400se steering uj

[wedgemaniac456]

Hi in need of the lower steering column uj for 400se.Have heard rimmers may stock them, any other suppliers people have used.Thanks

[mrzigazaga]

Hi mate...David Gerald has a good selection however they will need the input shaft OD..Shaft to rack OD and the length of the UJ..In fact if you ring them and talk to Doug then he will tell you what you need to measure..Shame they don't have individual part numbers....Ziga

[stevoj]

All else failing, take a look at car builder solutions, i think they do uj's that very similar and they also do the shafts with different spline patterns. I think the bottom uj is actually welded to the intermediate shaft though is it not.

[Wedg1e]

stevoj said:

All else failing, take a look at car builder solutions, i think they do uj's that very similar and they also do the shafts with different spline patterns. I think the bottom uj is actually welded to the intermediate shaft though is it not.

Most of the cars I've worked on have had the UJs separate from the intermediate column section (certainly as early as 1980 and as late as 1987). Maybe the later cars used a differently-splined rack so the intermediate section came with the UJ integrated.
I think it was Steve Evans who went to the ends of the earth and back over a decade ago to work out which car they'd be standard fit on, but I don't think he ever figured it out. Some people have said that they were made by taking apart two UJs that had differently-splined ends and reassembling just the two useful bits, which explained why they cost a mint - though if that was the case you'd expect to see multiple staking marks retaining the bearing cups, which I never have. A more probable explanation is that TVR approached Nadella or whoever and asked for a joint with the requisite diameter and number of splines on both ends. I know Lotus had the Esprit's track rod ends made especially as they had the thread of a Ford rack but the taper of Triumph steering arms!
I have an MG UJ somewhere that is 'wrong' on both diameter and number of splines.

[wedgemaniac456]

Thanks for replies much appreciated.

[SEvans]

Ah yes remember it well and got a draw full of the wrong UJ's sent by various suppliers assuring me they were the right ones.
You need to know what steering rack you have or measure the UJ/shaft. If it's the Cortina Power Steering Rack then it has a 'unique' spline shaft size of 17.45mm (IIRC). As the Cortina doesn't use a UJ there is no off the shelf UJ and so TVR had them made. The manual rack has a shaft diameter of 14.29mm, which is very common and probably the size of the other end of the UJ. I think some of the cars (possibly with the Supra rack??) have a 19.05mm diameter shaft. I wouldn't be tempted to use one of these and try to close up the gap. I did try it, but it only clamps on 2 very small areas and looked very dangerous to me.
Cheers Steve.

[Yatesy350i]

Try Kyle Clinton in Birmingham. They will make you one for a lot less than any of the usual suppliers. There's a post of mine about a powered steering mod on here somewhere that will give you a link


Karl.

[Wedg1e]

Just a thought but if you already have a correct UJ that's just worn, it is possible (with care) to replace the cruciform joint in the same way as a propshaft although the bearing cups are staked in place rather than circliped.