Steering Column Overhaul

[Paulfrazer]

Right, I suspected something like that. I had inserted the inner bush so it would only go in a few turns. I will wait for the ones from LD Parts and use that.

[Philip Wardle]

Good call, Paul, the 4 BA might well vibrate its way out

[jbuckl]

Because the stag has quite a few different threads, I armed myself with some pitch gauges…. 4 sets!

It helps.

Also a large set of imperial taps and dies.

For the most part my eye can identify whitworth, unf. Unc. and metric.

B.A. and -dash not so easily though.

The -dash system is unnecessarily opaque as far as I can tell.

The numbers in a thread name should make the size easy…. As unified and metric do.

anyway,
why not leave it out until the swap over?

then replace at your leisure?

it’s why a second sub assy is such a good way to go after all.

[Philip Wardle]

For the anoraks among us ( including me ) ... http://www.britishfasteners.com/threads/ ... explains what the number in BA thread sizes is all about 2 BA threads are still used to couple the flights to the shank on your darts, apparently !

[Paulfrazer]

I do actually have a set of thread gauges that I found at a car boot sale years ago but I couldn't get the screw out of the unit in the car to test it. Being only 1/4" it may not have accurately shown the correct size.

I may well swap the screw from the fitted unit. I was thinking that I couldn't get it off without dismantling it but, of course, I can

[Paulfrazer]

P1150409.jpg P1150408.jpg

[Paulfrazer]

I am not sure what happened there - I tried to attach photos to another question but only the photos survived.

Anyway, I have got it more or less back together again having followed advice elsewhere on here to use a spring "grabby thing" to get the upper rubber bush in place and to chamfer off a bit of the column to make it push past the upper bush. That made it fairly easy.

It all came apart in a rather uncontrolled way and I am not sure how the ball bearings at the top fit. The one nearest the steering wheel came off easily once the toothed washer was prised off. The lower one had to be tapped back up the shaft as it was a tight fit on it. I have tried to push the new bearing down using the housing but it isn't going fully into the housing which I assume it should. Would it be better to get both bearings fully into the housing then drift the whole thing into place? I am concerned about damaging the bearings.

I have two flat and one spring washer left. Would these all have gone at the top of the shaft before the toothed washer? I cannot see anywhere else for them. I will be using a screwed collar to tighten up the top bearing. Do I still need the washers? I was thinking to use one flat one and the spring one.

The photos of where I am up to now are above - yes, I know I should have taken some whilst I was in the process of dismantling it!

Thank you

Paul

[Philip Wardle]

Hi Paul, I'm trying to remember how exactly I persuaded the housing + bearings back onto the shaft, but i think you're idea of drifting the whole thing into place must be how i did it. This went better after carefully cleaning and lightly oiling the shaft, I also needed to de-burr the edges of the keyway into which the ignition lock plunger locates because these prevented smooth progress of the lower bearring down the shaft. It sounds like a good idea to use one flat washer + spring washer against the top bearing, but I don't actually remember what I did or whether there was room for them. Bob Sharp's idea of using a 28 mm straight connector +. 28 mm to 22 mm reducing fitting to pre-load the screwed collar worked perfectly.

[Paulfrazer]

Thanks Philip. Having thought about it I can't see another way of getting it all back together. If I don't get the bearing into the housing first then I run the risk of getting the bearing into the right place with it still not fully in the housing. I think I will get the bearings in using flat pieces of wood to protect them then drift it down using a piece of wood with a hole drilled in it against the top to hammer against.

It's the sort of job which is much easier the second time, but I hope there won't be a second time! I might refurbish the one I take out of the car rather than just selling it "as is".