Well, back out to the garage tonight……I wanted to get my steering shaft support made up so….I DID!
Lots of pictures (Sorry dial-up peoples)
Anyway….
First thing was to get the mower up an the stands:
Next, I needed to mark on the chassis where the centerline of the steering shaft should be.
I place a piece of string with a washer on the end to act as my cheap plumb-bob!
This in return showed me where the shaft would be centered left to right in the chassis.
Marked it with a yellow paint pen.
Now I took a square and transferred this centerline further down the chassis.
I then placed the steering shaft thru the console/dash to get a good angle for it to be at. Where it met on the centerline a new line was drawn to determine where the thru hole is to be made.
Here we go using a hole saw!
Look, It made a hole!
Here I laid out the lower mounts of my steering support as well as the spherical bearing mount I fabbed up from some tubing I had in the garage
Here they are laid in place ready to be welded in place.
Here they are partially welded in place.
In this photo I’m determining the proper angle for the support bars/legs of the steering support
Here I have tacked both uprights into place.
Here the upper cross/support bar has been tacked into place.
Here you can see I welded a nut onto the backside of the upper support and threaded a 5/8†heim into this to act as the upper support for the steering shaft
Here is a picture of the assembly tack welded in place.
Here is the dash reinstalled onto the chassis to check for fitment and to confirm the steering shaft is still centered in the dash opening. IT WAS!
Side view of mower with steering shaft in place.
(pay no attention to the seat…it’s just for mock-up!)
I need to final weld the steering support then onto the clutch system!
