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MG TD TF 1500 - Delrin Steering Colum Felt

Anyone know who sells Delrin felt bushings for our steering columns? I've only seen felt advertised, but not what it is made of. PJ
PJ Jennings

Delrin is a strong, crystalline plastic material, rather than a felt. Someone would have to buy a rod of it and machine it to fit.

Tom Lange
t lange

"Delrin is a strong, crystalline plastic material"

It wears like iron - got it in my right shoulder :-) Cheers - Dave
D.W. DuBois

Gerry on the other MG site makes them for the MGB. Give him some dimensions and if you can get about 50 people who want them , he would probably mill some and give you a price.
L E D LaVerne

Went out to the Garage and measures my steering shaft etc.
Tough without the steering wheel off but the caliper came up with this.

Any play if any, would be minimal.

1 foot Delrin rod is available in 1 1/4" dia form Amazon among others, in several sizes.

https://www.amazon.com/Rod-Acetal-150-Wht-Dia/dp/B01M05LAHL/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1496448056&sr=8-1&keywords=delrin+rod+1+1%2F4++1+foot.

Might give this a go.
With a drill press and the right drill could work.



Rod Jones

Here are the prices per foot at McMaster-Carr.

OD/Tolerance/ lengths available/part # color black/cost/ft/part# color white.

1 1/4" 0" to +0.005" 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 8572K23 7.59 8576K23 7.37

But McMasters also has tubing.

OD/ID black and white
1 1/4" 1" 1/8" 1, 3, 5 ASTM D6778, NSF/ANSI Standard 61 for Drinking Water 8627K699 7.22 ASTM D6778 1830T219 8.05

Tubing no less than solid but easier to get to size. Drill would more likely be concentric with od.
1-3/32 dill very expensive.
Boring on lathe much better.

Why do you want Delrin?
What is wrong with felt?
Did you know there is a Molybdenum loaded plastic available. Has perpetual lubrication. I have used it for gears.



Jim B.

JA Benjamin

You could also use standard 32/24mm Teflon pipe and bore it out on a lathe as a one off job.
Having them made would be no great problem if the quantities were sufficient to verify making the tooling.
I would need exact measurements. We could use the same injection moulding machine we use to make the kingpin and fulcrum pin seals.

Regards
Declan
Declan Burns

POM, yes you could injection mould, but not PTFE, Declan. It requires a sintering type process with a small percentage of solvent naphtha to help.
Dave H
Dave Hill

Jim, I would consider doing this as the felt I got still allows the steering wheel to move a good 3/16"
I tried a piece of leather as well but that also allows some movement.
Be nice to have something really solid or as near as.
First time in 53 years driving a TD :)
Rod Jones

Thanks Dave-you are the plastics expert. I am still on a learning curve. I will be over in the factory during the week and will see what is lying around. Someone will have to determine the final dimensions. I would think it would need to have a slit for ease of installation.

Regards
Declan
Declan Burns

Rod. I renewed the felt on mine and there is no play at all - it has to be a really tight fit. If the felt is easy to install, its too loose. Delrin / POM / Acetal would last indefinitely though.
Dave H
Dave Hill

I put a strip of heavy leather in mine in 1970, shiny side in and waxed. Still going fine.

David
D A Provan

It seems like someone in a previous thread found a bearing that would fit, maybe a roller bearing.
rich40701

Delrin is just, ok for bearings, but UHMW (ultra high molecular weight polyetheylene) is what you should use, it requires no lubrication and is easy to machine.

High density felt has worked for me, orig. piece is still in place. I also have some needled felt fabric that is made from PES (pop bottle resin) which might work.
colin stafford

A word of caution regarding UHMW, if I may.

I went through this with a steering column I purchased from Flaming River a few years ago for one of my other projects. They used a UHMW bushing on the bottom end of their column and when it got hot from the engine heat it swelled and made the steering wheel VERY difficult to turn (extremely dangerous to drive). It cost me several thousand dollars and almost two years (long story) before we were finally able to diagnose the problem.
UHMW has a very high rate of expansion when exposed to heat. While I doubt that the cockpit of our cars will ever get hot enough to move it much I would leave ample clearance if you chose to go down that path. Great stuff for its intended purpose. Its my understanding it was developed for the mining industry to use in the slurry lines. It is also used on the track runners of snowmobiles.

just my 2 cents

Dan
Dan Nordstroom

I use to sell millions of feet UHNW tubing for the inner liner of mechanical speedometer cable to AC spark plug and we never had coef. of expansion issues with the product.

For this application its kind of a non issue anyway.

UHMW does not like oil based lubricants, it likes H2O.


That's is why is used on ski bases and rudder bearings on boats.



colin stafford

Dan is correct. UHMWPE has many fine attributes, but it does swell with heat. The material used for lining speedo cables is similar, though not proper UHMWPE, more of a VHMWPE. In any case the thin section and different application means its not an issue in that application
Dave H
Dave Hill

This thread was discussed between 02/06/2017 and 14/06/2017

MG TD TF 1500 index

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