Lyka Kit #2 Steering

Kit # 2 was pretty straight forward. The assembly of the oil impregnated bushings into the steering tube went well. The assembly of the stub axles into the front axle jaws was a different story. As recommended by the instructions to test fit these, there was a fair amount of interference fit between the assemblies. Using my trusted flat file, I had to remove material from the bottom portion of the front jaws. I also filed flat the upper portions too because the milling of the upper portion jaw had some uneven milling ridges.

Taking notes from Shedding It All Blog (http://sheddingitall.blogspot.com/) I checked the thrust bearing dust caps to make sure they had the proper cup recess dimension. The Thrust Bearings measured around 0.351 inches and the thrust cup recess measured about 0.360 inches. This won't do, because once all assembled the thrust bearing would just rattle around inside the thrust cup and the stub axle would actually be rotating on the upper portion of the thrust cup against the upper inside axle jaw. I don't have a lathe, but I do have a belt sander -- so off went about 0.015 inches (I might take a little more off). Now the thrust bearing will "thrust" and the thrust dust cup will just be on there for the ride. The following video illustrates that the thrust dust cap would be rotating metal to metal on the upper yoke or possibly on the stub axle, or at both places simultaneously, and the thrust bearing inside the cup would just be loosely sitting there, not taking up the thrust forces as it should.

Now that the stub axles are assembled and working as they should, I test assembled all the remaining components. One of the turn buckles needed a little cleaning out of the threads from a few leftover machining chips, but all fit together eventually.

Now its time to disassemble, do a little more deburring, then sanding and degreasing the larger parts, sandblasting the smaller parts and spraying on a first coat of self etching gray primer. Following the lead of other Lyka builders I fashioned a fixture from some spare lumber to hold the front and rear axles making it much easier to work on them.

After filing sharp edges, wire brushing the weld joints, sanding with 100 grit sand paper as much of the milling scale as I could, and degreasing and cleaning with Naphtha, I decided to spot treat all of the welding joints with Rustoleum Rusty Primer. This may be overkill, but I noticed that surface rust had set in around the welds.

 

  And bits and pieces sprayed with their first coat of self etching gray primer: