University of Cincinnati Supermileage: New Steering Components

Jason has finished up one set of his new steering bracket configuration (see previous post). Big thanks to FKI logistics for helping us burn these parts out with the laser and using the brake to get the initial bend in for us! Jason had to mill a hole for what we call the "axle shoulder," which ended up being an interesting exercise in finding centers of holes on the mill. Jason also had to bore the axle shoulders for a snug fit with our 20mm aluminum axles from KMX Karts.

Milling for the Axle Shoulder

Boring the Axle Shoulder

With the milling completed, we hand cut small gussets to sit on either side of the brackets and welded the whole assembly together. The next challenge was to cut the old brackets off of the prototype frame and weld in the new downtubes with just a touch of leading caster in them. Jason decided that 2 degrees of leading caster would help the car track true, and so we put together a quick fixture with the tubing notcher to accurately notch each frame tube for the desired caster. Jason then used some aluminum rod which we threaded (one side right hand, the other left hand) for custom tie rods. The whole assembly looks and works great.