RACKED AGAIN

Racked, but this time it's steering. The front louvred plate bearing my RAC and AA badges had to be removed to expose the steering rack brackets and Arthur had conveniently provided a small piece of packing material to be placed under the near side of the rack to level it up and that was fine. When I went to pass the bolts through the rear holes in the clamping bracket, they fouled the front engine bolt. This was because I had temporarily used the old bike bolts, which at the front, is too long by about four inches and the overhang got in the way. Fortunately I had recently placed an order with Westfield Fasteners which included the correct engine bolts. Once again the engine crane was deployed to take the weight of the engine whilst I changed the front bolt, the first photo shows the nut attached to the new front bolt just allowing clearance for the nut of the clamp bracket. No problem now, the rack was firmly bolted down and level.

I quickly realised it was easier to join the two sections of the column together at the middle UV joint, before passing it down through the cockpit and loosely bolting the sheath to the chassis brackets. It took a bit wriggling to get the bottom UV joint onto the racks splined shaft, but eventually it slid in and the bolt was passed through the groove in the splines. I tightened the four bolts at the brackets, adjusting the column so that it passed centrally between the clutch and brake pedal, but one of the bolts securing the mid UV joint kept knocking against both pedals as the shaft was turned.

I took it all out and cut off the protruding excess threaded part of both bolts with my disc cutter, cleaned up the ends and passed the column back in again, but it still fouls the break pedal, not ideal. I will try adjusting the brackets to see if a slight angle solves the problem, if not I will move the pedal box back an inch or so as I had placed it as far forward as it can go, allowing for my long legs.

That was yesterday and today I took it all out again as the front foot well bulkhead had to be riveted in place first, so that the steering column could be passed through the hole in the bulkhead. Once that was done, when I reinstalled the pedal box I moved it back a tad and the break pedal is now in front of the UV joint nut and there is no interference. There is, as the photo shows a large flat flange on the pedal, I imagine that this is to increase stiffness of the pedal and I see no reason why I couldn't grind a little away to allow clearance should I need all available leg room, but it might also be, that when the break system is pressurised with hydraulic fluid, the pedal won't depress anywhere near as far back as the UV joint, we shall see.

Final photo shows the bulkhead glued and riveted in place, despite putting the tube of adhesive sealant on top of the hall radiator overnight, it still took a mighty effort to squeeze it out of the tube. It obviously cooled off very quickly, maybe whilst in the garage I should keep it in a bucket of very hot water, that might be the answer on these cold mornings.