How many takers for collapsible steering?

[richberman]

I'm thinking about designing and manufacturing a relatively easy telescopic collapsible steering joint to modify an existing AH column and still maintain the original trafficator/stator tube. I was wondering how many people would be interested in purchasing one since it will cost $$$ to develop.
thanks,
Rich

 

[hama61]

Hello Rich,

I would be interested but maybe you can explain maybe with a picture ( as they say more than thousand words) And what adjustments have to be made the stator tube of an non adj steering column has the length of the whole column

Harry

 

[richberman]

Harry,
I don't have a picture yet as I'm still in the design phase, but I'm picturing a telescopic shaft similar to https://www.borgeson.com/xcart/product.php?productid=995&cat=22&page=1
but with a large enough diameter rod to accommodate a 1/2" hole in the center. There would be couplers on each end to fit to a stock Healey steering shaft, which would need to be cut in two places to fit the collapsible segment. Since the Healey rod is round, the couplers would need to be welded onto the Healey rod. The collapsible segment is double-D profile and would be held in place with counter sunk set screws.

The original trafficator/stator tube should in theory slide right through the middle and be "just like original"

Can you picture all of that?

rich

 

[Cottontop]

Rich,

Remember that the stator tube must also be collapsible.

If it is not, you change from having a 7/8" hollow rod with a steering wheel on the end to a 3/8" tube with a trafficator on the end between the front bumper and your chest.

Tim

 

[HealeyRick]

Personally, if I get in a front end collision with my Healey, I hope the javelin pierces my heart and takes me out as soon as possible. Anything else seems like really tough way to check out.

 

[Genos2]

I agree with Rick, I can think of many worst ways to die!At least I'd be smiling. Was in one wreck(frt)in a BJ8,over 20 yrs ago,still here! Avoidance too me is best path,plus don't really want to damage the paint! cheers Genos2

 

[richberman]

Tim,
Don't you think the stator tube would collapse upon impact, probably where it connects to the trafficator tube. It is a much thinner tube than the 7/8" rod. I figure if the front end of the car is smashed in enough to push the steering column >=6" back, the stator tube would bend and/or break.

Any testers out there?
Rich

 

[Randy Forbes]

I crashed my Healey into a mountain in Woodside, CA; hit the mountain (which was on my right) with the left front corner. I was lucky__going off the cliff would've been troublesome...

When I worked at Austin-Healey West, in San Francisco, I can remember more than one (>1) Healey coming in, usually over the weekend, where the steering column was sticking up higher than the windshield header. I saw a few pretty rough cars, but none of them were fatal to the occupants. Of course, this was before anyone was using seatbelts either, so they may have been tossed to the side, avoiding impalement.

As for my own wrecked Healey, while it didn't handle so well after the impact, and had a gashed radiator, I did manage to limp it back to SF in our Healey convoy.

I was returning from an Austin Healey Club Pacific Centre officers election picnic at the time. Pretty sure there was a picture of the carnage in the Healey Highlights sometime around the end of '78, begining of '79...

 

[wheelguy]

Dennis Welch makes a collapsible steering set up. They made one for us last year for a race BN-7 we were building. Wheelguy

 

[Cottontop]

No, I don't.

Even if you acheived a perfect accordian-pleat collapse, which without pre-pleating the stator tube will never happen, as the overall tube length gets shorter, the diameter gets larger.

The stator tube is contained within the hollow steering shaft. That increasing stator tube diameter HAS to have some place to go. I have not measured, but intuitively, I don't think that there is much expansion room inside the steering shaft and the D-D section.

Even though the stator tube is hollow with a relatively thin wall thickness, with increased velocity like a moving Healey, that tube might as well be a solid rod.

As an example, push on both ends of a plastic soda straw and see how much force it takes to collapse it and see HOW it collapses.

Remember, it only takes a couple inches of penetration to touch your heart.

Personally, I wouldn't test it....

Tim

 

[richberman]

Tim,
I have an idea...
inside of the outer sleeve of the DD collapsible segment, there is 1.5" open space (where the inner DD rod can collapse into). If I secure a sleeve coupling (3/8"ID, 1" OD) with a set screw into the side of the stator tube (without pinching the internal wires) at the junction of the the inner DD rod and outer DD sleeve, upon impact the stator tube would get shoved from the front end towards the front end of the DD collapsible rod (the solid rod faces the firewall and hollow sleeve the grill). The fixed sleeve coupling over the stator tube would cause a stop against the DD rod and the forward portion of the stator tube would have space to collapse inside of the 1.5" DD sleeve.
Can you picture that?
Want to test that?
rich

 

[Legal Bill]

Maybe it would be better to design a seat attachment that releases the seat at the front and allows the seat to tilt back when subjected to high forces from the front. As the driver is pushed back in his or her seat by the steering wheel, the front attachment releases and driver and seat tilt back with the force of the wheel.

 

[HealeyRick]

Maybe it would be better to design a seat attachment that releases the seat at the front and allows the seat to tilt back when subjected to high forces from the front. As the driver is pushed back in his or her seat by the steering wheel, the front attachment releases and driver and seat tilt back with the force of the wheel.

I hate to bring the specter of litigation into this, but has anyone considered the possibility of product liability lawsuits if you sell your collapsible steering column or seat release and it malfunctions? Maybe the Healey guy you sold it to might not sue you, but his survivors' lawyers would be lining up.