

Lee

[ninelives17]

Might come out cheaper to just buy another one that fits..... good luck with it though.

[Ol'fogasaurus]

Might come out cheaper to just buy another one that fits..... good luck with it though.

Yeah, that is about what my research amounts to, unless... the next one has the same problem. Kind of like I am scared to but at the same time I need to do it.

Lee

[Ol'fogasaurus]

I haven't given up on the steering just too many other necessary things to do around the house to work on the buggy; like taking down a tree that is close to a street and a 6 box group of mail boxes which is on the side walk on the edge of a busy, wide 2-way street that is at an increasing/decreasing incline. The street too often has walkers, pet walkers, bikers of all ages on it a good percentage of the time so I have to denude it of branches then take it down piece by piece

I am still playing with options on the steering connection to the steering box. It is looking, for some reason, that I am going to have to make a bunch of stuff I didn't plan on making. I need to get some answers to questions I have:

I am still constipating about the support for the steering shaft as it goes through a bushing for support. Is the bushing supposed to float as there is a covered fill hole or just what.

Also, the connection to the stock steering shaft is still buffaloing me. I did some additional checking and the hole size and splined connection that doesn't fit my steering box is also supposed to fit a R&P steering box also. Not sure what the next step is going to be but I have some ideas but not sure if the material I think I need is available locally.

Lee

[Ol'fogasaurus]

I've been too busy doing "honey-do's" to work much on the buggy but it is still on my mind most of the time. With the help of a neighbor I did get the tree I was playing with topped w/o damage to the group of mail boxes or dog walkers, strollers or cars on the street. The neighbor who wanted the wood off the tree trunk came over and we finished off the removal of the trunk.

I did get the driver's side front wheel back on so the buggy could be rolled back a couple of inches allowing me to open and close the garage door on that side w/o tearing a belt loops off again on the door handle.

If I can get some help from the "trunk" neighbor the body will come off again so I can finish up with some of the cage mockup connections and fuel tank mount locating it to the access hole in the body and making the mount fit to the cross bar of the truss bar idea I am playing with. I also have to see where the cross-bar's connection to the cage will be and how much body cutting for both the steering shaft and the truss connection to the cage.

Lee

[Ol'fogasaurus]

Got some garage time today. The neighbor across the street came over and helped lift the cage off the buggy, pulled the seats out then took the body off the pan and got it back onto the storage cart. I did some garage clean up, moving stuff around then got everything back in the garage (a miracle) and the pan back up on the dollies.

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To help check things out (relationship to the driver's seat) I put together a set of aftermarket universals that are supposedly the same as stock.

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Looking at things I didn't really like what I saw so I put a fairly tight fitting tube on the out-shaft and this is what I got. The angle of deflection is just a couple of degrees so I am debating leaving it is (stock-ish) as it is or do it right: e.g., $$$ or $$$.

I am re-charging my camera battery to show something else that turned up that I was kind of expecting, I will post it later today.

Lee

I found a stock steering shaft but while it is a close fit to the universal it isn't that close. I did find some tube that would fit over the end of it that got me to the steering shaft mount so with the slop the travel would be over 4". Half that would still (probably) get me below the dash on the buggy.

Lee

[Ol'fogasaurus]

This is the second set of pix I said I would post:

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This shows the angle of the steering column with the short extension on it. I haven't made the drop yet to mount the column to nor have I sat in it yet to see what is going on. But I think that will be tomorrow for sure.

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This is the rear truss bar cross mount that I have been playing with showing the adapter to the inside of the shock mount. It does not align well with the mockup of the cage but....

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... if I move the adapter to the outboard side of the crosspiece things look a bit different. I may have to redo the truss cross-piece as I hadn't thought about going outboard for the attachment. Also I think I need to duplicate it's wall thickness with the cage's wall thickness which was a condern when I started this. One of the reasons that the truss connector pieces were just tacked in place.

Still some debate with myself about it but at least there are some newly known facts now.

Lee

I see the need for one more photo but that will have to be when I figure out how I want to do it and what scrap I have left laying around.

[Ol'fogasaurus]

We are in a "stay inside" advisory for the next couple of days due to the smoke from the CA fires. Last night the sunset was pink then later ,in the early morning, the moon and stars were yellow.

Anyway, back to the subject. I got thinking about checking my scrap bin to see what I had in tubing again and found several short pieces that I thought I could fit together to get me close to the cage and was going to try to fit them together with sleeves and the such (I needed the mockup pretty straight for the fit check) then got the epiphany of using masking tape.

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This shows the "tape" job I did. I wrapped the tape 'till I got a good enough fit when sliding the one tube into another then wrapped the join. Originally I had another tube but it was the same dia. as the mockup pieces I made years ago. The last and longest piece of tube is the DOM piece for the spherical rod ends to be fitted to when things are all worked out. It slides down the other tubes and rests against the rectangular tube making a pretty good fit check.

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This shows detail in the fitting and the end locations of the truss tube to fit into the rear hoop of the cage. Not the best but not bad. If I extended the rectangular tube out some at each end it might work.

The location it comes in I am not real happy with as it is too low on the tube but if I was doing real racing vs. cruising and playing around the story MIGHT be different. I still have to add the diagonal tube on the rear of the cage and the fore and aft tubes on each side but that is another story.

For what it is worth...

Lee

Since the buggy sat outside for a while got a lot of comments on using the thumb screws on the cage mockup .

Lee

[Ol'fogasaurus]

CWB did this cage but it is (I think) for a race car not a touring buggy but it is similar to what I am thinking.

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Since I have different problems and want (maybe not get) the cage to be removable I have to look at CWB's design a bit differently.

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The shows the front upper front beam support that goes to the firewall in place and the straight part is level. It won't fit as it as the front "hood" (sic) is too low so I will have to figure a way to make one. As you can see there is a string that is parallel to the floor and hooks to the rear cage hoop but for some silly reason it is not level while the buggy, as it sits is.

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This is a rough in of what I think I am going to have to do. The seat is close to the body so the tube will have to go under it if I want the cage to be removable. Notice the body lift... the flanges on this body do not curl to the outside like most FG bodies do but curl to the inside which negates me from mounting the cage on the body lift for extra strength (I am sure I could figure away around it like making the mounts short with a cage join on all of them like most of the SXSs do).

Anyway, CWB's Baja has given me some ideas to look into.

Lee

Just noticed a goof. On the body lift there are two pieces of tape which are the ends of the seat in the most forward position and the rear position so the tubes will have to come down in those areas then the spreader will have to be figured out to either be of one piece hoop to hoop or a spreader between the two down tubes.

Lee