Brooklands Bentley

Managed to scrounge half an hour on the cyclekart this evening. I laid out some string to take a look at what I needed to do to get the steering arms made up. The string helps to plot a line from the front steering pivots through the center of the rear axle. The steering arm pivots must fall on this line for the correct ackermann angles.

I needed to make a curved arms so that on full lock the arms do not interfere with the front beam. I found some suitable flat bar from the scrap pile and set about bending it to make up a couple of arms. I used some heat on the inside of the bend to help 'shrink' the metal. This is better than applying heat to the outside of the bend which will 'stretch' the metal. Shrinking the metal in this way means that the metal is actually thicker on the inside of the bend, which makes it stronger. I also had to straighten it out a little on my bench anvil just to remove some minor kinks from the heating and bending.

The arms will also need to be reinforced with a small gusset underneath to give it some added strength. I will also add a steering stop to prevent the wheel from touching the body, this will be a simple hard stop that the steering arm comes into contact with at the end of its movement. Hopefully I should be able to cut the flat bar in the middle of the bend and make an arm for the left and right sides.