Replacing lower steering joint

Started by Anonymous, February 19, 2011, 16:37

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Anonymous

The symptoms that brought this to light were heavy steering, not like power steering failure more like having flat tyres on the front.

A temporary fix was to soak liberally with WD40 and work the steering till it freed off........... DON'T USE THIS AS A PERMANENT FIX IT WILL FAIL.

Here is the offending item


REMOVAL

First of all I undid the boot retaining screw, this was done easily with a philips screwdriver, the boot then just pops out


I didn't centralise the steering wheel because this would leave the pinch bolts in an awkward position
I opted to turn the wheel leaving the bolt and split pointing downwards
It also left the external pinch bolt in a favourable position for removal
After doing this roll the car backwards and forwards to take out the drag from the tyres then secure the steering wheel (I did this by wrapping some old ariel cable between the steering wheel and cowl)


After removing both pinch bolts take a large flat head screwdriver and pry the split sections apart, they will spring back after doing this but you will have eased the tightness of the clamp.

I managed to get a hammer in quite easily to knock the lower clamp upwards WHEN DOING THIS BE VERY CAREFUL NOT TO DAMAGE THE SPLINES ON THE STEERING RACK.*

* (Post-script added by Spit with OP approval - 10/01/13) Les's advice about protecting the rack splines is sound, particularly as the optimum angle of 'attack' to remove the lower joint from the rack spline is oblique to the more delicate upper shaft's spline. If you find that your steering rack spline and yoke of the lower UJ are tightly fused even after a liberal dose of PlusGas or similar, here's a workaround: You can remove the upper UJ completely by removing its upper pinch bolt as well. The upper joint will then slide completely clear of both upper and lower shafts, allowing more aggressive attack of the bottom end without fear of damage to parts that you're keeping.




From inside the car you then push the shaft down until it clears the column then lift it out complete with boot
I did take pictures of how the boot comes off but unfortunately they never turned out, removal is very easy though as all you have to do is pull off a rubber grommet, slide the boot off then fit it to your replacement.


REPLACING

This is basically a reversal of removing, just make sure the flat section on the shaft splines will line up when the pinch bolt is replaced then slide it into position, you can put the pinch bolt back in but don't tighten up yet, there is enough flat area to allow for locating the steering rack end.
I managed to tap the lower end onto the steering rack splines without too much bother and again you just have to line up the pinch bolt groove.


After tightening up both pinch bolts and boot retainer I went for a drive to check the steering wheel position, as nothing had moved it was still straight and level, if you find yours is slightly out you don't have to take the boot off again, just loosen the top bolt, remove the bottom bolt and adjust accordingly then replace the bolt tighten them both up and away you go.


If I hadn't stopped to take pictures this job would have taken me 30 minutes tops   s:wink: :wink: s:wink:  

Les

Ilogik

#1
So did it fix your issue?
Current: Genuine GT300 Monocraft running a 2ZZ-GE
Ex: Trial kitted Cam\'d Power fc
Ex: TRD stage 1 TTE Turbo

Anonymous

#2
Quote from: "Ilogik"So did it fix your issue?

Sure did   s:D :D s:D

Anonymous

#3
I can see this becoming a common problem now our Roadsters are reaching a certain age,thanks for posting.  s:D :D s:D

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