Showing posts with label rebuild. Show all posts
Showing posts with label rebuild. Show all posts

Saturday 3 April 2021

Steering Column rebuild and fitting

Whilst I'm waiting for the front stub axle bushes to be fitted and reamed and the wheels sand blasted and powder coated with silver paint, I thought It would be good to sort out the steering column so that it was ready to turn the wheels when the front suspension was finished.

I will be getting a nice new steering wheel as this one has seen better days and certainly isn't the one that came with the Midget in 1965!


Plan of attack was to take it apart and wire brush all the old paint off and then apply some nice new paint. Most of it was just dirty.
 


The steering column is basically two parts. The inner column and the outer sleeve. To separate them you have to remove the fabric bushes. One at the top of the sleeve and one at the bottom.

First remove the brass clip that holds the bottom fabric bush by sliding out of the eye slit.


The bush is looking quite thin and worn. So will be replacing that.


Next up you have to remove the steering wheel. 


Remove the horn push by unscrewing it and undo the main nut. 


The steering wheel will come off once you have also removed the electric contact point for the horn and indicator. 


Then you can slide the inner column out of the outer sleeve. After cleaning off the old paint I sprayed some primer and black chassis paint on the column and started to rebuild it with some of the new parts, like the fabric bushes and the seating rubber.


I started with the lower bush, but before you can fit the bushes you need to soak them in what the Haynes manual calls heavy oil. 

I did some research and found that graphite oil is what's needed and then found this stuff online for a few pounds.


Gave them a really good covering in the graphite oil. 



An then started to fit them. I only found out about this oil after I had test fitted everything, which is why the pictures show them still nice and clean. But now the fitting is complete and the column is just right and doesn't squeak when you turn the wheel.






Then the upper bush, which was a bit more fiddly to get it square.


But managed it in the end.


The old seating rubber wasn't that bad but made sense to get a new one.



Another part bolted on to the chassis


Next up is the dust excluder. 


It needs to go in this hole.



It is quite tricky to get the steering column to slide through the rubber dust excluder without it popping out from its position. I tried this rubber protector solution I bought some time ago and it made the job so much easier as it has lubrication qualities.



Then I could grease up the teeth on the pinion. and fit the column. Make sure you have removed the bolt from the column before fitting.


It is at this point that you should check the alignment of the column and the pinion. They should be perfectly inline. If not you might need to add a shim behind the steering column mounting bracket. They don't make them up any more so you'll have to work out what thickness of shim will give you the perfect alignment, as that will help to make your steering nice and light.



Then time to fit the rubber packing and the cap of the bracket.


Once I was happy it was all in place I fitted the bolt.


Now I am not sure if this part is standard or someone manufactured it but it did come off the Midget so I thought I should clean it up and put it back. It is designed to keep dirt off the end of the steering column and pinion.

I can't see any example of it on any diagrams but I like the idea of it. 


One half is held in place by the steering rack mount and the other attaches to a bolt that has been put through the suspension bracket. Just need to find the bolt to hold it in place. It's got to be around here somewhere!



But it is all fitted and ready to start turning the wheels when they are ready to go back on! Good thing is that the whole mechanism seems really tight.

Even though the steering wheel is a quite shabby just having it in place is a good feeling! Might have to get a seat in place to see how it feels all together!

Tuesday 2 March 2021

The Rebuild Begins

Over the last couple of months I have been preparing the chassis to start installing the steering and suspension. In order to do that I needed to paint parts of the engine bay.

I bought a few rattle cans of old english white paint and started to prepare the engine bay which involved sanding down the primer to provide a key for the new paint to stick to. I used 200 grit sandpaper and gave it a good once over. Then hoovered up all the dust as best I could. Then using a specialist paint cleaning solvent and lint free cloths I sprayed and wiped down all surfaces and allowed to dry. 


Once the first coat was applied I needed to repeat the process with even finer sandpaper. Starting with 800 and then 1000 grit for the final 3rd coat. The finish was really good for my first attempt and considering it was just the engine bay I'm very happy.



The first item I wanted to install was the steering column which I had recently finished restoring with the new parts.


It went in so well having cleaned up all the parts so next up was the front shocks or dampers.


Starting to come together! Next up will be the front suspension.

Monday 1 October 2018

Bump Stop Plate - continued

Continued to make more progress on the bump stop plate, but it was slow. Having to make a bespoke repair for the bracket that exactly matched the multiple curves wasn't easy.



But eventually got there and welded it in place.



Next stop weld in the bump stop. More welding upside down! Hmm, Can't wait!



Wednesday 26 September 2018

Bump Stop Plate

Whilst the car is on its side and the floor is in place I need to put back the plate that the rubber bump stop on the suspension is designed to hit. 



Both of them were very dirty and a little bit rusty, so I set about to clean them up with my assortment of wire brushes.



They came up quite good and certainly good enough for another few years. They just needed some protection so I coated them in a couple of layers of rust converter.



I'll paint the insides with chassis black paint before welding them back on.

The only trouble real I had was that in order to attach these to the floor you need this bracket and one of them was totally destroyed by rust.



This one will be ok once cleaned up but I need to make a new one.