Steering Column

Another adventure into the land of "ah this doesn't seem to fit!". In Dax's defence their original design for the 427 was to use a Mk1 Sierra column, as it stands these are now about as easy to find as the perverbial rocking horse sh@t and I have the column from a later model which is an adjustable unit.

I met up recently with a top bloke by the name of Peter Jones. Pete is an active member of the UK Cobra club and has been building these cars for years. Like me he eventually got pissed off with dealing with poor quality, Ill-fitting components from the manufacturer and designed a number of his own along with replicating and improving on other original items. One such bit is the bracket that holds the column to the scuttle hoop. The original Dax item is a woefully thin mild steel affair that frankly you can bend with your hands. Pete's version is nearly 3mm thick stainless and looks like it will survive being sat on by a rhino! Sold!

First issue with the column is that being adjustable it is thicker around the outside than the non adjustable one. This means that the bracket is not wide enough when the bolts are in to clear. Some swearing and later calmer ingenuity resulted in the adaption of the brackets that bolt onto the column. By welding on the horns you can see in the picture the bolts now sit below the column and allow the whole assembly to be fitted. Quite pleased with this one and got to do some welding too!