Hi all,

I have a quick release steering wheel boss, which I have had welded to my Sierra column, see pic. I'm not sure though whether I should have cut the top few cm of the column off & then had it welded, so that the top of the column was the same diameter as the boss slug... I'm nervous that as they are not the same diameter, the weld won't be as strong. Thoughts?

I don't know if the column material is any thicker on the wider part of the column, or whether it is taper inside as well as out - if this is the case, does it make any difference???

Cheers,
Rob.

Pic is in archive, I can;'t work out how to attach it...

[Edited on 25/7/06 by Robster]

Here ya go.

Well, as nobody is commenting I'll put in my pennth!

I wouldn't do it like that, is the brief abridged answer!

Two things, one the diameter is a bit small, two the weld is single plane (i.e. 90 degrees the the shaft)

In reality you "almost certainly" will be fine, but belt and braces with the steering is always good.

As John beardmore is always pointing out, steering is the one thing you need on a car, no brakes etc are worrying but no steering is VERY bad!

When I weld these bosses on (speaking personally again) I bore them out and turn the column to press inside the bored out spline fitting, then saw off the bottom of the spline fitting at 45 degrees, press the two together then weld round the slash cut line.

Taking my nomal blase view though, it's extremely unlikely to break, so there you go, clear as mud!

As John beardmore is always pointing out, steering is the one thing you need on a car, no brakes etc are worrying but no steering is VERY bad!

I totally agree with NS Dev on this one. Belt and definitely braces for steering. I think the spigot socket idea of his is excellent and if you can get a couple of roll pins in, even better.

John

If you're worried and you obviously are then;

Carefully drill through the slug where it fits over the steering column, make sure you breakthrough to the column. Do this in a couple of places and then 'puddle' weld these holes up. 8mm holes should do it fine.

That will add extra weld strength and provide a mechanical locking effect in case the first weld breaks. Similar action to NS Dev slash cut.

Thx for the responses guys, I thought the answer might be "not like that"!

If I follow the drill some holes & puddle weld option, would it not be just as easy to put a couple of bolts through?

I never like the bolt and weld combination, not nice engineering. Again it will work just fine, but, basically only one or the other is actually doing anything!

When its welded it will then not move enough to put the bolt in shear. Yes if the weld breaks the bolt should prevent a crash but i'd rather it just didn't break to start with!

The ones we make now for the Mondeo have the same kind of hex on the end and yes the inside of the tube tapers out the same as the outside.