Steering to better times
Ha! Just had a look back at my closing thoughts from last month’s Our Cars. ‘Hopefully this will be nice and easy,’ I said of removing the steering rack, necessary to fit stiffer mounts to cure the rack float. Well, it would have been if the coupling at the bottom of the steering column wasn’t seized solid to the splined steering pinion. Inserting a wedge to separate the split end of the coupling achieved nothing, as did levering between the end of the shaft and the coupling universal joint. Tapping with a hammer wasn’t an option because I didn’t want to transmit any force to the upper column on the cabin side of the bulkhead.
What I needed was a special tool, something to apply progressive force between the back of the UJ and the end of the pinion shaft to push it out of the coupling. The answer came at the bottom of one of those tins where old nuts, bolts and other fasteners live in limbo – a 7/16in bolt and nut. Cut down to fit in the steering coupling it could be unwound to push the steering rack shaft out. It was slow going, partly because each time I ran out of bolt thread I had to cut another, slightly longer version and continue. Four bolts later, the rack was free and I could fit my new mounts. The old rubber ones looked fine, but had been allowing the rack to move so much that the column had scratched the paint off the chassis. No wonder turn-in was so lazy.
Ages ago I bought a set of solid rack mounts on recommendation, but everyone I’ve mentioned them to has warned that they’ll transmit too much road shock to the car, annoying driver and wrecking components such as the steering rack. So, I’ve compromised with SNG Barratt’s polyurethane alternatives. With the rack on the bench I took the opportunity to look inside. Everything looked like new, even the grease, but I changed it anyway.
Unfortunately, the steering coupling hadn’t fared so well, being partially seized. To replace it meant separating the column from the other coupling in the cabin so that it could be withdrawn through the bulkhead.
I wondered if my four-bolt method had damaged the needle rollers on the lower coupling, but stripping it down revealed one of the four UJ cups dry of grease and full of rust. So, I fitted a top-quality Japanese-made joint from Bailey Morris. On a roll, I decided to replace the track rod ends as well because the grease beneath the rubber boots had turned brown with rust, despite me pumping them with fresh Castrol LM every 2000 miles.
At least refitting the steering system was straightforward; the only fiddle was making sure the rack and the steering wheel were both pointing straight before I reconnected the splined joints.
Next job is fitting my reconditioned water pump and the rest of the cooling system. Will it be easy?