Image Source: FlamingRiver.com

When a company is devoted to a particular line of products, they are bound to hear many of the same tech of questions more than once. Take for instance Flaming River and their devotion to steering components. Over their 20+ year history, they have fielded many of the same questions regarding properly designing a killer custom steering system.

So to help negotiate the average car enthusiast, they recently released helpful tips to keep in mind when designing your steering system. This covered everything from steering column installation to universal joint installation. You can see their complete list of tips here, but we thought we’d cover what Flaming River says are some of the most common mistakes made when designing a steering system.

Incorrect Column Length

• Having a steering column that is too short or too long can drastically influence how a vehicle feels behind the wheel. If the column is too long, it will not only give the affect of the driver feeling cramped or crowded while driving, but it can also cause extreme angles in the universal joint setup. However, if the column is too short, it can cause serious issues with properly connecting the steering column to the steering linkage. This could obviously be a very dangerous scenario.

Connecting The Wire Harness

• According to Flaming River, “One of the most common errors happens when someone is replacing a stock OEM steering column. They will remove the factory original column without verifying the wire colors and what they relate to in their vehicle’s electrical system. Customers sometimes incorrectly assume that their car is original and the previous owner did not modify the wiring or electrical system. Taking a couple of minutes to verify what color wire operates front and rear turn signals, brake lights, horn function, etc. will save you a lot of headaches when you install and wire in a Flaming River column. All of our columns come with a 4-1/4″ GM wiring connector and a wiring diagram. We also sell a female wiring connector kit to adapt any existing wiring harness to the wiring plug on a Flaming River column.”

Universal Joint Installation

• Another very common error that can occur when installing the universal joint, is putting too much shafting into the yoke. Flaming River advises that you should only put 7/8” of shaft in each end of the yoke. This will ensure that the shaft is flush with the yoke itself. Too much shaft into the yoke can cause interference with the bearing and make it feel like the joint is bound up.

Having a custom steering column can really make an interior and vehicle stand out from the crowd. But make sure you follow all the tips from Flaming River and ensure that it’s done correctly.