I thought I had posted something here looking for a new bracket, but I can't find it. So anyway, I found this earlier this summer:
I got this thing running a few weeks ago. I tried like hell to find the elusive "20-dollar OEM bracket," at the dealership, junkyards, and online auto parts suppliers, but no avail. I finally found one on E-Bay for $170. That was pretty good, but I don't have $180+.
So I set out to fabricate a new one. Here's what I did. The original was a 3/16" stamped piece of plate that was really complicated, so it took me a while to wrap my head around how to duplicate the geometry of it as near as I could.
Materials: all mild steel
1-1/8"x.25" wall tubing - one foot of it from McMaster @ $20 (est.)
1" solid stock - one foot of it from a local metal supplier @ $3
3/8" plate @ $30 (for CNC time)
First I made a cardboard template of the old bracket.
I then scanned this template and imported it into Solid Works, traced it, scaled it, created a .nc.txt file for it and did some of this:
Then I ran into a little problem. The four small holes were supposed to bolt right up to the steering box itsself. . . Not happening. I needed to make some spacers to clear. SO I drilled out the holes to 1", and turned down some spacers out of the 1" round stock:
To clear this:
Burned them in:
Next, I determined that the bracket actually held the steering box with a 25* tip to the outboard of the frame. I had planned this and oversized the outer holes to accommodate the 1-1/8" tubing and still allow for the 25* tip. Then I fitted it up to the frame rails and busted out the angle finder to get it where I was happy with it.
Fit up:
With some final welding and paint:
Installed: