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The firewall had more holes...
The firewall had more holes than OJ Simpson's defense, so we cut them all out and patched the big hole with a single sheet of steel. Our old reciprocating saw gave up the ghost when we were stripping the car, so Rodney got to be the first to use our new cordless saw from Craftsman. The saw has plenty of grunt for a battery-powered unit, and we figure we'll probably need one at the track sometime.
Coming into this project, the crew of Project Mudslinger had a few expectations: We expected to have some fun; we expected to learn some things along the way; and, most of all, we expected to get this car running before we all died of old age. That's certainly not too much to expect. What we didn't plan on was learning something about ourselves. That self-realization stuff is for somebody else to watch on Oprah. Frankly, we prefer a simpler environment where we can get dirty working on the car, tell jokes and burp if the spirit leads without having to say excuse me. I know what you're thinking: What the heck are you talking about? Read on, you'll see. I just wanted to get that off my chest before we started.
Progress, finally, is beginning to be made at a steady pace, but it's now the dead of winter and we're feeling the crunch of needing to complete the car before the season starts. In the last installment of Project Mudslinger we completed the seat installation and brake lines, and now it's time to get to work on the steering system. Many teams at the Pony Stock level keep the original steering system that came with the car. That's fine. Simply plug the holes for the power-steering lines in the rack, replace the steering wheel with a removable unit and off you go. But we wanted to show you there is a better way, and it's not too expensive.
Woodward Precision Power Steering makes an excellent collapsible steering shaft, and we knew from the beginning we wanted to incorporate one in our steering system. Unlike the steering column in a modern passenger car, a collapsible steering shaft for racing isn't designed to give way if the driver makes hard contact with the steering wheel-a good five-point safety harness should ensure that's never a problem. Instead, the shaft is made to collapse in the opposite direction, to keep the steering shaft from impaling the driver if a collision pushes in the front end of the car. This type of shaft is popular in Late Model racing but has yet to catch on in racing's lower levels, which is sad. Team Mudslinger intends to have as much fun as possible with this project, and we intend to take every precaution to make sure the fun isn't cut short by injury. We hope you will do the same with your race project.
Scott Helms welds up a tubing...
Scott Helms welds up a tubing extension to which we will mount the steering shaft.
On the other end we installed a replacement steering rack from Flaming River. This rack is a perfect fit and converts from power steering to manual. It's difficult these days to find a Mustang without power steering, which makes the rack bulkier than necessary, even after discarding the power-steering pump. The Flaming River unit is mostly used by drag racers and street rod builders, so our use of the piece is a bit of an experiment. It looks very well made, and even though it's four pounds lighter than the stock unit we pulled off the car, all of the critical parts are just as beefy as the original. We'll let you know how it holds up under dirt racing stresses.
The hardware on either end is the easy part; it's connecting the two that's difficult. After removing all the unnecessary parts, the firewall had more holes than a pair of old socks, and the location where we wanted to place the firewall bearing to support the steering shaft was right on the edge of one. Instead of putting in a bunch of little patches, we cut out the entire area and riveted up one clean sheet of 18-gauge steel. It's heavy but it also gives rigidity for the firewall bearing to eliminate slop in the shaft as the steering wheel is turned.
 Randy Price (right), one of...  Randy Price (right), one of Scott's in-laws, stopped by to see the car and we put him to work. Here, we're bending some tubing to mount the collapsible steering shaft. I've mentioned before how tight we are for space in the shop, so we really like this tubing bender from Low Buck tools because when we aren't using it, it can go neatly in a corner. |  The Woodward steering shaft...  The Woodward steering shaft collapses in on itself to keep the shaft from spearing the driver in the event the front end of the car gets crushed backward. It comes complete with a support bearing for mounting and a quick-release coupling that mounted right up to the QuickCar steering wheel. |  In addition to the steering...  In addition to the steering shaft, Woodward also makes splined shaft inserts and U-joints to match. All you have to do is press the inserts into your three-quarter-inch tubing, weld it up and then slide it into the U-joint. Before, fabricators had to weld tubing directly to the U-joints. Not only is the heat from welding damaging on the bearings inside the joints, but it's also permanent. You have to cut your steering shaft in pieces to get it out. With Woodward's system all you have to do is loosen the set screws in the U-joints. Very neat. |