How are you going to hold tension on the small gears? It would seem that at stopped or in an abrupt situation like a quick hard jerk of the wheel to avoid something that a spring tensioner would compress first before transmitting the movement to the wheels.

I would think a threaded adjuster that can be positively locked would be better. Something like is used on a motorcycle drive chain. Maybe I'm trying to over engineer this but to me it's a fascinating piece of ingenuity and I like tight and precise steering feel on my cars.

Tom