The 24 Hours of LeMons is adding a rule for 2017 requiring all cars to have a collapsible steering column. No more racing with a big metal spear pointed at your chest. I've done some searching on this site and haven't found too much info. I figure there are two ways to go about this. (1) Find a later manual-steering A-body with a collapsible shaft that can bolt in without too much custom work, or (2) spend a lot of money at a place like Flaming River for a custom shaft. The LeMons tech inspectors are not likely to look kindly on home-brewed solutions.

For the first option, what cars would have collapsible columns that would work with my car? It's a 1964 Dart with a push-button automatic and manual steering. Has anyone done this and can provide some info?

For the second option, does anyone have recommendations that you'd trust you life to without breaking the bank?

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Somehow I ended up owning three 1964 slant six A-bodies. I race one of them.
Escape Velocity Racing

I know the 68-76 a body columns should work with maybe some slight mods.

67 might be a collapasible unit as well.

I know my 68 val had one (collapisible) that i sliced up to lighten it with a CrMo hollow tube.

Greg

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http://www.youtube.com/hyperpack

Interesting new rule. The intention is good; in order to comment on how effective it'll be as a safety measure, I'd have to know things like what they require in terms of seatbelts. But that's academic—the rule is the rule.

I think you're thinking along the right line with using a later-model steering column. It will definitely be an adaptive-mount type of situation, and the mounting is key: the column, no matter how it is designed, isn't effectively collapsible unless it has shear-off mounts to the dashboard. The way Chrysler did this for many years was with little nylon "sleds" for the mount bolts to go through into the dash. These things are pretty much one-use-only; you might get more than that out of them if you're lucky, but usually not, and because the steering column staying in place depends on these not falling apart, wise to use new when putting in. If/when you get to that point, give me a shout; I have a set of new sleds I bought for my '73 Dart and never got around to using. They're sitting on my desk in a USPS small flat rate box and I'd like them to go away.

Back to columns: you might look at '68-up A-body columns ('67 columns are not collapsible), but you might also look at a column from a '90s FWD Mopar, like a Spirit/Acclaim/LeBaron/Shadow/Sundance. These have a nice U-joint at the bottom of the steering shaft, which would make it relatively easy to figure out a workable connection from there to the steering gearbox input shaft. You'd probably have to enlarge the dashboard "half moon" cutout to accommodate the new column, and graft (weld) in the receiver parts from the original car to hold the column appropriately. Still need those sleds.

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一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.

Wise words dan!

Greg

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http://www.youtube.com/hyperpack

Yep, we need to do this on our 64 Valiant too. One more thing on the list...

Lou

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Home of Slant6-powered fun machines

This might be irrelevant, OK, it is, but years ago I found a downside to collapsable columns. I once tried to remove the steering column from a 74 Dart Special Edition two door hardtop. I drove out the roll pin and loosened the clamp attaching the bottom of the steering shaft to the steering gearbox, but that shaft was on there tight. So I got in the driver's seat and pulled hard on the steering wheel. Several grunts later, the steering column popped up and out. Yay! I though, I got ti out. Then I went and looked at the stering box and the lower shaft was still firmly attached to the gearbox. I gave up at that point.

The junkyard procedure is...

Pull the under dash plastic steering column cover...
Pull all the wiring harness connections...
Remove the 3 flange bolts at the flange at the base of the steering column holding it to the fire wall.
Disconnect the underhood shift linkage (skip this step if a floor shift car).
Loosen the Flange washers and nuts holding the column to the dash (on 1973 and 1974 they have a 3 bolt bracket... the other fastener holds the assembly to the pedal/body bracketry...
Roll the steering wheel so the coupler shows the roll pin to the top.
Use punch/drift pin to drive out the 3/8" roll pin...
Use 8" length of douglas fir 2x4 with 1 lb deadblow hammer to drive the coupler off the steering box splined shaft as far as it will go.
Remove the nuts and flange washers at the dash, pull the plastic shuttles so they don't get lost.
By now the steering wheel is resting on the seat if seat is still in the car.
Use DF block to drive the coupler off the splined shaft...remove assembly through firewall....

It goes a little faster with 2 people in either direction....

I disassemble the coupler anyway to see if the mechanism is intact and if so I clean it out, regrease and asssemble....

If you clean the spline cavity and the steering shaft splines really well, the coupler will slide right on without much fuss...

I have a '67 column doing temp duty in my project 76 at the moment...I will see how it is constructed compared to my collection of '73-76 A-body columns...seem to remember it had the 3 bolt plate like the '73...

The other break away feature as Reed alludes to is the 1973-1976 column shaft comes in 2 pieces with a plastic pin joining them.... even if the shuttles fail and the coupler reaches it's 2" of play in the coupler body, that pin will sheer and help collapse the column... (it also will destroy any chance of steering out of danger if the car took a tap and careened out out of the wreckage....)

See, I know this NOW, but I didn't back then. I knew nothing about collasable columns. Just alot of brute force and ignorance!

To answer Dan's question, the driver restraint philosophy for most road-racing is "hard and tight." For LeMons, this means a rigid, securely mounted, one-piece racing seat and a 5- or 6-point SFI-rated harness with "anti-submarine" crotch belt(s). As of 2016, drivers are also required to wear a HANS or similar head and neck restraint system.

My secondhand (hearsay) understanding is that this new rule came about after a LeMons car was in a fairly severe head-on collision this year that crumpled the front passenger side of the vehicle. Reportedly, the opinion of the LeMons tech inspectors was that if the collision had been on the driver's side front, the driver may have been impinged by the steering column. My utterly irrelevant personal opinion is that mandating a new safety feature (often with significant associated cost) every time an edge-case incident happens on track is not exactly a sustainable risk-management philosophy, especially for a series that claims to be budget-friendly, but that's neither here nor there. The rule is the rule, and I am but a single voice in a noisy, turbulent sea of paying customers, most of whom are not affected by this ruling in any way.

What were we talking about again? Oh, right.

I'll admit I'm no expert in crash safety, but I'm not very excited about the idea of the steering column shearing off the dash mounts in an accident. If possible, I'd much rather come up with a solution that keeps the steering wheel solidly mounted so that all the "crunch" occurs under the hood. I'm starting to lean toward the aftermarket solutions, especially after hearing from y'all that later A-body columns aren't exactly bolt-in. I'll have to do some fit work regardless.

Unfortunately, the official wording of the new rule is delightfully vague:
"3.K.3 Collapsible Safety-Type Steering Columns. All steering columns must have a collapsing safety collar, dual-offset U-joints, or similar anti-spear safety feature. (These features were standard on production cars sold in the US from MY '68 on; earlier vehicles, foreign-market vehicles, and non-OE systems or mounting may require modifications to meet this rule.)"

This is actually pretty typical for LeMons safety regs. The general philosophy seems to be "If it's OEM, it's probably fine. If it's not OEM, then check with us first." I'm drafting an email to LeMons HQ seeking some details on what is acceptable for aftermarket solutions. Summit and other vendors offer a multitude of circle-track-style collapsible column inserts, but if those won't fly (or if they require shearable dash mounting) then this "dual-offset U-joint" business sounds like a more palatable solution.

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Somehow I ended up owning three 1964 slant six A-bodies. I race one of them.
Escape Velocity Racing

That's how they work. Remember, the column needs to collapse due to force in both directions: steering box pushed rearward and steering wheel pushed forward.



...which still requires shear mounting in order to be effective.

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一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.

Having driven demo derby and gone through a lot of rule books, the wording at the end opens the door that you can modify the earlier column, but will probably require tech inspection and/or a mockup that the tech inspectors can get their hands on....and prove it will collapse with an impact of about 1 ton at 25-30 mph... (assume stripped foreign compact vehicle for race and low mph to equal a head on collision in a parking lot at standard street speeds, so they know it will collapse or 'fail' at a lower than race rate for an acceptable margin of error)

That being said, you might be able to modify the existing or early columns to work similar to the late columns, by making a slip joint you can pin with a plastic/nylon or sacrificial material at one end... this will require a pipe of appropriate ID to fit over the column shaft about 12" long, removing 6" from the column above the leather coupler near the steering box if so equipped... then sliding the tube over both ends with about 3" to spare to take the torsional load of turning the steering columns and reaction/resistance of the tires/linkage against the gears/box. Welding the lower end to the rem at the would be advantageous since the most stress will occur close to the box....
The top will need to be cross drilled for sacrificial pins at least 2 times 90 degrees from each other and 1" apart (this is 1 more time than the standard 1973-1976 Duster column has.)...

You will need to test you mock up column to make sure it will take the hard twist of the steering wheel when clamped in a bench vice, and collapse when you plunge it hard, steering box end first, into the pavement...

(We used to have to make demo derby-sleeve in sleeve shock replacements like this after the shock mounts were destroyed on Mopar C-bodies, the mod has to work like the destroyed component, retain the rear axle, and cannot be solid/reinforce the vehicle in any way).



This is how the aftermarket GM style Street Rod columns are set up....but that may not be in your limited race budget, depending....


Some food for thought.

I used a factory GM setup in my Desoto. Factory B Body steering box....Borgenson joint( adapts Mopar spline to DD shaft) .....then stock GM DD shaft with slide joint to stock column mounted to floor (entire floor section from donor car) and mounted at the dash with a swivel column drop.

My Desoto had a removable floor pan/firewall section. I cut that whole section out of the donor car giving me the brake cyl/booster/pedal mounts, column mounts and gas pedal all in ergonomic positions relative to my seat and dash.

Using the late column also gives me column mounted dimmer, windshield wiper/washer control , cruise , and shifter......and tilt.

Tilt is a great help in getting the right seat/steering wheel relationship.

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Yeah....Im the one who destroyed this rare, vintage automobile.....

DI, are you saying that these collapsible columns rely on the integrity of the sacrificial pins to hold up to normal steering loads? I had assumed the shaft/tube mating area was splined or something, like a driveshaft slip joint, but what you're describing sounds like just a shaft sitting in a tube. If the plastic pins fail, do you lose the ability to steer the car? Please tell me I'm understanding this wrong.

_________________
Somehow I ended up owning three 1964 slant six A-bodies. I race one of them.
Escape Velocity Racing

The shaft is shaped like a D .....one shaft fits inside the other ,,,,,,the shape of the shafts prevent rotation but allow telescoping.

The pins prevent the shafts from telescoping in regular use .

Even if the pins were compromised the steering will still function.

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Yeah....Im the one who destroyed this rare, vintage automobile.....

This is correct, it's actually oval shaped like a tablet or classic race track with two round sides and two flat sides and one 1/8" sacrificial pin....

I can say that steering will function up to a certain point... I have been in a wreck with a Duster and had the steering collapse and after the drivers side crumpled the shaft stopped compressing exerted force on the steering box and cracked it (it was ugly, but I walked away from it...).

I also can say that the column in my mom's 1968 Valiant finally bit the dust after over 180,000 miles of daily driving and family outings only to fail after an impact square against a curb... (back in those days, it wasn't hard to pay $5 for another 3 on the tree column from the local junkyard and bolt it in the same afternoon...LOL)