shorten a steering column in a DRB

[Alvin]

Hey all

Coming upto summer i want to shorten the steering column to make more room in the cabin. I was wondering what column people use and how it feels when driving?

Thanks

[400TT]

In our DRB we actually made a custom steering wheel boss out of aluminium that was shorter.

Not sure now how much it shifted the wheel back, but you wouldn't want to go any further as your knuckles would be too close to the dash edge(we had also rolled the dash edge).

We had to cut the end of the steering column shaft(cut the excess off after the nut was done up) and only just left enough clearance to fit a horn in.

Certainly did the trick, looked great and was the easiest option in our books.

[Alvin]

thanks craig. Is it possible to get some pics

[raw]

Originally Posted by Alvin

thanks craig. Is it possible to get some pics

Hi 10 years ago we had a chap with a large gut, so we not only shortened the column by 40mm but raised it a little and as craig said and he would know the Cobra we cut 40mm off the front of the dash front and reshaped it . Also you my think about lowering your heel area as this allows the knees to move away from the steering wheel .

[400TT]

Photos of just shortening the steering wheel boss.

I reckon we gained about 20-30mm doing just the boss.

Best photos I could find. We would probably have photos of it apart, but it was built before the age of digital cameras, so would have to dig through all the printed photos.

We always meant to get around to painting it to suit the blue column, just never got around to it.

[stephen low]

Not sure what column you are using but in regards the boss if you use a saas boss these are solid aluminium and ripe for shortening.

I've managed to pick up a s/h boss from a pick a part wrecker for $10 - new approx $70 and took 35mm off the end. I'm running a mitsubishi colt column and found a colt with the saas boss and a saas wheel attached, but with the mitsubishi's I believe the column spline/taper is the same across all the models anyway.

Of some surprise was the good match this boss has with the hyundai combi
switch system I am using, the horn contact fits perfectly and some very minor filing enabled the indicator cancelling system to work easily as well.

Obviously when you cut the end off the boss you will need to redrill and tap the wheel attachment holes but the solid body of the saas boss allows this to happen. Don't know of any other boss constructed in the same sort of way to allow this to happen.

Will get around to posting some pics showing this mod. to my gallery in the near future.

Cheers

[400TT]

Thinking about it, we must have got a heap more space than 20-30mm I mentioned above. Boss's would have to be 70-90mm deep from memory

We ended up with a Boss that was only about 20mm thick, as you can see from the photos. It's about the minimum you could go as horn button only just clears the end of the column, even after trimming off the excess column length.

If you don't need to go as short, then cutting down something like SAAS boss would be a cheaper option. Especially if you are like slowy and pick up a bargain or already have a suitable boss for hacking. We had to fabricate as we didn't have enough material left to even think about using a cast boss. It's a bit of a squeeze to get horn wire through and leave enough meat left for it to be strong enough.

This was with a Torana column, which I'm assuming you have in your DRB...if your DRB is not one of the later generation cars.

[cameron02]

Hi Alvin,

I assume you are using the Torana steering collum. The Torana steering collum is collapsable. ie 2 hollow rods, 1 slides into the other. They are held in place buy a couple of plastic pins which are nearly always broken on 2nd hand collums.

You could simply break them by taking the shaft out and hitting one end with a mallet. Then you can adjust the collum to any length you like. Does not seem to cause any problems, most Toranas drive around with the pins broken anyway since they nearly always break when people are fitting their sports steering wheels.

[Alvin]

thanks Craig for the pic.

Cameron will be looking into steering colum. Hows the car goin? love to see it soon.

[cameron02]

Hi Alvin,

Car was registered in May. Just a couple of fiddly bits to do and the car will be ready for paint. Then reassemble and its finished.

So have you changed your mind about selling your Cobra?