Scaffolding poles + old VW bits + Rotary engine....
Discussion
A while back there was a bit of a discussion about why we didn't use the Corsa electric power steering column or similar, the same as much of the rally guys use - and the reason we don't was the shock loadings that kind of system inflicts on not just the column joints but the rack and pinion itself too, along with a few other minor issues.
Unfortunately the owner of one of the 4wd cars listened to some of the hype about them whilst having his engine wound up a bit by a local firm, and had the conversion carried out. He liked it initially. Then the steering got vague. Then the car started wandering, and eventually it started making strange noises up front. So it along with many other parts are now up here for repair (yep, buggy got delayed again, sorry, been making uprights/rebuilding diffs, etc, and it looks like he's not happy with the engine anyway so the entire car is coming up over winter - along with another with the same engine for similar work.....we might get our own finished one day
)
Anyway here's the rack after 5 events with it fitted (compared to ~8 years previously with no issues) - check out the width of the teeth in the middle:
I'm also pretty sure there shouldn't be a gap here - there wasn't when it came off the milling machine!
Anyway, repairs are at hand:
I keep pressing 'print' and all that happens is a picture comes out, not a nice steel rack. Must be something wrong with my printer.
Unfortunately the owner of one of the 4wd cars listened to some of the hype about them whilst having his engine wound up a bit by a local firm, and had the conversion carried out. He liked it initially. Then the steering got vague. Then the car started wandering, and eventually it started making strange noises up front. So it along with many other parts are now up here for repair (yep, buggy got delayed again, sorry, been making uprights/rebuilding diffs, etc, and it looks like he's not happy with the engine anyway so the entire car is coming up over winter - along with another with the same engine for similar work.....we might get our own finished one day
)Anyway here's the rack after 5 events with it fitted (compared to ~8 years previously with no issues) - check out the width of the teeth in the middle:
I'm also pretty sure there shouldn't be a gap here - there wasn't when it came off the milling machine!
Anyway, repairs are at hand:
I keep pressing 'print' and all that happens is a picture comes out, not a nice steel rack. Must be something wrong with my printer.
Edited by PhillipM on Tuesday 25th October 01:47
PhillipM said:
It's only Fusion, has a basic renderer built into it these days, it's not great but it's pretty fast (They took ~2 minutes or so to render)
Looks pretty good, is this the freeware version of Fusion? (do they still do that version?) And how good is the CAM data it spits out, do you stick it straight into the Mill no issues?Also, what is the presumably "low friction" strip you show in the images? (the perforated yellow part that attaches to the ally housing at each end with some button head set screws? Something like Igus etc?? And how do you seal the whole rack? It's a square bar so probably aren't using O rings etc?
It has gaiters on either end to the rack bar. Not sure on the CAM side - I don't use the CAM, although there's quite a few bugs keep popping up in the changelogs that would make me hesitant for the moment until they finish ironing the worst out anyway.
The yellow is a sintered bronze/acetal wear strip with grease retaining indents, same as we're using for thrust washers on the uprights a few pages back, far better than it running on the ally case as it's doing at the minute, even with anodising it's picking up on it now.
The yellow is a sintered bronze/acetal wear strip with grease retaining indents, same as we're using for thrust washers on the uprights a few pages back, far better than it running on the ally case as it's doing at the minute, even with anodising it's picking up on it now.
It's okay, I walked past it and it fell back together again. Better put it on the car before anything else happens to it...
(The endfloat issue was that ball bearing there - there was a flat spot on the outer race and some spalling, possibly had a knock in storage/transit as it's been there since we got it)
(The endfloat issue was that ball bearing there - there was a flat spot on the outer race and some spalling, possibly had a knock in storage/transit as it's been there since we got it)
Edited by PhillipM on Thursday 3rd November 17:04
Yazza54 said:
Love this thing, I have missed it as it's a while since I read through this thread, but what made you change to the k20 Honda?
There was just something about pouring hundreds of hours of late night sweat and tears in and then watching the engine go 'Phut' at an event that was getting tedious PhillipM said:
Yazza54 said:
Love this thing, I have missed it as it's a while since I read through this thread, but what made you change to the k20 Honda?
There was just something about pouring hundreds of hours of late night sweat and tears in and then watching the engine go 'Phut' at an event that was getting tedious 
The 'CNC' brand fiddle brakes turn out to need rebuilding yet again, seems to happen with alarming regularity - so decided to ditch them and make our own with less slop, less friction/hysteresis and a few more tricks, work in progress:
Cheaper buying new Wilwood cylinders than it is for the seal kits with the others!
Cheaper buying new Wilwood cylinders than it is for the seal kits with the others!
Edited by PhillipM on Friday 18th November 01:34
Ah, that's better...now, best buy some more discs for the angle grinder, got a few ally sheets to get through, and some stainless for the handles...they're a lot easier to make on a screen than they are when red hot chips and grinding dust is flying...
Edited by PhillipM on Saturday 19th November 00:56
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