First part that I am sorting is the steering column. You will probably have seen in my first post how this arrived. Good old eBay the never ending source of parts. The guy I got this from has taken special care in removing it from the donor vehicle and manages to keep all the bolts for me as well. He also supplied all the bracket's (most of which are removed!), a very good cowling in great condition and the lower shaft along with the rack coupling although I am not sure if I will use this or not yet.
The first thing I did was to remove the steering wheel and most of the support bracket leaving approximately 45mm after the two top mounting holes. This will be adjusted when the column is fitted to the car.
 |
| Steering wheel removed and the bracket reduced considerably. |
I then removed all electrical parts as I did not want to damage these. Next followed the removal of the two security screws from the top bracket. There is a lot of talk about using a small sharp chisel to 'break' the friction and then cut a slot in the top and unscrew them. I decided to simply cut the slots using my trusty Dremel and have a go with a screwdriver bit in a socket wrench. I was able to undo them without too much difficulty.
 |
| Slots cut ready to have a go at undoing them. All went well! |
After I removed the top bracket I took out the lock barrel. The removal of this is carefully described on YouTube. You also need to remove the snap-ring and spacer to allow removal the lock housing from the column. I also took the opportunity to clean the bearing and plastic cage. They just needed a good clean a bit of light grease for the bearing and they as good as new.
Next comes the best part, the removal steering lock. This was the bit I was least looking forward to and there is precious little on the internet to help in this.
What follows next is the procedure that I used to completely remove the steering lock mechanism which, as it turned out, was very much easier than I had feared.
You need to remove the pin that had the housing peened around it. Grind enough metal away to allow you to grip the end of the pin. It pulls out fairly easily. When the pin is out you can remove the rest of the components from inside the lock barrel aperture. I spent a while cleaning up the boss that is left (can't see the finished part as I forgot to photograph it) as I prefer to leave all clean and tidy.
This now just leaves the actual steering lock itself. This is a steel/die-cast sub-assembly, lightly pressed into the housing. You can simply pull it out with a pair of long nosed pliers. Takes a bit of a pull but should come out fairly easily.
All parts now removed all I have to do now is re-assemble it.
Column now re-assembled but showing the parts removed just behind. I will probably change the two slotted screws for M8x20 cap head screws. I still need to re-attach the two stalks but this can wait till later.
The picture above shows the remainder of the parts. A few bits to clean but that's pretty much sorted for now.
New screws arrived a few days ago so I thought I would add them. Looks much better and more secure.
