Chirco
is building a Baja Bug! Many of the air - cooled VW parts
and procedures used can also be used on Dune Buggies,
Sand Rails. These pages feature links to the Chirco online
parts catalog.
It is time to get the tie rods put in place for the rack
& pinion steering.
OK, lets get our tie rods in place. First
we have to pull our rack back off to get the
ends attached. We aligned the rack to dead center and
then just rested the rack in place.
There is
a cotter pin included for
each nut that has to go in through each of the bolts.
These tie rods are universal
and need to be cut to the specific lengths depending
on the front end you are running and rack placement. On our
front end we needed to
have tie rods that are 20" long.
We re-tapped the cut ends of the tie rods and threaded the
ends back in place. You can then adjust the tow in
by rotating the tie rod in our out and
watching the drum. We will do the final
adjustment once the tires are on.
Above
you will see the the tie rod kit also comes
with grease fittings for all four ends so they can
stay properly lubricated.
Just
like the the ends that fit in the steering rack, the ends
that go into the tie rods also have a cotter pin. In the photo
on the right, you can see the lower support tubing that
attaches the pan to the beam. This will give our
beam much more support
and easily bolts into place.
Above
you can see the upper support tube that
runs from the beam to the body. You can
not see it from the photo, but the upper tube support bolts
right into our roll cage. It almost looks
the same as a dune buggy frame.
OK,
other than a steering shaft, universal joints, splines and wheels and
tires we are getting the
front end close to being done. From the photo on the
left, you can also see the 21" Beard limiting strap
we used to prevent the front end for maxing out the
22" shock.
If you have
any questions or comments about Project Baja please
e-mail don@chirco.com
we sure would like to hear from you.
