This weekend I made the steering arms for the front Dana 60. 1" thick T1 steel with tapered holes at each end to fit one-ton TREs. I also machined a chamfer in each of the 4 stud holes for the lug-style nut attaching the arms. The tie rod will be mounted in the back, drag link from Saginaw 800 box will be on the pasenger's front side and a hydro-assist ram will attach to the driver's front side.

In retrospect, I don't think I would use T1 again. It is very strong, but also difficult to machine (spent more than 6 hours on the milling machine). It was almost as slow as this freaking board has been lately. Now it is not letting me upload pictures:mad: Here are some on my server.

Machined arms
http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~jrice/cruiser/D60HD/SteeringArm2.jpg

Arms painted and installed
http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~jrice/cruiser/D60HD/SteeringArm1.jpg

As always, :smokin: work Jack.

What is the Drivers side hole on the front of the arm for?

My hydro is attached to the rear tie rod...

The TRE from the hydro ram will be attached to the front driver's side hole. In other words, my ram will go directly to the steering arm. So, at the front of the arms when you turn to the right, the drag link from the pitman arm will "push" the passenger's side arm and the hydro ram will "pull' the driver's side arm. Does this make sense?

Sure, I have just never seen it set up that way.

Makes sence to me!

Originally posted by Medusa
The TRE from the hydro ram will be attached to the front driver's side hole. In other words, my ram will go directly to the steering arm. So, at the front of the arms when you turn to the right, the drag link from the pitman arm will "push" the passenger's side arm and the hydro ram will "pull' the driver's side arm. Does this make sense?

That is a great design set up, that way it takes a majority of the stress off just the tie rod ends. Smart thinking! Yes machining the tougher metals you need slow RPM’s with big feed rates, and lots of coolant. I used to push both and stop when I was snapping end mills or the machine was starting to vibrate! Nothing like the sound of big cuts! Burrrrrrrrrr! Now that I am CNC-less I am stuck with a semi-sloppy Taiwanese knock of a Bridgeport, and what learning curve! Turning cranks is a lot different than writing G & M code!

Machine: Haas VMC OE

M00
M13 H2 G01 Z0.5
G00 X2.375 Y1.25
G01 Z-.250 F
G02 X1.0 Y1.0 R0.5 F10 (Ok so its been a few years…. )

= Finished part vrs.

Machine: Unknown Taiwanese manual mill
Measure cut measure cut measure, Arrrrrrh I just scraped another one… my hat is off to manual machinists! Truly a craftsman skill!

Great looking parts Medusa!

http://www.xmlcreate.com/NCGuide/cw-arc.gif