STEERING COLUMN; BULKHEAD BEARING REPLACEMENT

[greymrj]

There have been a couple of people recently who have talked about play in the steering column. This may help. If, when you move the front wheels from side to side, there is sideways play where the steering column passes through the bulkhead, then it is likely that the bearing, sleeve and housing will need replacing together. The original bearing was a Ford part (it has been use on some Escorts and Sierra's and presumably others) but it doesnt appear to be listed anymore. The later Ford listing is for a nylon bush which does NOT fit the S type. In any case there is usually little point in replacing the bearing alone as the sleeve inside is almost certain to be knackered as well.

It may therefore be helpful to know that ML Performance Parts (which, for those who do not know, has taken on much of the spares supply role of the former TVR Carparts), can supply a complete kit for £48. Contact via www.mlperformanceparts.co.uk



This article shows how to fit the bearing;
http://www.tvrsseries.com/steering/steering_bush.p...

There is also some useful stuff in this posting. Normans reprint of the parts diagram shows clearly which way round components need to go.
http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?t=774...

Didnt someone do a posting recently about an alteration to allow the bearing housing to be secured from one side (as fitted originally on the S it takes two people, one inside, one outside, to remove and refit the housing)? No doubt someone can find it and add the posting link to this posting?

I will put on a further post re ML.

[phillpot]

One or two suggestions here on fitting the five little nuts 'n bolts

[greymrj]

Thanks Mike, wasn't there another post from someone who had re-engineered the mounting method? I do not seem to be able to find it.

[phillpot]

greymrj said:

, wasn't there another post from someone who had re-engineered the mounting method?

Yes there is......somewhere!

[RayTVR]

Top Gear TVR has definitley done something along these lines - I'm sure he'll be along soon to clarify

[Top Gear TVR]

here you go;

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...

[CNHSS1]

anybody used these instead? ive used them on racers before, decent quality bearings, and even some angular allowance

[greymrj]

Looks good, never seen one before. But how would you suggest spreading the mounting load. GRP has advantages but it isnt good if in regular flex, so a two bolt mounting wouldnt be good. You would probably need to weld the mounting to an annular plate to allow enough fixing points to spread the load, or beef up the GRP enough to take the load?

[CNHSS1]

an ally spreader plate or GRP would be easy enough. The other advantage of these is that the inner bush has a grub screw fitting to grip the plastic bush, or you could even go down a size and get rid of the original column bush altogether. They are std fair on race cars and many kit cars for steering columns

[phillpot]

CNHSS1 said:

anybody used these instead?

Used something very similar (3 mounting bolts) to improve the column support on my Taimar.