Wheel knuckle modifications

A few days ago, posted photos of the front suspension and steering assembled on the trike:

• Trike simplified steering linkage assembled — June 24, 2024

Have pulled it apart, to fix a few things. Firstly, the wheel knuckles. The history of these goes back to December 2023:

• Construction of front axles for custom trike — December 09, 2023

The design has evolved. Here is a later post:

• Considering ball joints for wheel knuckles — March 27, 2024

Here is a photo showing the axles on which the wheels will slide:

To finish-off the axle, the aluminium tube has now been epoxied firmly over the steel. I used cheap "Utility" brand slow-setting epoxy from Bunnings (my usual choice, far cheaper than the alternative brands, sets very hard), smeared it over the steel shaft, slid the aluminium tube over, and inserted a bit more epoxy into the top to fill up:

The turning radius of the trike was a bit too wide, so I used an angle grinder to cut the sides of the bottom steel cube to allow the ball joint to swing a bit more. Only cut out about 3mm, as the steering arms are also going to limit the turning radius.

Strengthened the bottom steel cube a bit by welding a plate on the back, as shown in the above photo.

Another problem was that the steering-lever extension was not held positively in place. If one of the bolts should loosen, the extension could move slightly. To fix that, welded the extension, also shown in the above photo. Left the bolts in place.

Finally, an etching primer and black coat:

Tomorrow can start re-assembling.   

Tags: light