This steering layout had almost no room to work with. The rack, motor mount, exhaust manifold, cab, and brake hardware all wanted the same space, so the shaft path had to be controlled instead of guessed at. With three U-joints in the system, the real problem was degrees of freedom: the shaft needs to rotate, but it cannot be allowed to translate and wander. The fix was a supported steering linkage with the U-joint angles kept under 35 degrees, plus custom bracketry to hold the bearing support, steering column, and brake pedal/master cylinder assembly in the right relationship. We modeled the parts in CAD, cut and bent the brackets, then revised the mount where needed to improve stiffness and close up the fit. That matters because a tight steering package only works if it stays located. Support the shaft correctly, control the angles, and the steering turns cleanly without binding or shake while leaving room for everything else in the truck.
The episode centers on solving tight packaging problems around the steering column and brake assembly in the truck. With the L5P engine installed on a Roadster Shop chassis, the engine bay has very little free space. The chassis uses a front-mounted steering rack, so the steering shaft exits the rack directly into a crowded area occupied by the motor mount, with the exhaust manifold immediately behind it and the cab close beyond that. Because so much of the surrounding structure depends on steering placement, the team treats steering layout as a prerequisite for building the rest of the engine bay.
To address the problem, they bring in Flaming River components: a steering column, a 36-inch shaft, three U-joints, and an intermediate support. The support is necessary because a steering system with three U-joints introduces too many degrees of freedom. The shaft needs to rotate, but it cannot be allowed to translate or flop around under load.
Before committing to hard mounts, the team strips out leftover pedal hardware from the truck's former manual-transmission setup. The remains of the clutch linkage and the original brake pedal are removed, along with the floor-mounted gas pedal, to clear space for the new steering and brake arrangement.
They then mock up the steering column inside the cab using a temporary seat position and improvised zip-tie mounting. The goal is to establish a comfortable steering-wheel location relative to the dash and driver. Driver ergonomics matter here: they want the wheel positioned so the driver's arms are slightly outstretched rather than cramped into a compressed posture. Once the seating position and steering-wheel reach feel correct, they begin laying out the shaft path from the rack to the column.
The first U-joint is locked onto the rack-and-pinion input with its pinch bolt, and the team begins measuring and trimming shaft sections. They check left-right alignment and, most importantly, U-joint operating angles. Their target is to stay under 35 degrees per joint to avoid binding. The mock-up lands around 32 to 33 degrees on one joint, with the rest also within acceptable range. By the end of the initial layout, the steering position feels right in hand, the shaft path is workable, and the geometry appears safe.
After the steering mock-up is established in the truck, the layout is transferred into CAD so a proper support-bearing bracket can be designed. Because the system uses three U-joints, the intermediate shaft needs a bearing support to control translation while still allowing rotation. The chosen support uses a spherical rod end, which must be mounted rigidly into the chassis.
The bracket is designed digitally, exported as a DXF, and cut on a Torchmate plasma table. To improve accuracy during fabrication, bend lines are engraved directly into the flat pattern with a pneumatic engraver before the internal and external cuts are made. That eliminates the need to manually mark bend locations with a scribe or marker and allows the part to move directly from deburring to the finger brake.
The fabrication discussion also covers the bending process in detail. The finger brake, sometimes called a box brake, uses removable fingers of different widths so intricate box-like parts can be formed. Bend radius is accounted for in the CAD model, using a rule of thumb of roughly one material thickness to 1.5 times material thickness. In this case, the setup is adjusted so the bend radius matches the material thickness, which is what the design assumed. The operator notes that the brake does not truly stop at zero or 90 degrees, so springback and overtravel have to be considered during forming.
Once bent, the support-bearing bracket is prepared for welding. Mill scale is removed from the frame-side mounting area, and a jam nut is welded to the back side of the bracket. During this process, the team pauses to address a common fabrication issue: zinc-coated hardware should not be welded as-is because the coating is both unpleasant to weld and unhealthy to inhale. A brief acid test demonstrates how muriatic acid can strip zinc coating from plated hardware, although one of the test pieces turns out to be stainless rather than zinc-coated steel.
When tacking the bracket into place, the bearing is temporarily installed through the bracket so the mounting hole remains concentric. That prevents the bracket from shifting slightly during welding and making final assembly difficult. The support bearing ends up tucked under the motor mount, where it controls the intermediate shaft while staying out of the way of surrounding components.
At this stage, the steering system is still only partially supported. The shaft can be turned, but some visible movement remains because the firewall-side support has not yet been built. The team plans to add a through-bearing at the firewall to prevent the column from sliding and to fully stabilize the system.
With the steering path largely defined, attention shifts inside the cab. The team removes insulation, clears out the dash area, and takes out the instrument cluster to expose the under-dash mounting structure. This opens up the space needed to design a bracket that will tie together the lower steering column mount, the brake pedal assembly, and the future firewall structure.
They identify factory under-dash mounting points that can be reused. Even though one of the threaded holes they wanted is stripped, enough reference points remain to build a bracket that picks up existing structure rather than relying on entirely new mounts. Hand measurements are taken for the slotted spread, hole spacing, column centerline, flange offsets, firewall distance, and frame relationship. A plumb bob is used to establish a reliable reference plane from the frame rail to the cab structure.
Those measurements are then fed back into CAD so a larger under-dash bracket assembly can be modeled. This bracket will support the brakes, support the bottom of the steering column, and tie into the firewall once sheet metal work begins. The goal is to lock down the final steering and brake positions before the truck leaves for further fabrication.
While the brake and steering bracket is being modeled, work continues on another packaging issue: making room in the cab for the driveshaft tunnel. The floor has already been cut, but the team does not want to remove more of the cab than necessary. Since the rear end is not yet fully placed in the cab environment, they use the chassis itself to establish the required driveshaft centerline.
With the suspension fully tucked, no air in the bags, and jack stands under the rear shock mounts, they measure from a known chassis reference to the centerline of the rear differential U-joint connection. The critical dimension is taken from the rear crossmember area: 18 and 3/16 inches to the reference point, then 3 inches down to the centerline. That rear centerline is combined in CAD with the front U-joint location at the transmission to define the full driveshaft path.
Using that geometry, a cutting jig is designed in CAD. The expected driveshaft outside diameter is about 3.2 inches, but the jig is made larger for clearance, ending up at 3.75 inches to provide roughly half an inch of air gap at full compression. The jig locates against the cab in multiple directions so it can be pushed into place, traced, and used to guide the rough cut for the driveshaft tunnel. After plasma cutting and deburring the jig, the team checks alignment, marks centerlines, and uses it to define the opening that will connect the existing floor cut to the rear cab wall.
In the middle of the structural work, a 1960 Chevrolet grille is brought in for test fitting on the 1966 Chevrolet truck. The grille is described as generally straight, with only a slight dip that can be massaged out. The team confirms there is enough space behind it, although some trimming will be required to make it work with the build. This is a smaller side task compared with the steering and brake work, but it helps confirm front-end direction while the rest of the fabrication continues.
Meanwhile, the under-dash steering and brake bracket progresses from CAD into metal. The first version is installed and proves the concept, but it is not quite right. It gives the team a clear picture of where everything will land, yet some tweaking is needed. A revised version adds stiffness because the first bracket showed some flex, and the geometry of the steering-column strap-clamp ears is adjusted after the initial gap comes up short by roughly 3/8 inch. By intentionally leaving those ears untacked at first, the team makes it easier to revise only the affected pieces rather than remaking the entire bracket.
By Sunday morning, the revised steering and brake master-cylinder mount bracket is welded and installed. It bolts to factory holes and now fits the truck properly. The master cylinders sit in a favorable position, and the bracket establishes the relationship between the brake pedal, steering column, and future firewall. Once the firewall is built, the assembly should become even stiffer.
The brake pedal is positioned as close to the steering column as practical without causing interference, which is exactly what the team wanted. Because the truck will use throttle-by-wire, the accelerator pedal can be mounted on the opposite side, allowing a clean one-footed pedal layout. The steering column is also back in place, though final clamping hardware is still pending. At this point, the only likely steering adjustments are minor shaft-length changes once the support bearing is finalized and the column is fully clamped.
With brakes and steering essentially checked off, the project can move on. The next major task is the hood-hinge system. A six-bar linkage previously designed for the hood is being refined, and new brackets are being fabricated to mount it to the core support using existing holes. Those brackets will position the linkage so the hood can swing up and over the front structure. The episode closes with the truck's steering and brake architecture largely solved and the team preparing for the next round of sheet-metal work, including hood brackets, air intake, and intercooler packaging.