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Beware Eckler's Steering Arms

5K views 22 replies 12 participants last post by  JohnHouston 
#1 ·
Y'all,

While reconfiguring the steering to lessen bump steer on my '57, I damaged one of the steering arms that came with the CCI rack-and-pinion kit I'd had since the '90s. I was pleased to see that Eckler's still sold the arms separately and ordered a pair of replacements (P/Ns 142151 & 142152). What I wasn't pleased to see was that while the originals were billet steel, the replacements were not -- they were rather poorly-cast iron and reeked of that burnt/rubbery/sooty/solvent paint smell common to low-end overseas parts. Quite frankly, these looked dangerous. Back to Eckler's these went!

- Shawn









 
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#17 ·
I just realized that my post left out the portions of the story where I explain what I did to fix the arm I damaged and how I'll be fixing the issue long-term.

The damage was caused by me reaming the tie rod hole larger/deeper to use a bump steer stud (Allstar 56286) at about 2° off. I "fixed" the arm by re-reaming and then lowering the stud side, which made the arm end go from 0.7" thick to 0.5" thick. It's functional, but made the end thinner around the edge than I'd like for comfort.

So, I will be fabricating new arms out of 4140 billet steel, using my Taig milling machine. They will be flat (without the vertical jog in the arm) and use a thick spacer and straight 5/8" bolt through the Heim joint, as many race setups do. This new arm will allow a new steering stop pad, fixing the problem that I was having with the kit arms' interface with the Global West steering stop, wherein the arms' stop section passed completely below the GW steering stop.

I'll post a separate thread when I get these done.
 
#18 ·
Sure looks like crap my father in law called pig iron (he was a machine operator lathe and milling machine) in a foundry.He use to tell me these pieces came from over seas. He never knew what the lathes tool would hit and shatter. Right in the scrap bin. Those pieces should have never made it to the USA. Shame on you Ecklers. :bowtier:





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