With the warming weather, I’ve spent some time removing wiring, disassembling the brake (no clutch) and taking apart the steering. It’s clear there is more work than I anticipated, so eWillys will likely drop to an every-three day event or so, especially with Ann pretty much bed-bound for the time being (aggravated shoulder and migraines from the season changing). So, I have limited time.

Back to the FC … Formerly, the steering shaft used three knuckle joints to go from the steering wheel shaft, make a 90 degree turn to head towards the passenger side and over the frame, then a roughly 70 degree turn to head along the frame before reaching the rack and pinion.

To make those turns, the column began its first angle while in the cab, which caused it to dive into the floor near the brake pedal. Given I am moving the break pedal into it’s original location (with a dual brake master cylinder following this strategy** .. see bottom of post for additional note), that means I want to make a straight shot from the steering wheel to the floor, before making my turn under the floor. But, to do that, I need something to make a ninety degree steering turn. It turns out that in 2019, Flaming River built an award winning product to do just that.

Here’s how it looked before I disassembled it:

Here’s the dash off and much of the wiring removed:

Here’s where the brake was positioned (easier to see with parts removed):

This shows it with the floor panel removed:

From the underside, with most of the column removed, it looks like this:

This is the best pic. It shows how I need to go over the frame, travel about 10″, then make a 90 degree angle upward, with a slight angle toward the back.  The best solution seems the most expensive. Note the shaft isn’t bent; that’s an optical illusion due to the wide-angle.

One more angle:

Blaine shared a link showing me that there are other types of these units besides the Flaming River item. For example, the Sheppard 90 degree Miter box is another, cheaper option, but it doesn’t have the flexibility that the Flaming River box does.  Flaming River’s seems more purpose built for my application. However, that would mean $2500 (two turns and a new column) just into steering. So, I’m working through other the possibilities.

THE GAS PEDAL:

Meanwhile, when examineing the steering, I got a closer look at the gas pedal. You can see three of the four studs are bent and the bracket is bent. So, that’s got to get rebuilt as well.

Here’s how the pedal looks top side:

Here’s how it looks underneath. It rattles easily and bumps into the transmission shifter.

That all needs to get cleaned up. I will route the wiring differently and make the pedal linkage more stable and unable to hit against the auto transmission shifter cable entry tube.

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**Regarding an alternative master cylinder strategy from the second paragraph. In his video about the latest FC Build, Roy Wallace explains to Rick Pete how he uses a master cylinder in the cab to activate a slave cylinder behind the cab inside the frame that pushes a rod into another brake master cylinder that has a power vacuum brake setup (with an electric backup as well). It’s a pretty clever idea, which I might switch to if I don’t like how the brakes work once I get them working. (brake discussion starts at the 8:18 mark).