Right so update time, going to bring this up to date now finally! Not too much to report but a free minor changes.
So have had play in the steering for a while now.. Got to the stage where it started to drift side to side down the motorway so time to get it sorted! Narrowed it down to the steering column coupling, but as usual this is a shortened cosworth part, which you can't buy anymore. So the search was on for the parts.
So sourced the parts from car builder solutions to make a new coupling
The old coupling
Old next to new parts
The splined bar needs to cut down in size so a collar was needed - needed drilling out to slide over the shaft - not the best way to do it at all but it worked for this instance
Found out the cosworth steering rack has an odd sized splined pinion - but after two weeks of searching I found a company that can make the union joint I needed - two different sized splines on either end, one for the shaft and one for the pinion
This shows my idea
Shaft cut down and prepared for welding
Welded
Collar on
Welded
Painted
Quickly test fitted it back on the car and realised that the new UJ at the bottom did not have as much movement as the last and basically meant it wouldn't fit onto the car..
Two next to each other
So a bit of careful trimming of some excess material and the joint had more movement
So the end result is below
And fitted to the car
With that done I went to get the car tracked as it was wobbling a bit on the steering wheel... Could not believe the results afterwards it was so positive again so a job worth doing!
Moving on decided to get the rear bumper off, I needed to replace the boot solenoid as it was knackered and have been avoiding this job due to the bolts that held the bumper to the rear quarters. But persistence pays off..
Bumper off
I knew this was here but a better look at a poor repair on the fuel makes me think I need to look at this sooner rather than later
Biro anyone? Found this stuck behind the bumper!
Evidence of a slow effort with a die grinder to remove the old rusted bolts
Old rusty bolts
Wings needing some repair
So with the solenoid replaced, the bumper was fitted back. This time with all four of its nuts instead of just two and an experiment on fixing it to the quarters. The small areas where the bumper meets are a little weak and putting more bolts through are difficult to get to and make it weak. So I've used 1mm adhesive foam strips to secure the bumper and stop it flapping. I'm pleased to say at the moment t has worked far better than I thought and better than using the bolts! So time will tell if this is a permanent solution or not.
So with that done, a year since ownership had come around and another MOT was needed. Pleased to say went through without hiccups! Just an advisory on from ball joints.
So on the way home picked up two new ones and set about getting them fitted
Whilst the front wheels were off I gave the insides a good clean
All back on and took the car for a drive, steering proved to be even better so pleased with that.
For those interested I took a couple of photos of areas that I forgot to in earlier posts..
New air filter
New battery in the boot
Also bought the magazine that featured the car back in 2003!
The all important dyno graph...
So that is how the car stands today, with one slight new addition.. A power steering fluid leak. Took the car out at the weekend and once home again had a look under the bonnet to check everything over.. And spotted this
Leaking out around the end of the rack on the passenger side is some fluid. Which says to mean the seals have gone! It's always the next problem with this car... Anyway, new seals are ordered and waiting for them to turn up!
Watch this space for the steering rack repair!
Thanks for looking!
