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Nice machining by Marc W.

That strut looks like with very little additional work it could be made into a steering strut.

I may still have the drawing & information from the steering strut Ed Kalfus made for his record setting straight away White Heat 4-60 hydroplane that was powered by his custom made .90 cu in tether boat engine. The strut was made of O-1 tool steel. The universals used were the ball & pin type previously described. An articulated solid drive shaft system allowed the steering strut to have an adjustable depth & thrust angle.

One of a kind here!

JA

"An articulated solid drive shaft system allowed the steering strut to have an adjustable depth & thrust angle."

For this to happen requires a re positioning of the female end on the shaft or no? Doesnt the main shaft have to be lengthened to reach a deeper strut?

No & no. However, it is critical that the center of the ball & pin located at the struts front end remain centered on the struts pivot point.

JA

I dont understand how you would achieve this if you lowered the strut but the angle remained the same. Doesnt the male end in the strut lower if you lower the strut. Id need to the the adjustment in action. Im missing something .

Because of the way the steering strut is mounted in it's slotted base, it can have it's depth lowered with the same angle without any change to the total length of the drive train. This would be true of a standard strut even when the cable is used. When Ed & I used the steering struts we had a thrust gage that fastened directly to the strut. This told us exactly where the thrust was applied to the hull bottom & at what angle. Small changes in depth or angle can readily be seen on any boat.

JA

There is something I remembered about the possible use of a steering strut. Since the propeller is not located on the pivot point & the propeller is surface mounted, the counter clockwise rotation of the propeller will want to carry the strut to the left. It will take a very strong servo, maybe two very strong servos & very rigid connections to the servo or servos to make this thing work properly. However, the total elimination of the rudder blade & the increased speed would be worth the effort!

Cut & try.................................................

Jim Allen

+1 the servos would also need to be accurate as to return back to there "zeros" if you will.