Date:         Wed, 22 Oct 2003 02:35:20 EDT
Reply-To:     THX0001@AOL.COM
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         George Goff <THX0001@AOL.COM>
Subject:      Re: SHEAR bolts/steering column
Comments: To: doktortim@rockisland.com
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"

In a message dated 10/22/03 1:11:57 AM, doktortim@rockisland.com writes:

<< Look over that design closely and you will see that
in a frontal impact when your chest hits the wheel and the bolts shear >>

On this list, the subject of those damn shear head fasteners is a bunch of
speculation which reappears according to some kind of hidden schedule.  I have
yet to see any statement from VW engineering regarding the matter, so the
debate and speculation continues.  I tend to favor David B.'s opinion that the
bracketry supporting the steering column is just too deformable to support
shearing those fasteners regardless of their composition.  While I can respect an
impulse created during a change in momentum, it would be like the straw piercing
a brick which many of us saw in our elementary school general science
textbooks.

Just to put his debate to rest in my own mind, I am tempted to hack together
a rudimentary shear tester and put the various fasteners through their paces.
Now, if anyone is killing time in a mechanical engineering lab, let me know,
I'll provide the specimens for a government job and we will all be able to put
this behind us.

George