steering joints

[honourablepickle]

as previously mentioned my steering is shot
i rang rt racing for advice he said i'd have to take them off and send them to him for matching up !
so i rang mark at tower who said he might be able to match them from measurements
i've just had a quick look and both joints are the same all on standard 14mm shafts
they look identical to the ones on millions of fords ( of which i have a brand new rs2000 one )
am i missing something ?
or are they just bog standard ford items (they aren't the three sided things but normal splines each side equal length each side of the joint)
the rack is a power jobbie and it looks like the supra one)
i'm sure there is an expert on here some where

i've only had the thing a day and already i can't help myself from wanting to take bit off it to fix

if i don't get help soon by wallet is going to take another tvr related bashing

[wedg1e]

Oo, don't let Steve Evans see this, he'll be a-weeping and a-wailing and a-gnashing his teeth, ripping out what little hair he has left and generally banging his head against a brick wall.

But I'm sure you'll have no trouble

Rumour has it that the joints come in several different flavours; most of them won't fit your car. The size you need is the one you can't find. I think it'd be quicker to buy two and make one from them. The main problem is finding one with the same diameter splines both sides; most of them are two different sizes. A mate gave me two TR7 ones that I thought were spot-on until I realised they were different each side where the car is same both sides.

One tip though: if you can measure up the cruciform joint in the middle, it's possible to buy a new joint, dismantle and rebuild and stake the caps in place. But I'd only advise this if you are BLOODY SURE you can do it right. I did it although I wasn't AT ALL sure , and IIRC it cost about £6 for the joint... as far as I know nobody was ever killed in a crash as a result.

[honourablepickle]

wedg1e - you are a flippin genius mate - i'll overhaul the old ones if mark at tower or rt racing doen't come up with some new ones pronto or the ford ones are different - i have the kit to do the job so that's that solved
i found the link from another genius re the bulkhead bush on the wedge pages and tomorrow works RS components bill will have a mystery sealed bearing and housing added to it
all i need now is someone to come and do the dirty work while i sit back and relax

[wedg1e]

Ah, works RS orders... dontcha luv em

My best 'unauthorised item sneaked onto a company purchase order' was my TIG welder.. all £ of it

[honourablepickle]

i think work would notice a new tig - having said that my puny butters 200 amp unit could do with replacing and i don't actually have a superior at work checking at the moment - would they really notice ?
no no perish the thiught - i need to keep my job to pay for all the pointless toys i keep buying

[badredwedge]

HP Do you love it yet ??

[SEvans]

Yep, still not managed to source a joint for mine but not given up yet. It's the Cortina P/S rack that causing the grief as it has an 11/16" slpined shaft which no other manufacturer used. The manual Cortina rack uses a 9/16" shaft and this size is really common. Used on TR7's Cortina's etc etc. It sounds like the Supra rack uses this size. I also don't have an old joint to get refurbished, but if you do have an old one then there are quite a few places that will refurb them.

wedg1e said:

Oo, don't let Steve Evans see this, he'll be a-weeping and a-wailing and a-gnashing his teeth, ripping out what little hair he has left and generally banging his head against a brick wall.

But I'm sure you'll have no trouble

Rumour has it that the joints come in several different flavours; most of them won't fit your car. The size you need is the one you can't find. I think it'd be quicker to buy two and make one from them. The main problem is finding one with the same diameter splines both sides; most of them are two different sizes. A mate gave me two TR7 ones that I thought were spot-on until I realised they were different each side where the car is same both sides.

One tip though: if you can measure up the cruciform joint in the middle, it's possible to buy a new joint, dismantle and rebuild and stake the caps in place. But I'd only advise this if you are BLOODY SURE you can do it right. I did it although I wasn't AT ALL sure , and IIRC it cost about £6 for the joint... as far as I know nobody was ever killed in a crash as a result.

[honourablepickle]

steve - have you tried kit fit ?
bad red - i'm trying really hard !

[jon@127]

When I did my PAS conversion I got the joints and shaft from Neil at TVR car parts. The one for the rack was not a perfect fit initially it was slightly oversized. However I ground out the slot and squeazed it shut in a vice, this then made it fit fine. Steve (SEvans) wasn't happy with this solution (we exchanged some mails on it) but it worked fine for me and withstood the rigours of my accident without giving up or slipping (the accident was caused by failure of the trailing arm pin nothing to do with steering!)
So my recommendation is talk to TVRcarparts it won't be cheap though.
Jon

[jchase]

NF auto sell new steering UJs, £25. I mentioned this in your other thread. All my splines are 14mm (I guess 9/16 in reality) including my Manual and PAS rack on my 1986 350iFHC. I think the TR7 steering shaft on my 1981 280i was fatter IIRC. I have an old steering UJ if you want it, just pay me the postage and it's yours.

-Jim

[honourablepickle]

thanks for the offer jchase - i misread your message in the other thread because i'm stupid
i have now sorted this - mark at tower came up with the goods and is sticking them in the post today
so i now have a choice - get dirty on saturday or find a victim to fit them
all good fun this

[GV]

My steering is quite hard and it has PAS - any suggestions as to the cause. I'v just replaced the bulkhead bush which hasn't realy made any difference.

[honourablepickle]

have you thought of working out ?
weights , bench press that sort of thing

[adam quantrill]

You could also try driving a Rover P4 - it feels as though someone has left the steering lock on - permanently. After that, even a non-assisted wedge feels light.

[honourablepickle]

fixed the steering today - first grub around under the car reveals that the chassis on this thing is mint and i mean mint - previous owners have plastered the thing in waxoil which makes working on it horrid but at least it has no rust

[badredwedge]

honourablepickle said:

the chassis on this thing is mint and i mean mint

Thats the first nice thing you have had to say about it, its starting, I told you, another few days and you will love it