STEERING BOX HELP - PLEASE !

[Blown_FC]

I sent my Steering Box Housing ( that houses the Worm drive and ball nut thingy ), of to be JET HOT coated over east, as you apparantly can't chrome Alloy....anyway, it came back looking the part, but during the process, it must have been fired or heated up almost beyond melting point, as teh end nut assembly that holds the bearing for the end of the steering rod, seems to halve welded itself inside the housing, and no amount of force is getting it out, so much so, that I have nos stuffed it completely trying to get it out !

So I need a new housing, and need to know, fi the FC housing is the same as the EK housing, as I think I have the EK column...as it's an auto column, and it looks to be an FC wheel on it !

I have a donor FC which I can source the housing from, but it's not worth it if it's the wrong sort......I can get and EK auto column, but the guy wants over $130 for it....considering it cost me near on $100 to Jet Hot coat my housing, I'm not happy about spending any more big dollars if I don;t have to....

Can anyone help me ?

Cheers
Mark

[Glenn 'Stinky' Stankevicius]

Just to let you know, alloy can be chrome plated by most competent Platers.

Failing that a good polish and some of the clear coat from
http://www.ppc.au.com/category21_1.htm
should sort it out.

Jet-Hot is a ceramic coating process, so yes there is a LOT of heat involved.

BTW, There is a place in Adelaide that does the metalic hi-heat coatings if you are looking to get any further work done.

[robbzfc58]

mark  if your after a manuel ek column,i can help.ring me or post message here .i'm driving through manji tomorrow
                  trev
ps   i think the steering boxes are the same & easily swapped over...can some one confirm
 

[FE_UTE]

Mark
The housings are different in the FC and then EK models  and I am pretty sure that the manual and auto housings for the EK are also different. The cover plates are the same though

Gary

[ACE]

Mark,
You can swap the matching steering box internal parts between FC- EK housings.
Hope this helps,
Regards ACE
P.S I think that the JET HOT mob should have told you the process for coating the parts and should have coated the parts separately.

[Blown_FC]

ACE......you are spot on.......I was pretty sure that these housings were the same, just the internals and columns are different as expected.  You are also right about the JET HOT boys.....they were only too happy to take on the job, and new exactly what I was sending, as he could describe the part perfectly, also reminding me to include all the bolts and locking rings for coating aswell, but not once did they say that the heat could distort the finer alloy parts.......well, it's a lesson learnt the hard way, and now I've found FANTACHROME in WA, the only thing I'd ever get JET Coated again, would be extractors !

Thanks to Trev and Mike, who have helped locally with ideas and parts.

Cheers

[nicko]

HI Mark, did you complain to Jet Hot ? and if so what was there responce?, sometimes you can find places that are very responsive to complaints,and also you find others that could not care less ( who mentioned Castlemain)so if you have not spoken to them do yourself a favour and do so asap ,i for one would be very keen to hear what there reaction is or was,
reguards Nick,
p.s dont give up ,as there is always a pleasant surprize when you least expect it, as i found out a while ago dealing with Slim, very honest and helpful.

[Blown_FC]

Nick....no I haven't complained to them as yet.  I'm the sort of person who gets back at people by not sending them any more work rather than complaining.......at the end of the day, they can't fix the problem...they can't undo what's been done, and I doubt they'd refund my money, as the coating was spot on, it's just one of those things I guess.......I suppose I could give them a call at rattle their cages, but it will just fill my life with another 10 minutes of grief.
I won't send anything else back to them that is at risk of heat warping, and between that and me talking to people about it, is enough pay back.....I'd rather spend my 10 minutes thanking and praising those people who have jumped to my aid, with offers of replacement housings at NO COST....so thanks very much to MIKE MILLER and TREVOR ROBERTS of the WA club.
I think I'm too passive for my own good sometimes....  you never know, I might have a bad day at work and decide to keep the rage going and give them a call anyway !
Thanks for your encouragement anyway.

[robbzfc58]

mark this holden poster sums up your thoughts

[Blown_FC]

Gee Whiz TREV....where do you get these things from ?   I'll have to start calling you..Mr Holden !

But  YES......that poster about sums it up.  I know that the little ( $55 odd ) of my money won;t be missed by JET HOT when I don;t sent them the next thing to be coated...BUT...if 100 people did the same due to poor workmanship or poor service.....it would soon put a dent in their sales !

Thanks for the steering box housing, and YES...it looks to be spot on perfect to mine.
I pulled it apart last night, and the bottom bearing had been chunked out badly...just the bent and strangled casing with no balls in it....the balls were floating aroudn inside the housing somewher, however, the housing itself looks great...go it stripped and soaking in turps at present.....this time I think I'll have it FANTACHROMED in perth....( PAINT NOT HEAT ).
Cheers Trev

[Jockster]

Trev
It still may be worthwhile complaining to Jet-Hot, I had a set of V8 extractors done there a while back and the extractor faces warped and the coating lost it's gloss. I phoned them and explained the problem nicely.  They offered a refund on the cost of the job or to redo the job free of charge and offered to pay for the resurfacing of the extractor. I went with the recoating and they not only recoated and resurfaced them and paid freight both ways but also put in some discount vouchers for any future jobs.
They admitted their mistake and were willing to do something about it in my case, so it was worth the call to them.
Cheers
Jock

[fastjbav6]

I've always said "if your happy with the service, tell some one else, if not tell the person concerned". If they fail to fix the fault i would display the product along with the receipt at Car Shows and Swap Meets.
Bad news travels faster than good news.    
Just my 5c worth.


Regards  Seb

[HARKO]

I have a mate doing exactly that on a large scale.
He has a fibreglass 31 Ford (Body by Elvis) That wasnt set properly and has literaly got chunks falling out of it ,Needless to say the bad workmanship wasnt honoured .
His car has billet everything ,1100 HP and all top name gear and will now not be painted & body left as is but chassis & interior finished to its high standard originaly planned and displayed along side the guy whos trying to sell crappy new bodys.
Its a long way to go to teach someone a lesson, I prefer quicker alternatives.

[Blown_FC]

OK fellas, I hear you !   .....and I suppose I can look at it another way.....if you don't tell someone that they've stuffed up, then I suppose they are never going to know about it, therefore never have a chance to fix the mistake for the next customer......so in the interest of all upcoming customers to JET HOT COATINGS AUSTRALIA, I will eneavour to call them today and see what come of it !
Cheers

Mark

[Blown_FC]

Anyone hungry for some toasted steering boxes........I hear they are really yummy !

Sorry guys, had to have a laugh.

I rang JET HOT, and the guy was a little surprised at what had happenned, saying that it wouldn't be heap warped in any way, BUT there may have been a bit of oil in the thread between the screw nut and housing ( impossible, as I turps cleaned, dried, and wire brush cleaned in it ).  He said that they did not take the nut out, rather leaved it in, so they didn't coat the thread.

The remedy......stick it in your OVEN and heat it up to 100 degrees Celcius and then try to get it out !

I can just see me explaining to my wife, what I'me doing sticking car parts in the oven, then sticking on the old oven mitts, running out to my shed, stick it in the vice and try to wrench this thing out.........anyway, after all that, he said if it didn't work, I could strip it down completely ( already is ), send it back and they would re-coat it no charge !

I guess I won;t be sticking anything in the oven any time soon, so I'll wear this myself and learn from the experience, that next time, I'll ask more questions about the process.  

Thanks to everyone for there feedback.

I'll still look at JET HOT for coating of extractors ( MAYBE ).

Cheers

Mark

[4hammers]

Hmm,
Yes, putting car stuff into any appliance in a kitchen can be a hazardous exercise. I gave a set of FC Hubcaps a real good clean in the dishwasher one day, when my wife wasn't about . Problem is, I forgot about them & she found them in there . Man, that was NOT a good experience. She was SO MAD!!
Rob J
Glad everything turned out OK for you, Mark.

[Blown_FC]

Hub caps in the Dishwasher  That's the stuff TV commercials are made of !

But  what a great idea !

Hmmmmmm.........nah.....better not.

Cheers

Mark

[robbzfc58]

you guys really are multi - tallented...you even know how to drive a dishwasher?
mark,sounds like jet hot would do thier best to sort it out