The usual method for joining the steering wheel to the rack is via rods and UJs. What other methods can be safely employed?
Replace the track rods with hydraulic rams and use hydraulic sensors on the steering wheel?
quote:
Originally posted by tegwin
Replace the track rods with hydraulic rams and use hydraulic sensors on the steering wheel?
I wonder how the IVA man would view that... Any method that can transfer sufficient torque along a non-straight path with negligible backlash.
Shafts coupled with some kind of universal joint is the only practical method that springs to mind, which is probably why pretty much every production
car uses it.
You could use a purely hydraulic system, though there will be little or no steering feel and I'm not sure of the legality of this for road use in
the UK at least.
A chain drive could be used as long as you don't need to transfer torque through any angles. The tensioning and lubrication requirements would
make this a poor second choice to a conventional system IMO.
[Edited on 11/8/08 by MikeRJ]
How about using a rope like the soapbox carts....
Cheapest way is to use a steering rack..found in almost all cars....l
What do you need to overcome?
i.e. why NOT use shafts and UJs?
Hmmm.... here's my problem. The rack I'm using presents a splin at the right hand end, angled slightly outward to accomodate a RHD steering
wheel.
My plan is for a centrally positioned driver. This means that when the steering column is "pointed" toward the spline on the rack, the
angles will be all wrong.
Maybe a chain in the same plane as the wheel, to offset the shaft to where it was "supposed" to be.
Belt drive! 
Locost RHD conversion.
get a new rack? It will be easier. It might be cheaper.
quote:
Originally posted by smart51
get a new rack? It will be easier. It might be cheaper.
quote:
Originally posted by Fatgadget
Belt drive!
Locost RHD conversion.
Indeed! 
)It would be far simpler, safer and easier to just get a rack made to measure...
Sorry..I forget your name, but the chap on here building the Motaleria beauty has a custom "central drive" rack...
quote:
Originally posted by smart51
get a new rack? It will be easier. It might be cheaper.
nitram38 is the MotaLeira man, but £500 for a Titan rack is a little on the expensive side (though cheaper than engineering something that then killed
you)
http://www.locostbuilders.co.uk/viewthread.php?tid=74821
a hunt around a scrapyard might reveal a suitable donor rack, just scower the small hatches.
[Edited on 11/8/08 by loggyboy]
on further google image searching, old porshes have an interesting rack:
http://www.my914-6.com/images/DSCN2114.JPG
I was going to suggest Porsche 914 racks as well - central splined input. Possibly early 912/912 racks, although they might be harder to find.