Kinarfi

Bummer! hope you can find some closer riding, any jeep roads around? Here in Utah, they have banned us from some major dirt roads, atv & utv, but if we dual register them, we can use the paved and dirt roads but not in the bigger cities Kinarfi

As I worked on mine, one of my goals was symmetry, and I did notice that the limiting bind was on the wheel that was turned outward, left wheel turning left, but not inward and it only took 2 turns of the fork to go from bumping to free, but with more, it would actually lock up the CV Kinarfi

Here's where to tie into the wiring for 12 volts, battery power, always on, it's the red wire on this plug and the ground is soldered to one of the steel tabs that are all over our rigs, a screw would work also. I'm into a project the need the switched power, on with the key, and when I find it, I'll photo and post it. Kinarfi

Ksimpsy, Can you take another measurement as accurately as possible and post it, Please, kinarfi

Moved all the Posts related to Electric Power Steering over to this new topic, 2009-03-24. Lenny, want to collaborate on an electric power steering? I looked at the splines on the input shaft to the Socket and if a gear was cut to fit those splines with an outer diameter of about 4.5" driven by a .6" X 4.5" gear driven by a .6" sprocket on a 1.31 in-lb 3456 rpm motor. If we create a gear reduction of 57 to 1, we get 1 rev/sec at 6.288 ft-lbs. This assembly could be mounted to the cover cap or even replace the cap or mount it by replacing the input shaft bearing cover with a larger piece of steel that has holes that line up with the socket mounting holes. Kinarfi

Hey everyone, need input, next time you go out driving, see how long it takes to turn your steering wheel from center to lock, trying to figure out how fast of a motor to use in designing an electric assist power steering. Kinarfi

Welcome and thanks for the pat on the backs of all of us! kinarfi

Lenny, please explain what you did to get more turn on the CVs. I just screwed the forks out an extra 1/2" on each side and that caused mine to bind. The way I tested mine was to turn the wheel to the stop and then push it out further while turning and I could feel the CV internals bumping and forcing the wheel to straighten out just slightly. I kept turning the fork in on each side until I couldn't feel any thing and then did my alignment. With my steering wheel centered, I could turn my wheel either way about 345 degrees and very close to equal, not using instruments to measure. I don't see how you could possibly use a 2" longer rack gear. Kinarfi

Don't know caster, camber settings, toe in is in the manual and the way I learned it is jack the wheel off the ground and have some spin the as you draw line with a pen on the high points of the tread and measure the distance between the lines as high as possible with out bending the tape measure on the back and axle high on the front and find the difference. Adjust for .98 inches toe in. The manual says measure while on the ground. kinarfi PS got some requests in for info with Joyner & No Limits

Just changed dirt proof boots on steering box. Some lessons I learned are 1. When you start, crank the wheels hard in one direction and measure the distance (TRAVEL) from socket to the stop and write it down. If you increase the distance a little, you will get a tighter turn radius but you will probably start binding up in the CVs and if you change it, you will need to realign your front end / toe in which is .98 inches. 2. You will see the gear rack move up and down and this gives you some play in the linkage, go to Ebay and enter 200302043085 . Some edit deletions here. 3. Now the laser alignment, sort of, Center you steering wheel, If this type of thing is important to you, Center the gear rack as best you can, you may need to rotate the spline connectors, then turn the forks in or out until 1/2 of the travel is at each end and the hooks are level, spin the steering wheel to check, tighten the jam nuts, and hook up the tie rod ends and tighten the bolt going through the forks, real tight, there is play here also and tight get rid of it. NOW Hang a piece of card board or something similar across the back that extends out past the rear wheels about 4-5 inches. Shine a flash light from as close to the side of the front wheel toward the back and mark the shadow cast by the rear wheel, both sides. Now shine a laser pen from the front of the front tire across the back of the front tire and mark where it hits the card board, the beam should just barely be visible on the front side of the front tire. This should give you an idea of where thing are and you can start making adjustments, rock the buggy back and forth after each tweak before retesting. Jack the front wheels off the ground, have someone hold the steering wheel hard against the stop, force the wheel out against all play and turn, feeling for any hint that the CV may be binding, on both sides. Make sure you got all the jam nuts jammed. Kinarfi

I wear as set Lynx intercom headset, can't hear all the rattles and squeaks. http://www.airplanegear.com/lynx/headset.jpg kinarfi

Lets get it started, using the parts and pieces thread. Just go ahead and comment to that thread & we can adjust as we go. Let's pick a heading and just post references under the heading. kinarfi

Can you take a photo please & thanks, kinarfi

The way I oil my filter is 1 dip in gas to break down the oil 2 wash the gas and oil and dirt out using dish soap and a garden hose and rinse well 3 blow air through it with my shop vac and suck air through it too 4 after it's dry, dip in clean gas that has sticky filter oil in it and let it air dry, rotate a little at first. 5 Snorkel it and get it up out of the dirt. kinarfi

Gumball, what GPS do you have and what are the power requirements? If you're going to start replace 10 mm nuts with UNM-L6 U, may I suggest 95210A175 METRIC TAPPED-HOLE U-STYLE CLIP-ON NUT, M6 X 1 MM PITCH, FOR .34 - 4 MM THICK PANEL @ $7.33/PK of 25 from http://www.mcmaster.com/# and also do the under side which probably has the nuts down and subject to damage, making them a real bitch to get undone. You also might consider hinging your hood, another thread. Kinarfi

Great pictures & yea, what Rocmoc says, "Dust ?" What's up with the welding on the locker, did you strip it? Keep going we're all watching Thanks, Kinarfi

no problem Ksimpsy Being as I have an extra tank, I like this idea, I rearranged a few parts, I like the idea of filtering the fuel after the pump and the surge tank supply pump can be light weight, low pressure, low flow pump, it only needs to replace the used fuel in the surge tank. kinarfi

My concerns with power steering is what happens after you lose power, hydraulics adds quite a bit of resistance, and if electrically driven with a pinion drive, it may freeze the steering because of the gearing, watch this, , even if simple microswitches, were used, no electricity would be no turning, also the case with linear actuators.One possible way to get easy, powerful turning would be planetary gears on the steering shaft, but you would probably be spinning the wheel 3 - 5 time from center to lock, that's 6 -10 turns lock to lock. You would want a necker's knob for that. One more idea would be to use something like a starter motor and gears to drive the steering shaft, activated by slight play in the shaft coupling. I will try to make some drawings. kinarfi Here's my idea, mount the armature of the motor inline with the steering shaft or connect a smaller motor via gears - this way, if power is lost, you can still turn the wheel - Now as you turn the steering wheel, it turns the driver disc which activates a micro switch which drives the motor, which drives the linkage and the driven disc and of course, turns the wheels. Then when the you stop turning the wheel, the motor continues to drive until the driven disc reaches neutral again. This could even be done with chain and sprocket up by the steering wheel column. If the drive motor is real strong and fast, it would switch on and off a lot during a slow turn, if motor is weaker, it would just act as an assist, if we had an electronic torque sensor and associated electronics, it would adjust the input to the strong fast motor to make it smooth.

Watched video, then watch associated video about electric power steering, Now that IS interesting to me. kinarfi

Anyone know what the setup for the steering assembly, specifically the distance between the stops? My story continues under the topic of Laser Alignment

Found an interesting fact, the check for the fuel pump pressure is 300 kpa or 43 psi, in my opinion, that's quite a bit.

I think I got rid of some of play in the steering system, I put a .025" shim between the Gear Rack and the Capping Plate, heated the ends and bent them up so they stay with the cap and the Gear Rack slides against the shims, I'm hoping the shim metal makes a better bearing material than the Alum Cap. Kinarfi

Answered my own question, I extended the Hook on the steering assembly as much as I thought possible and found that it WOULD bind up the CV. My assumption is that we are getting as much as the CVs allow. Guess I'll just live with it and have fun doing so. Kinarfi

What are some of the factors that need to be looked at when it comes to how tight our buggies turn? While working on my steering, I decided that if we replace the 10 inch bar (That's a guess at length) with a 12 or 14" bar, We would have tighter turning radius. If we did that, what else would we run into? Click on the photo! then go full size Very Bad Idea - Kinarfi edited 2-22-09

Yea, had the side wall leaks on my FarEasts also, now have General Grabber AT2 8.50X27X14 tire on now, but I haven't used the very much yet. My driving is mostly trails and road, rocky, sandy and if possible NO MUD, hate mud. I like them so far, but that's only about 50 miles so far. Only got 2836 kilometers on the fronts and they were trashed, I think these will probably last the rest of my life. Kinarfi