Steering Modifications
Since the turbo and exhaust piping will be very close to the steering box I decided to give it a bit of protection. First I completely disassembled the box, sand blasted the outside and ceramic coated it. It was then reassembled with all new seals and shims. The vent/fill plug was also replaced with a new one after these pictures were taken. I also have a MadDat steering brace installed to help tighten up the steering.
Since I have to do a custom dash, I decided to move all the controls (lights, wipers, etc) to the steering column. I accomplished this by using a tilt column from an S13 240SX. First the factory mounting plate for the 240SX column was cut off and the end of the steering shaft was cut off to remove the universal joint.
Once the universal joint was removed I realized that the inside of the steering shaft on the 240SX column was splined exactly like the factory 510 shaft. This made life much simpler as all I had to do was shorten the 510 shaft to work on the 240SX column. I cut down the shaft and beveled the ends. I then welded the shaft and slid a tube over the weld and welded that on. A bit of overkill, but I didn't want the shaft to break while driving (that would be baaad mmmkay).
Next I made a mounting plate for the firewall, I just used a piece of cardboard for a template and drew it up. 2.5" tubing was used to extend the 240SX column to the firewall and a 1.5" roll bar scrap was used for the sleeve that extends into the engine compartment. The steering shaft just slides into the 240SX column just like it did on the stock 510 column.
The final step was to make a mounting plate off of the roll cage for the steering column to bolt to. Once that was done the steering column was installed and everything fit perfectly.
