STEER CLEAR OF FAILURE
Chris discovers that his TR7 needs a new steering rack before it can face its deferred MoT test
OWNED SINCE April 2016 MILEAGE SINCE LAST REPORT 104 TOTAL MILEAGE 104,129 LATEST COSTS £134 for parts
1980 TRIUMPH TR7 FHC
It’s a strange feeling, knowing that Her Majesty’s Government is quite content for your annual MoT to be deferred by up to an additional six months, but then I needn’t remind readers what an unusual year 2020 has been.
The TR7 was originally due its MoT in April and so saw its renewal date extended to the middle of October. It wasn’t a grace period I had initially intended to make use of, but with newborn son Dominic arriving in August, much of the time prior to and immediately following his arrival was focused on him, rather than a 40-year old sports car from a long defunct British manufacturer. However, with things settled at home, last month I booked for LBY 934V to get a morning’s attention from head mechanic Ben, at classic car specialist Robsport (01763 262263, robsport.co.uk) before finally facing the MoT tester.
I was confident of a pass – however, play in both steering rack joints had been marked as advisories last year and I had been told by Ben to have the rack replaced before its next test – just to be safe. Ben assured me it wasn’t a challenging task and could be done in just a couple of hours – and so it played out when I arrived with the TR7 in Robsport’s workshop. The first job is to separate the track rod ends from the steering arms. Ben then loosened and removed the securing bolt from the steering shaft. After that, four retaining bolts hold the rack in place, and with these removed the old rack can be fed out past the wheel hub (it can’t be dropped as the steering arms would foul on the anti-roll bar).
With the rack removed, Ben was able to identify that it was not just the steering rack that had worn, but the knuckle joint between it and the steering shaft. It was an additional frustrating expense, but not difficult to sort. In fact, it was all straightforward for the most part, but – as with most jobs – eminently easier with the assistance of a twopost lift. I’m certain I would’ve filled the family swear jar several times over had I attempted to do the job at home with only a trolley jack and axle stands to elevate the TR7. That’s not to mention the nightmare I would’ve had attempting to centralise the rack. Ben was able to wind each end to roughly the correct length, but had access to the necessary tracking equipment to make those fine tweaks that meant the TR7 wouldn’t be veering off in the direction of the nearest ditch.
With the new steering rack fitted, Ben performed a few essential checks prior to the
MoT. A good thing he did too as he noticed a small amount of play in the wheel bearing on the driver’s side, something he was able to resolve by removing the split pin and tightening the nut. He then applied plenty of copper slip to prevent the wheel sticking to the hub (something which can happen to all cars, but apparently TR7s are especially liable to it).
It was a morning well spent, as later that afternoon I was handed only the second
advisory-free MoT certificate I’d had in the four years I’ve owned it. Even more rewarding was the drive home; I’d always been aware that the TR7’s steering had a degree of play, but with wear occurring gradually over time you never appreciate how bad it is until the problem is fixed. LBY has regained a precision in the corners that I’m quite sure it’s never had in my ownership, while on the drive up the A1 back home to Lincolnshire it remained straight and true without any additional inputs or corrections at the wheel.
Back home, and now with its MoT checked off the to-do list the next job is to get to the bottom of LBY’s battery drain issue.