Thread: Steering Woes

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I have a 47 Ford convertible with a
heidts cross member and a Flaming river
power rack with dd shafts an adapter
with a ujoint for the rack a double ujoint
in the center of the dd shafts with support bearings on both sides and a vibration damper connected to the steering column. The total angle is aprox 42 deg This setup is binding when turning
the steering wheel to the right.please help me find a solution to this problem

Can you post some pictures? Hard to say what's wrong sight unseen.

Buy one of the double universals. One universal by itself is only good for a maximum of 35 degrees deflection. Flaming river and Borgeson both sell a double universal joint that will allow up to 70 degree deflection.

And since you didn't mention it, check your phasing (note the relative orientation of the joints to one another):
http://www.borgeson.com/U-JointOrientation.htm
http://www.borgeson.com/systemdesign.htm

I posted some pctures of my steering linkage One is with a single ujoint
in the center The other is a double ujoint. I havent had any luck with
either set up it still binds

Does it bind without all those shims under one or both of the pillow blocks? Have you been adding those shims to correct the bind and has it worked to any degree?

Have you tried turning the steering at the first brg. with out the wheel attached??

I have added shims moved the support bearings up and down shimed out
away from the frame.The single ujoint binds about as bad as the
double. Nothing I have tried has made a differnce.I can turn from lock
to lock on the rack using the tire and wheel every thing moves smooth. The car is on jack stands.

Part of the problem may be the use of two support bearings, one way to check could be to loosen one then the other then both and see if it gets better when they "float". Take a look at this page; http://www.borgeson.com/VibrationDamp.htm you'll note they say a vibration damper is required when using a support bearing. I can't tell well enough from your pic angles, but if possible, it could help to remove the universal at the column and replace it with the damper, would give you one less flex point and eliminate the need for the support bearing nearest the firewall.

It's too late for the hardware you have here, but using the splined intermediate shafts rather than the double D type gives you some more options. With the splined ones you can get away with moving the phasing a couple splines that will sometimes eliminate a slight bind.