Some info:
FYI:
I wish that other people came forward before and said what a HUGE POS the flaming river steering shaft is. Since my post, I've heard from people that have had the set bolt and nuts come loose and also knew/suspected that it was a bad design.
Well, unlike the morons that designed that shaft, I do Mechanical Engineer professional. I'm mainly a Computer Engineer. But I have my 3 years of ME schooling also, and I often do "not very complex" mechanical stuff. I brought the shaft to work and showed the Principal MEs the design. They either broke out in laughter, or had a near heart attack knowing that people are driving with those things on the same street they they and their families drive on. I didn't know about the MM shaft back then. If I did, I would have never gotten the Flaming river shaft.
http://www.corral.net/forums/showthread.php?t=833174&highlight=flaming+river
http://www.corral.net/forums/showthread.php?t=828645&highlight=flaming+river
If you showed just the two following images to any Mechanical Engineering student and they couldn't immediately see
many problems with the design, then I think that any University would be fully justified flunking them out of school! And, I say that as a former engineering teacher!
Uhm, ignore the length of the bar stock. It's the depth of the screws and the flat locking nuts "locking against" the round body. Plus, the moronic very shallow depth that flaming river suggests for a counter sink. For one thing, WHY so shallow? Geez, do they know anything at that company?
Close up of the Flaming River rod and joint assembled:
Another close up of the Flaming River rod and joint assembled:
Flaming River shaft instructions:
My solution to the POS Flaming River design. Compare the counter sink amount to the pictures above. Also, the JB Weld I used was has a very high temp rating (the shaft is next to the headers).
Here is how much I did the counter-sink for the screws. You can see the difference in height in the set-screws fro the side and the flat.
The JB-Weld job isn't pretty, but MY steering assembly is never coming apart!
IMHO, the MM design is tons better!