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Advicce on fitting removable steering boss to column
neo2 - 8/10/10 at 08:06 PM

Hi guys my next little upgrade is to remove the 10" round mountney steering wheel and boss from the sierra column and weld on the splined boss for the removable steering wheel, the advice is basically in fitting the spiggot part to the column shaft..

Obviously it needs welding on, but the column is 17mm hex tube tapered to end with a internal thread for steering wheel nut.. and the boss has about 1 1/2 of outer with a 9.5mm internal hole..

How has other people done thiers, i cant lathe the column shaft down to go inside the boss then weld it as the column is hollow and there wont be anything left, my other option is to do a sleeve on both parts on the outside and weld up that way...

Any advice chaps...


steve m - 8/10/10 at 09:03 PM

If you trawl thru the previous posts, on a removable steering wheel. you will find one that came off in the drivers hands while (i believe) doing 70 ish in the outside lane of a motorway

I for one would rather not have that experiance

Life is way way to short anyway

Regards

Steve


neo2 - 8/10/10 at 09:11 PM

Mines a race car only not sva'd or road registered, plus its for security and access in and out etc..


steve m - 8/10/10 at 09:34 PM

I was only making a valid point on why to not fit one

Whats the difference, outside lane of of a motorway or on a track, when the steering wheels comes off in your hand

Death is still on the cards


MakeEverything - 8/10/10 at 09:35 PM

Isnt that Bizzles old car that happened to shed its steering wheel?

Seem to remember his was very similar to your avatar.

Here

[Edited on 8-10-10 by MakeEverything]


steve m - 8/10/10 at 10:07 PM

And from the mess, He was very lucky to come out in one piece


Lars - 9/10/10 at 07:46 AM

i have a snap off, with lock, i.e. it does not come of unless you unlock it with a key.

very happy with it


whitestu - 9/10/10 at 08:04 AM

quote:

i have a snap off, with lock, i.e. it does not come of unless you unlock it with a key.



Same here.

Stu


Blackbird Rush - 9/10/10 at 08:08 AM

There will always be the risk of a bad weld breaking but in the case above it was human error, which would prob be the greater risk of the wheel coming off.

As far as checking goes, these cars are not a quick jump in and go type thus a cockpit check is the norm for most of us, those with a Q/R wheel would ad this to their check, a quick tug on the wheel along with strapping in.

Also a good quality race proven type is the best to go for splined rather than hex type.

If your welding is in question then pay a pro to do it for you for the piece of mind.

Weld it up belt & braces, mine was constructed as follows......

Welded the splined slug onto the end of the sierra steering column, then slid a tight fitting sleeve of tube over the whole lot and welded round either end of the tube one end tube to column other end of the tube to the slug. then drilled through the tube in 2 places, lower through the tube and column and upper through the tube and slug, each hole had a steel rod inserted and fully welded in position.

Thus welded in 3 locations and pinned & welded in 2 positions.

This should suffice but there will always be the risk of human error.....


steve m - 9/10/10 at 08:26 AM

"Welded the splined slug onto the end of the sierra steering column, then slid a tight fitting sleeve of tube over the whole lot and welded round either end of the tube one end tube to column other end of the tube to the slug. then drilled through the tube in 2 places, lower through the tube and column and upper through the tube and slug, each hole had a steel rod inserted and fully welded in position.

Thus welded in 3 locations and pinned & welded in 2 positions.
"

My lower steering column was constructed the same way


nitram38 - 9/10/10 at 08:47 AM

Your very own tintop has welded UJ's in most cases so I can't see that welding makes it dangerous, only a poor weld!
If you chamfor both parts so there is a V joint when put together and weld on a high enough setting, then I see no problem. Even better if you can get it tig welded.
Most welds fail on poor penetration.


bob - 9/10/10 at 09:06 AM

My engineer turned out a two piece boss attachment for my mountney wheel, one piece bolts onto the original montney boss the other bolts on the wheel and connects. Its a blatant rip off from claretoo's set up,humbug also has the same design. If engineered properly and the spring pins fitted and set up properly i think the design is failproof,should be some pics in my archive or i'm sure i can find some.


neo2 - 9/10/10 at 05:06 PM

Cheers guys for the constructive comments they are very welcome, ive owned a couple of road going westfields which all had removable steering wheels and was forever checking them even whilst out and about.. but its like everything if its driver error anything can happen...

BLACKBIRD RUSH, your fitting example is exactly what i had planning to be honest, so we are both on the same wave lenth thier, the type i am using is a FIA splined boss which requires the pulling of the ring boss toward the wheel to release its a solid fit, with what seems to be a good locking system..

How ever a steering wheel coming off in any situation is going to be bad, on road or track etc, but its only the same risk i feel as someone nudging your wheel and snapping something else like a rack or wishbone etc..

Rob