Must... Turn... SharpeR

[Duster]

Quote: Originally Posted by AZkfx450rider

whoops, haha i thought taking the tie rods off was common sense thing! haha but if ur putting it back on out the stem back into the bushing and put the castlelated nut on(u should have 3 castlelated nuts make , 2 the same size and 1 thats different, make sure u put the different one on the stem) then put the bushing back to the frame using the 2 alan bolts than reconnect ur tie rods and u should be good to go! let us know how it works for helping the turn radius and than u can write up on how much u took off and stuff

I thought it would lift out of there no problem... had no idea it was that long under the bushing... and once I had the bushing loose, I couldn't get the tie rods broke loose. So I enlisted a helper and managed to get it out at an angle. Should be just as much fun to get it back on...

Quote: Originally Posted by ononewheel

yeah changing that bearing is a bitch i learned later on ya gotta take the tie rods off to make it work!get some pics of that shit shaved down!did you also shave down any on the steering stem itself or just on the stop it looks like maybe youd have to do a little on both for a big change!

I just shaved the one stop on the bushing for now. I wanted to try to avoid doing the stem.... because of the way it uses the tie rod mount as one of the stops.

To me, it looks like you'd have to cut this stop on the bushing completely off in order to get a big change. But of course I didn't want to do that... and I hope I am wrong about that too.

What I am hoping is that small mills will end up being significant changes out at the tire.

I gotta wait until someone is here to help me get it on to find out though...

[Duster]

OK... I got it back together and it is so much more of an improvement than what I figured I was getting out of this mod.

See, I had the stop milled down equally on each side to a finished thickness of 3/8".
That was basically taking 1/8" off each side.

I didn't make that decision until the part was in the mill.
The metal was NOT as hard as I assumed it was, or I would have went for a finished thickness of 1/4".

I figured that in the end, the 1/8" each direction would not end up equating to enough steering difference to be worth the effort I had involved... but I was already over half way... so I finished it out.

In the end, in order to understand the significant finished difference in the turn radius, you have to look at the whole thing as a complicated geometry problem (math). Multiple angles, fixed lengths, radius, circumference, etc..

The 1/8" each way is 'compounded'/'multiplied' by the radius from the center of the stem to the center of the tie rod mount, and the center of the steering knuckle to the other tie rod mount... with the tie rod itself being the fixed length.

I wish I had taken 'starting' turn measurements so I could be more precise about the actual difference made from 1/8". But it is a major difference. I'm making turns I had to back up for before.

Well, I can put it like this... I can turn it full lock to the left and stick my finger down between the left rim and left tie rod... and now both are touching my finger... That's how much sharper it turns.

[Duster]

Now, if I were going to do this mod again, like to my next lower bushing, here is what I would do...

First, I would make marks on the stop BELOW where the stem points make contact. I would do this because I did not notice until now with it done and painted green and all that the stem points hit HIGH on the stop.

So for strength, I would mark, then mill just down below that and leave all the meat on the bottom.

Then I would mill to a 5/16" or 1/4" finished thickness up top.
Probably 5/16"... then work the front corners a little by hand with a really good file after mounting.
(Because the stops don't strike 'flush' at 3/8" now).

Actually, I think I would try 5/16" finished on the old one to be sure it was not too much.
Myself, I would not want to go too far where anything could ever rub.

[AZkfx450rider]

lol welll let us know how it holds up!

[Duster]

Quote: Originally Posted by AZkfx450rider

lol welll let us know how it holds up!

I believe it will hold up fine.
But I believe it would hold up better if done with all my "after-thoughts".

I also believe this will allow the quad to take certain impacts a little better, because I'm thinking some of them might be a little worse stock due to the small amount of travel to 'full lock' where something has to give.

[Duster]

Oh hey... here's some pictures...

Not quite full lock, but as close as it will stay by itself...

[Duster]

Thought about this thread and snapped a pic here...

Just one of many "real" tight woods spots you can't spin steer.
I couldn't get through here before...

[SCEADU]

I took my Dremel with the "wire" attachment and was able to cut the stops back without removing the stem.

[Duster]

I need to get myself a dremel.

I keep saying it, but never do it... lol.

[bigez]

hey duster...i just recently posted about this problem i am having with steering to the left. i am gona make sure all steering is correct before i tackle this project but it sounds like this is exactly what i need to do!! and i have a dremmel too..lol was thinking i could maybe get in there with that before i took everything off. thanks for all the info in this post and your comments on how to do it. i will let evryone know how mine turns out when finished. thx guys