Speed 6 Steering Racks - Wannabe How To
Discussion
Citation very welcome for all areas. I will edit this post as required.
After hours of scoping out the infamous search button and reading multiple threads regarding Steering racks in TVRS, specifically Speed 6 Models. So i have decided to make my own. Several assumptions i have made are as if i am making this for someone that has very little knowledge of cars and part names etc but also that they are physically capable of using a basic tool kit. I am doing this with the use of a 4 poster ramp, you could do it with jacks and axle stands but it would be a bit awkward in certain places. This is long winded but hopefully thorough. This job took me and a mate 3 and a half hours. This is being done a 2001 Mk1 Tuscan S, some models may be slightly different i don't know!
I will start with the basics. There is a couple of shortcuts you can do in this job but i am fully removing everything for ease.
Remove the Main Bonnet - Open Service bonnet, Remove 4 x 13mm Bolts at front. Then press in the fasteners beside the windscreen and lift up.
Undo Allen key fasteners and remove Service Bonnet, i didn't bother as one of them was very rusty, i will change it but not today!
Jack the car up so the front wheels are off the deck. use the correct points, 90 degree bends at the front and rear of the outriggers of the chassis. Remove the front wheels 19mm.
While your down there you would be aswell remove the 17mm (i think cant fully remember) nut on the track rod end. Use a Ball joint splitter to break the joint and remove from the hub. Dont unscrew the track rod end itself from the rack.
You should now be left with something that looks like this. I have added the names of the components that we will be removing to get at the rack.
Firstly before removing the Oil Tank it will need to be drained. Undo this Sump plug and catch the black Stuff!! These are notorious for breaking as threads in aluminum are never the best. I intended on sucking the oil out from the top of the tank but the silverline suction pump and tank i bought were as much use as a chocolate fire guard! 13mm Go easy! Drain and replace plug.
While your underneath remove the Oil feed Pipe. 27mm if i recall correctly.
Place a bucket, bigger the better under the car while your down there as you'll be draining the coolant next.
Back topside. Drain the water from the lower side hose of the radiator. I missed this step thinking i could easily catch it from the oil cooler, i was wrong.
Remove Water Hoses. Marked with the Blue Arrows. 6mm Bolt Jubilee clips - i will be replacing all clips and fasteners. Gently pull the hoses away from the tank. Fully undo the marked large jubilee clip and remove the swirl tank. It will probably still have some residual coolant in it.
Remove the Oil Hoses marked in Pink. Jubilee clip on the top breather and the Oil return is the large union, its larger than the feed hose, i had to use a large shifter. There is a electrical sensor, oil level i presume, disconnect the wire at the plug.
Remove the Red arrowed Jubilee clip and pull the Steering fluid tank out the way. you can leave it connected. I assume its already empty, if not a turkey baster can be used to suck out the fluid or you can drain it later.
Remove the 2 17mm bolts on the Straps that hold the oil tank on and remove it, again residual oil will probably still be in the the tank.
Bit more room now but still not enough. The Oil in a Speed six is cooled/heated by the water flowing past it but the cooler gets in the way so we better take it out!
First remove the 2 oil pipes shown here, once the pipes are off there will be residual oil in the unit which you should catch if you can!
Undo the 2 jubilee clips (Pink Arrows) at each end of the unit (Water Hoses). Undo the 2 10mm nuts that hold the cooler to its flexible mounting. Pull the water hoses away from each end of the unit and remove.
Next the universal joint that connects the steering rod to the rack. It uses 1 13mm bolt at each end, i removed both ends to give myself enough room to get it out. I used a ball joint splitter to split the joint from the rack. (One bolt already moved in this picture)
Gettin there now.
There is 4 hose fittings that connect the rack to the car. 2 are large obvious 17mm (I think) banjo bolts on the top. The third is a hose with a jubilee clamp that connects to the steering fluid header tank - this has already been removed in the picture below. The last is a stainless braided hose that sits behind the 2 unions you can see in this picture. These 2 hoses are connected to the rack so can stay on.
The Rack is attached with 4 13mm bolts to the chassis. Remove them.
So. everything is now disconnected. You will need someone to help you here.
Slide the whole rack into the passenger side wheel arch. You will need to turn the whole rack through 90 degrees so that the shaft that connects to the universal joint is pointed directly upwards. Wiggle it through until you can get the drivers side arm up behind and above the chassis member. Now pull the whole rack up and out to the from the right hand side of the engine bay an out.!!
I should have taken more pictures of the final stage!
Now you need to send you rack away. If you have a large garage and it will stay in situe fine but i need to move my car. In order to make the wheels point the same direction i fabricated a piece of steel with 2 holes cut to the same length as the steering rack. This allows some directional control when pushing the car!!
Celebrate. Tune it next week for a refit!!
Hope this makes some sense and i haven't missed too many steps!
After hours of scoping out the infamous search button and reading multiple threads regarding Steering racks in TVRS, specifically Speed 6 Models. So i have decided to make my own. Several assumptions i have made are as if i am making this for someone that has very little knowledge of cars and part names etc but also that they are physically capable of using a basic tool kit. I am doing this with the use of a 4 poster ramp, you could do it with jacks and axle stands but it would be a bit awkward in certain places. This is long winded but hopefully thorough. This job took me and a mate 3 and a half hours. This is being done a 2001 Mk1 Tuscan S, some models may be slightly different i don't know!
I will start with the basics. There is a couple of shortcuts you can do in this job but i am fully removing everything for ease.
Remove the Main Bonnet - Open Service bonnet, Remove 4 x 13mm Bolts at front. Then press in the fasteners beside the windscreen and lift up.
Undo Allen key fasteners and remove Service Bonnet, i didn't bother as one of them was very rusty, i will change it but not today!
Jack the car up so the front wheels are off the deck. use the correct points, 90 degree bends at the front and rear of the outriggers of the chassis. Remove the front wheels 19mm.
While your down there you would be aswell remove the 17mm (i think cant fully remember) nut on the track rod end. Use a Ball joint splitter to break the joint and remove from the hub. Dont unscrew the track rod end itself from the rack.
You should now be left with something that looks like this. I have added the names of the components that we will be removing to get at the rack.
Firstly before removing the Oil Tank it will need to be drained. Undo this Sump plug and catch the black Stuff!! These are notorious for breaking as threads in aluminum are never the best. I intended on sucking the oil out from the top of the tank but the silverline suction pump and tank i bought were as much use as a chocolate fire guard! 13mm Go easy! Drain and replace plug.
While your underneath remove the Oil feed Pipe. 27mm if i recall correctly.
Place a bucket, bigger the better under the car while your down there as you'll be draining the coolant next.
Back topside. Drain the water from the lower side hose of the radiator. I missed this step thinking i could easily catch it from the oil cooler, i was wrong.
Remove Water Hoses. Marked with the Blue Arrows. 6mm Bolt Jubilee clips - i will be replacing all clips and fasteners. Gently pull the hoses away from the tank. Fully undo the marked large jubilee clip and remove the swirl tank. It will probably still have some residual coolant in it.
Remove the Oil Hoses marked in Pink. Jubilee clip on the top breather and the Oil return is the large union, its larger than the feed hose, i had to use a large shifter. There is a electrical sensor, oil level i presume, disconnect the wire at the plug.
Remove the Red arrowed Jubilee clip and pull the Steering fluid tank out the way. you can leave it connected. I assume its already empty, if not a turkey baster can be used to suck out the fluid or you can drain it later.
Remove the 2 17mm bolts on the Straps that hold the oil tank on and remove it, again residual oil will probably still be in the the tank.
Bit more room now but still not enough. The Oil in a Speed six is cooled/heated by the water flowing past it but the cooler gets in the way so we better take it out!
First remove the 2 oil pipes shown here, once the pipes are off there will be residual oil in the unit which you should catch if you can!
Undo the 2 jubilee clips (Pink Arrows) at each end of the unit (Water Hoses). Undo the 2 10mm nuts that hold the cooler to its flexible mounting. Pull the water hoses away from each end of the unit and remove.
Next the universal joint that connects the steering rod to the rack. It uses 1 13mm bolt at each end, i removed both ends to give myself enough room to get it out. I used a ball joint splitter to split the joint from the rack. (One bolt already moved in this picture)
Gettin there now.
There is 4 hose fittings that connect the rack to the car. 2 are large obvious 17mm (I think) banjo bolts on the top. The third is a hose with a jubilee clamp that connects to the steering fluid header tank - this has already been removed in the picture below. The last is a stainless braided hose that sits behind the 2 unions you can see in this picture. These 2 hoses are connected to the rack so can stay on.
The Rack is attached with 4 13mm bolts to the chassis. Remove them.
So. everything is now disconnected. You will need someone to help you here.
Slide the whole rack into the passenger side wheel arch. You will need to turn the whole rack through 90 degrees so that the shaft that connects to the universal joint is pointed directly upwards. Wiggle it through until you can get the drivers side arm up behind and above the chassis member. Now pull the whole rack up and out to the from the right hand side of the engine bay an out.!!
I should have taken more pictures of the final stage!
Now you need to send you rack away. If you have a large garage and it will stay in situe fine but i need to move my car. In order to make the wheels point the same direction i fabricated a piece of steel with 2 holes cut to the same length as the steering rack. This allows some directional control when pushing the car!!
Celebrate. Tune it next week for a refit!!
Hope this makes some sense and i haven't missed too many steps!
Edited by Djdan on Sunday 10th February 20:30
Djdan said:
.......I assume that the hoses to the oil tank can be clamped to prevent a need to drain all the oil from the system ?????.....
These hoses are designed for high pressure so:-1. May not crush down to clamp off the oil.
2. May actually be damaged if you try and crush them.
There is not much oil in the system so just let it drain.
Steve
Steve_D said:
These hoses are designed for high pressure so:-
1. May not crush down to clamp off the oil.
2. May actually be damaged if you try and crush them.
There is not much oil in the system so just let it drain.
Steve
Hi Steve i had actually decided against doing it this way and bought a Silerline oil extraction kit, mainly because it has a nice new tank to store my oil as i dont intend to change it since its done under 1000miles1. May not crush down to clamp off the oil.
2. May actually be damaged if you try and crush them.
There is not much oil in the system so just let it drain.
Steve
Djdan said:
Remove Water Hoses. Marked with the Blue Arrows. 6mm Bolt Jubilee clips - i will be replacing all clips and fasteners. Gently pull the hoses away from the tank. Fully undo the marked large jubilee clip and remove the swirl tank. It will probably still have some residual coolant in it.
Remove the Oil Hoses marked in Pink. Jubilee clip on the top breather and the Oil return is the large union, its larger than the feed hose, i had to use a large shifter. There is a electrical sensor, oil level i presume, disconnect the wire at the plug.
Remove the Red arrowed Jubilee clip and pull the Steering fluid tank out the way. you can leave it connected. I assume its already empty, if not a turkey baster can be used to suck out the fluid or you can drain it later.
Remove the 2 17mm bolts on the Straps that hold the oil tank on and remove it, again residual oil will probably still be in the the tank.
If anyone is missing the image with the blue arrows:Remove the Oil Hoses marked in Pink. Jubilee clip on the top breather and the Oil return is the large union, its larger than the feed hose, i had to use a large shifter. There is a electrical sensor, oil level i presume, disconnect the wire at the plug.
Remove the Red arrowed Jubilee clip and pull the Steering fluid tank out the way. you can leave it connected. I assume its already empty, if not a turkey baster can be used to suck out the fluid or you can drain it later.
Remove the 2 17mm bolts on the Straps that hold the oil tank on and remove it, again residual oil will probably still be in the the tank.
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