Recirculating Ball or R&P

[Glenn 'Stinky' Stankevicius]

I have a HR column in the FE Sedan, but I think it's time for a rebuild.
The little free play didn't bother me much until I tried overtaking for the first time and thought I was going to become part of the scenery!

Will a rebuild get rid of the freeplay or should I be saving for a R&P conversion?

[mcl1959]

Save your dollars stinky, a good steering box is very precise and will keep you on the straight and narrow

Ken

[fccool59]

Reminds me of the all holden day swap meet, there was a brand new recoed EH colum complete with filled in gear stick hole and 2k paint, I had just filled and painted mine and asked how much out of curiousity and he said he was asking 80 but would take sixty, apparently it owed him over $400, the nuts and bolts were even replated, I didnt take it but now wish I did.
 My uncle made his colum out of several colums using the best bits from all, it still works good now.
 You can get a rebuild kit from rares, I dont know how much they are but it might only be about $90
 I wouldnt go rack & pinion unless I had space issues, racks seem to be dearer to maintain.
 There is a big adjustment nut on the end of the colum, just dont keep tightening down the nut on the top off. the box.

[Glenn 'Stinky' Stankevicius]

So what is involved in a rebuild?
The kit that Rares advertise for $113 odd looks a little weak, surely there are more wear parts than that in the box?


I guess I need a shop manual for the rebuild  ;D

[RET]

Have a look at the exploded view of the steering assembly in an MPC: there are an awful lot of parts between the steering wheel and the road wheels that are adjustable.  Don't limit your investigations to the steering box.

Case in point: my stockie developed wayward steering on the trip down to Phillip Island.  It turned out to be the bush on the idler arm.

cheers
RET

[Johns]

Ahh!

And you said it was the two crosses you had to bear, wind and plies ;D

Cheers
John

[RET]

Surely better than suffering from wind and piles :o

My FE definitely has the wet weather trifecta: crossply tyres, vacuum wipers (with the version 1 single-chamber pump) and Lucas electricals.

I saw a reference recently to the latter as "Lucas, Prince of Darkness".  LOL.

cheers
RET

[NES304]

I know what you mean about Lucas elect RET... Mines still annoying me

[inchyeh]

I replaced my EH column with a recoed job and it did very little to reduce the play in the steering. I was young and dumb and never thought of looking further down river. When I get the EH back together again I'll remember to check further.
If anyone has further advice / stories of getting rid of steering play I'd love to read them. I'm picking up al sorts of ideas and tips from this forum.

Thanks to the mods for all their effort.

[mcl1959]

Generally the first place to look when steering is sloppy is the drag link.  These rather innocuous looking rods have a multitude of parts inside and they all wear.  Of particular concern are the cup tensioner springs which are prone to breakage and there are 3 of them in there.
All up there are 33 parts in the drag link alone!
Lack of grease, lack of adjustment and worn/broken parts will give you bad steering :o

Ken

[SEB]

Rebuilding the drag link will add some crispness to the steering. I got someone to turn the wheel from side to side on the ute and noticed that I had about 1/2 inch of slack which needed to taken up in a sloppy drag link. Tightening the ball and cup set up helped but in the end I rebuilt it with new bits from rares.

At 33 there are a lot of bits to wear....

[Glenn 'Stinky' Stankevicius]

That's all great advice, thanks guys, I'll be doing some investigating on the weekend.

[inchyeh]

Excellent info. I currently have the front end off so I might spend some time (& money) checking things over and replacing what needs it.
Thanks

[SEB]

Rare drag link repair kit $54.50 new idler arm $34.50 in 2002 (took me till 2005 to fit it). No club discount, stupid of me, don't make the same mistake. $35.00 for powder coating and 4 hours of no TV and Internet....  

[EJ_Dave]

If you're rebuilding drag links you might want to consider fitting one from an HR. A lot fewer parts to wear and it bolts straight up (you'll need the HR pitman arm too). No need to change front end or even the idler arm from standard. Rare Spares does a rebuilt exchange HR drag link for about $110 from memory. Of course a worn one won't be any better than a good older style one.

Dave