Steering Wheel Column Gaitors & Safety

Steering column lowering SAFETY WARNING from FB 28 12 02

**IMPORTANT WARNING: remember if you are lowing the steering column to make 100% sure the link between the steering column and the rack is PERFECTLY aligned otherwise it acts like a bevel gear until it fails!!!!!**

You must be 100% certain the pinch bolt is tight and the splines on the rack are parallel and engaged with those on the inside of the column..

You CAN by accident lower the column beyond the ability of the rack to rotate round/down to meet it .. CHECK there is space between the rack splines and the floorpan ( Can you see the rack chassis through the hole in the floor below the Shaft? make space if necessary by cutting a notch in the floor pan to give clearance) so that the rack has rotated to be in PERFECT alignment with the lowered column.

I had this FAIL at 5mph in a carpark imagine it at 40mph on left hander!!!!

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Steering rack, checking alignment

Park the wee beast with the right-side front tyre sidewall solidly up against a kerb, so the wheels can't be steered and have somebody try to turn the wheels with the steering wheel and see if there's any play in the rack, rack-mount, ball-joints or steering knuckles. Then try to see if you can sense any play at all by trying to turn the opposite wheel by hand really hard. Then do the exact same test with the left front tyre against a kerb on that side.

Points where play might be introduced are:

• worn steering knuckles

• worn or loose (nut not tightened down and locked) ball-joints

• loose rack mounts

• worn or loose rack-end-knuckles (inside the rack boots)

• worn or mis-adjusted rack gears

• sloppy subframe mounts

• sloppy lower arm pivots

• knackered track-rod rubbers

• bent axles; loose axle nuts

• bad wheel-bearings

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Gaiter replacement tip

Gaiters are the rubber concertina coverings on the end of the steering rack tube over the ball joints between the steering rack and the track rods.

Count the number of turns up the track rod the end is screwed on by AND mark the "virtual end stop" with liquid paper/snopake in case you forget BEFORE you take the track rod end off. Replacement is the reverse of removal.

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Steering slop

I had this problem of my mini going sideways (left in this case ) when I loosened my foot on the throttle. So I found that there was lots of play in the steering rack. I didn't even have take out the whole thing to fix it.

Starting by taking off the steering boot, I found the ball-joint connecting the gear piece with the other piece ( don't know the names of these ) was almost totally loose. So by using 2 small monkey wrenches, I first loosened the perfectly round(?) locknut and then tightened the piece holding the ball.

The piece holding the ball in place, is spring loaded so just tighten the holder till it feels tight enough.

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Steering wheel boss types

There are two main ones. The big size generally known as mountney, and the small one generally known as momo. The sparco ones are momo sized.

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Steering rack replacement: Caution

2.2 rack kits aren't entire replacement racks afaik. (info provided by Ade IME'd 20 Dec 2002)

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Steering column bushes

These are an easy job to fix.

You need:

• a 7/16 spanner

• a 9/16 or 14mm spanner for the shear bolt if it is not sheared

• a hacksaw and screwdriver for the shear bolt if it is sheared

• a big socket for the steering wheel. Mine is 1 5/16, but there area few other sizes in use.

Then:

• Get both the top plastic bush and the bottom felt bush

• Soak the felt in oil, grease the top bush

• Removing the steering wheel seems to be best done by pushing and pulling on alternate sides of the wheel until it comes off. Pulling hard on both sides of the wheel seems to accomplish nothing more than bending it

• Remember to put the clippy thing that holds column to the dash rail onto the column guide before you insert the column itself.

• The felt bush goes into the column guide AFTER the column, you put the column in until you get to the thin bit near the bottom, then you feed the bush in and then push the column all the way home.