Homebrew steering box brace 56K beware

Joe Dillard · Mar 1, 2008

I decided to build my own steering box brace & while I was at it I figured I would do a step-by-step mini write up incase folks are interested.

I started things out by droping by a local metal supply shop & picked up a piece of 2 7/8" OD x 2 3/8" ID x ~.188 wall x ~1'.

I tossed it in my chop saw & cut a piece ~1.25" long which would be the startings of a clamp.

I spun that short piece around so that the inner welded seam would be sliced as I cut that piece in 1/2 to make the clamp. In this pic, you can see as I draw the saw blade down, I'll be cutting the seam/weld & eliminating the weakest area of the tube.

Here I'm almost finished cutting it in 1/2.

Next thing to do was to put these "C" pieces into a vice & slightly squeeze them together so that they fit the contour of the steering box.

Here you can see that since I squeezed the slice a bit, it fits snug along the contour of the steering box and makes for 1 side of the clamp (once I attach the tabs).

I had some flat plate laying around that I cut 4 pieces to ~1.25" x 1.25" x 3/16". I'll use these pieces and attach/weld them to the "C" pieces I cut earlier and make clamps out of the finished product.

I started drilling them with a pilot hole & finished things up with a 3/8" hole so the 3/8" grade 8 bolts/hardware will fit nicely.

More to follow in my next post.

Joe Dillard · Mar 1, 2008

Made some progress between doing other less interesting household chores.

Anyway, here's how the clamp looks as I tact welded it & was doing some test fitting. Take note of the left side of the clamp; I was using a small 1x1x~1/2" thick washer between the clamps ends. I'll be using this washer later as a component of the crossbrace.

Here's another look at it from beneath.

If I do things right - I'll be able to attach the crossbrace to this washer & dial-in the correct angle for mounting on the opposite side framerail.

Next thing up was to make 3 plates that I'll be welding together as a frame attachment bracket. The plates were made of some 4x1/4" steel flat plate I had laying around. The 3 plates once cut ended up all being 4x2.5x1/4". I drilled 2, 1/2" holes in 2 of them.

Here, I'm removing the 3/8" head screw which holds the hydro line inplace. You can also see how the outer plate looks before being welded to the other pieces.

Here's how the washer looks as I sliced the end of the ~20.5"x1"x.120 wall crossbrace. I notched the crossbrace with my chopsaw just enough so that the washer fits real snug & is sunken into the end of the crossbrace. It will be fully MIG welded when all is said & done.

Here's a test fit after I welded the washer to the crossbrace & installed it sandwich style in the clamp.

Joe Dillard · Mar 1, 2008

This is a test fit of the crossbrace to the inner framerail side of my bracket before I tact welded it.

Another couple test fit pics.

Here's how the frame bracket looks from up top prior to me welding it.

When all is said & done, it will look similar to this except with some primer & Hammerite paint.

Shortly after I finished it - I took a trip to Colorado & Moab to do some trail runs with friends. Here's a couple pics of it while doing Billings Canyon with some friends in Grand Junction, CO.