Hi all, I've searched the forum but can't find anything to confirm: When extending the steering column I take it the thick walled tube needs to be mild steel, and what type of grade is the steering column of the sierra made of? I'm comfortable welding mild steel but just wanted to check re the sierra column material in case its a different material/grade that I need to be aware of. Thanks

Hi,
I don't know what grade of steel the Sierra column is made of, but I can say that it just welds very nicely with a mild steel extension tube. I wouldn't worry too much about that, I never heard of anyone having problem welding the cut Sierra steering column with the extension tube.
Hope that will help

Carbuilder solutions & Rally Design do the steel tube for columns

[Edited on 31/8/19 by T66]

Brilliant thank you both - I managed to find it at carbuildersolutions - thanks again



https://www.carbuildersolutions.com/uk/cold-drawn-seamless-steel-tube

Hi again all, just about to order the tube required and when referring to the book and my steering shaft it doesn't quite add up. In the Haynes book - page 74 it clearly shows the top section being cut/welded. On mine the collapsible section is the top (as with all sierra shafts I've seen so far) and is triangular for most of the top section, and isn't fully circular at any point so would not be suitable to cut and weld on a circular tube. The bottom section of mine is about 8cm long so if cut would allow 4 cm of overlap each end of the tube, again in the book it states overlap it by 6cm each end. However I can't cut the bottom and add on a 60cm tube as there are no UJ's on the bottom so it would put it severely in the wrong direction. Clearly mines not suitable so I wonder what car it was from!

Can anyone recommend the best steering shaft now to look for that needs minimum alteration (no extra UJs adding etc), the path from my steering collumn to rack is clear so hopefully I can keep it simple.

The diameter of my steering shaft I have is also approx 20mm, I say approximately because this seems like the perfect time to have lost my digital calipers



[Edited on 3/9/19 by MBrown]

Check your u2u