Centralising the steering rack

[661]

Hi,
Just a point about bending the steering arms - pretty sure this is a forged part and you can not heat forged parts up and rebend them as you loose the original forged grain structure and thus loose the strength.

Regards
Steve

I don't know the ins and outs of that but anyone using TTR front discs ( and there are many racing Elans with this set up) will have had to undertake this modification. I'm unaware of any failures ( feel free to enlighten me!)

[patrics]

Hi Ian,
yes forging is exactly that, so when you forge something the grain flow goes with the bend and thus you gain strength over a machined part.
When you heat it up to red heat you then loose that grain flow and also anneal the material.

My guess would be that it would be okay with an Elan steering arm because it was probably forged as the cheapest manufacturing option and could have been fully machined and been strong enough.

To help the situation it should be reheat treated to increase the tensile away from annealed condition but you can not get the forged grain flow back.

Anyway my point is that messing with forged parts in this manner could be dangerous.

Regards
Steve

[bitsobrits]

Brian,

Very classy shop rug. Is that your working surface, or just for photos?

[types26/36]

Very classy shop rug. Is that your working surface, or just for photos?

Most definatly my working surface......rugs on top of carpets and a radiator plumbed into the central heating.
Why.......... doesn't everyone have fitted carpets in their garage?