Steering Components.

Now we are ready to connect the steering wheel linkage to the rack and pinion. I want the steering wheel to be located on the left side of the cart so that there will be more passenger space on the right side. The connection to the rack and pinion is in the center of the cart. So how do we make a connection that is off center? If you said use some universal joints you are correct. The basic components of the system are the steering wheel,U-Joints, connecting rods with splined ends which fit into U joints and 5/8" Rod. In this photo there is also a bearing mount that has already been fabricated. I will show the detail on that shortly. These are some 5/8" pillow block bearings that will hold the steering shaft in place.

Here is a close up of the U joints and connecting rods. The rods have male splined ends that fit into female splines of the U joints. You will notice that there is a hole for a screw in the ends of the U joints to tighten them to the rods. I got these at DesertKarts.com. We will need 2 joints in order to compensate for the offset. There may be an easier way to do this but I am not sure what it is.

Where do you start when trying to fit the components into place? It seems most logical to me to start at the ends. So which end do you start with first? I don't think it makes any difference. I have chosen to start at the rack and pinion at the front of the cart. The idea is to position the U joints with the least amount of angle. This will allow for the smoothest and easiest rotation of the shaft. I had to buy a female coupler to connect to the rack and pinion. The coupling is splined all the way through so I just decided to bore it out a little bit and weld it on because the blank end of the splined male coupler almost fit inside it. I took it to work and asked my son Jason to bore it out a little bit. He just took it and shoved it in with his bare hands. Oh to be young and strong again. You will be able to tell where to cut off the rod by holding the U joint on the rod and making sure it will clear the uprights of the nose assembly.

Once you have determined the length that is required you simply cut off the excess rod and weld it to the coupler. Be sure to weld it on straight.

Now you know where your connection point is at the rack and pinion U joint.

Next we will need to go to the top of the cart and locate the location of the steering wheel. It will be pretty close to where it is. (Sorry I think I was trying to have a heat stroke.)

We will be using a Pillow block bearing to hold the steering wheel in place so it can rotate. It requires a mounting plate to hold it in place. A piece of 1/4" thick plate steel works nicely. Drill the holes where needed to attach the bearing.

A piece of 3/4" square tube is used to hold the mount firmly in place on the cross bar. You need to weld on a piece that is a little too long so that it can be cut down to fit exactly where you want it.

I know the bolts are a little long but they are all that I had on hand. We can now determine the location of the bearing Assembly.

The next part is a little tricky. You need to decide exactly where to locate the steering wheel as well as the angle to point it in. This is a good time to put the magnets to work. They have not been doing much lately. One of the magnets does not think he should work. He thinks he's a magnate. I convinced him otherwise. The ideer here is to cut the 3/4" square tube at the correct angle so it can be welded to the front cross bar. This is where a couple of extra monkeys would come in handy. I know this is not a very good picture but I have a ruler held in place with magnets while holding the mount with my left hand at what I think is approximately the correct angle. I can now use my right hand to run a magic marker along the ruler and mark the correct angle to cut the 3/4" tube. Try to remember to remove the cap from the magic marker before having everything in place. I could remove it easy enough with my teeth but the grease that was on it wasn't real tasty.

It was not real easy taking a one handed picture. I don't think I showed it in the component parts picture but there is also a splined fitting that fits to the steering wheel. It comes in a kit that can be purchased at Northern Tool. It is called a steering shaft and hub kit. It is made to fit with the steering wheel pictured. We only need a short piece of the shaft that comes with the kit to use with the steering Assembly. We will use the rest of the shaft for the accelerator.

The steering wheel is connected using a male splined end as is the U joint it will be connected to. We will need to weld these two pieces together. The easiest way to weld these two pieces together straight would be to clamp them in a V clamp. The only problem is that these two pieces are slightly different in diameter so I will have to try to center them as best I can. It is a good idea to chamfer the ends that are to be welded so as to increase the area to be welded. It is probably of no importance here as there will be very little stress on the steering rod in this application. Now a drive shaft would be a different story. Try to weld them as straight as possible.

Now we can make the final measurement to connect the two U joints together.

It will require a short piece of rod to connect the two pieces. There are a couple of set screws on the pillow block bearing that will hold the steering shaft in place. This will also allow for a little flexibility in the final shaft length as well.It was a little tricky trying to measure the final length and take a picture at the same time.

But you should have seen me take this next photo. In order to get this shot I had to hold the camera in my mouth and push the button with my tongue. Not Really, that would be rediculous. I really went to the pet store and bought a monkey to take the picture. You will notice that I am wearing shorts because it is so hot in the garage right now. Those little spots on my leg are burns from weld spatter.

The final two joints of the shaft can now be welded together. One of the nice things about this joint is that it does not really matter how straight it is welded together. After all it is between 2 U joints that are designed to compensate for offset.

I was pleased with the ease in which the entire Assembly moved when it was all put together. The girls should have no problem with the steering. I will consider adding another pillow block bearing at the rack and pinion if it seems to be needed. I have not tightened down all of the connections of the U joints yet but the extra bearing does not appear to be needed at this point.

I know it does not seem like anything is getting done at this point but I assure you that I have been busy planning the rest of the fabrications as well as procuring the correct parts. My sketching is crude but it serves the purpose of both planning the basics of the fab and I can make updated notes as I research the best method and best materials to use. I think I have stated before that if I don't make notes on what I have researched then I may not remember a better method I have learned from that research. This is quite a waste of time when trying to finish on a deadline. Obviously I am well past my intended deadline of being finished by the first of summer. I will list the major fabs left on this project. They will not be done necessarily in this order. Most will be done a little at a time in order to be sure that everything works well in unison. After all that is part of the fun when it all comes together and works well. I will try to detail the fabrications as a complete and separate fab for benefit of anyone interested in how it is done step by step. It should also be more interesting for anyone just interested in seeing the photos. I like photos of projects. I am learning just how difficult it is to properly document with photos.

Steering Fab.


Sprocket Gear Ratios

Accelerator Linkage

Drive Unit

The Drive unit that will power this cart will probably be the most challenging because I am planning to use a fairly unconventional hydraulic drive system. I had considered using electric motor with battery power pack as well as the usual centrifugal friction clutch. I will go into more detail later for those interested. Now an update on the practice form for the miniature hood.

In order to stiffen up the form for the trial fiberglass hood I had to add some additional panels of foam to the bottom of the frame. You will notice how I used a flat solid piece of foam on the top to see if it would conform to the slight contour of the hood. Since there is very little to hold it in place it began to slowly come apart at the ends. In the next photo you can see where The foam was split cross ways which allowed the foam to hold the contour. The only problem with this is that it leaves small cracks that will most likely need to be filled in order not to show up once the fiberglass is applied. Don't tell Brenda but I went to the knife drawer to steel a good carving knife. I tried to use one of my fish fillet knives first but a serrated blade works much better for slicing off the excess foam. You just sort of saw it off.

You will need to be patient with this which is not one of my strong virtues. Don't try to remove too much at one time. There is also something that I did not notice until I was almost finished gluing the foam together. On this insulation there is a very thin layer of what appears to be Mylar on the surface of the foam. It is easy to strip it off which is what I suggest doing before gluing the pieces together. Even though it is very thin it plays serious havoc with cutting as well as finish sanding the foam.

I will update you on the progress of this model. The next step is to sand it smooth and prepare the surface for application of the fiberglass.

I know it does not appear that any progress has been made the last two weeks or so. At this point in the project there are so many loose ends to finish that it is sometimes difficult to stay focused. I really have been busy thinking through the fabs that need to be finished. I will list them a little later but first a few things I have been practicing on. We will need to bend some one inch tube for the roll bars. I have made a template of the roll bar to guide in the process. I have been doing some practice bends on some short pieces to get an idea of the bend radius required. Also I have been experimenting with making a form for the fiberglass hood that we will be building. I have been searching the Internet for the best way to make forms and apply the fiberglass. This is another art form that will test my meager artistic abilities. But I am motivated by the desire to make the best looking ride possible for my girls. I figure that if you can learn to make a miniature version of something then you should be able to use that same process to make the full scale version. So I shrunk the hood down to about a one fifth scale to make a trial hood. I will make a chip board template to establish the profile of the hood.

We will use standard foam insulation for the form. This is the same stuff you get at any builders supply. It will be glued together using 3 M Super 77 spray glue.

The area that will require the most care in forming will be the tip of the nose of the hood. You can easily layer up the thickness required by gluing pieces together. I am using 1/2" thick material. You simply cut the blocks large enough so that they cover the entire area you are trying to form. The chip board templates will act as your guide to trim away any excess foam so that you end up with the required shape. The foam can be easily cut and shaved with a sharp utility knife to remove the majority of trim and then sand paper can be used to shape the contour.

After gluing the required pieces together they can then be glued to the templates.

The idea is to be sure and glue the templates parallel and perpendicular to each other. I clamped a piece of plywood to the table for a back stop top keep the templates spaced correctly.

You will notice that I have not filled in the material all the way to the back. That is because I am going to try to lay a flat piece of foam on the back part and see if it will bend to the contour of the back part of the hood and save a lot of extra gluing. I will let you know how that works.

Now I want to jump back to the seat. Brenda found a piece of black marine vinyl at the fabric store that will work perfectly for the seat cover. But first we need to round the corners of the seat frame. I just cut the corners off with a circular saw to remove the majority of the trim and then you can use the trusty angle grinder with a flap wheel to round it off nicely.

Next we need to glue the sponge cushion to the wood seat frame. If you don't glue it down it may cause some problems trying to shift around later. Weldwood contact cement works well.

You don't need to put it on very thick. I just use a piece of chipboard as a brush.

After the sponge cushion is glued in place then the sponge can be trimmed to match the contour of the seat frame using the angle grinder and flap wheel. Caution!! The flap wheel will remove sponge very quickly!! So use extra care when trimming the sponge or you will need to glue another edge on and do it again. But that will be OK. We learn as much from mistakes as we do from success. Probably more.

Now we can attach the upholstery to the frame. You will need a heavy duty staple gun with about a 3/8" size staple. My gun is a T-50 style stapler. I have done a little bit of this through the years but Brenda is the pro. So I got her to help and of course she ended up doing most of the work with me assisting. The first thing to do is place the fabric upside down on a flat surface. Next position the seat upside down so that there is enough fabric to cover the entire surface of the frame as well as enough to staple securely to the underside of the frame.

You can start anywhere but we started at one of the short sides.

You want to end up with a tight fit so be sure to stretch it a little as you go. If your fabric has a design you will need to work with it in a way to keep it square. Our fabric has no design and that makes it a lot easier. Just be prepared to remove some staples and restaple as you go if necessary. The trickiest part about the whole thing is the corners.

You will find that there is a need to overlap the fabric some at the corners in order for it to lay flat. Be careful not to cover the connecting holes.

You can trim off the excess material as you go. Just be sure not to trim off too much.

The seat is now finished. I had the girls sit on the seat and Paige's feet are about 2 inches off of the floor board. I figure that should be just about right. I plan to put on three sets of seat belts.

Last week my brother and his family came in from Virginia and we had a blast. There was brother Carl and wife Monica, my nephew Mathew, niece Adrien and husband Jordan and their baby Jack. We don't get to visit very often so we try to do as many fun things as possible. For the girls this usually means shopping and well, shopping some more. For the guys it is golf, target practice, pretending to be shopping and oh and yes, fishing. We made it down to the bay at San Luis Pass for some wade fishing. Mathew just turned 16 years old and he had the catch of the day. It was an aluminum pan fish. Jason also caught a Rat Red fish that would fit nicely in Matt's foil pan.

From left to right. My son Jason, Mathew, my brother Carl, and Jordan. It was a great fishing day. Not because we caught any fish but because we "fished".