Triumph Spitfire Steering Rack Cleaning and Assembly

I've been slowly putting the steering rack back together over the last few days. A snow day for the kids and I (wife was out of town) today. As usual, the local school districts do a knee jerk and call school off rather than delaying it 2 hours. Most of the snow was melted by the end of that time. Back in my day! Anyway, this is a rather lengthy post so fair warning.

NOTE: If you decide to do this, I cannot stress enough to keep your parts separated by group (e.g., driver's side inner tie rod), bagged and labeled. There are items that are easily lost and several stacks of shims that make up required measurements, all of which I'm sure are not easily replaced.

Previously, I had gotten as much of the old grease and grime and rust and everything else that wasn't supposed to be there cleaned out. I soaked some of the rusty bits in vinegar overnight and wire brushed them. I took a wire wheel to everything (both using a drill and a Dremel Rotary Tool) and also some 220-grit sandpaper to some of the bearings, collars and washers to remove the surface corrosion that made taking the thing apart a bit of a chore. I also pushed a clean rag through the rack tube a few times using a wooden dowel that cleaned everything right up. A coat of Rustoleum Gloss Black was applied to the stuff that would take a painting.

Inner tie rod ends with threaded and ball ends taped over.

Steering rack tube cleaned and painted. The pinion housing is aluminium so it's not painted.

There is a brass bushing in the end of the steering rack tube, opposite the pinion housing. It's a combination of designs of the brass thrust washers and gear bushings I found in the transmission and I thought it was interesting to find it here.

Bushing. SpitBits does sell them, but I'd hate to have to get one out and a new one in!

You can clearly see the dimples and just barely see the dark groove towards the bottom center-left. This groove is spiral cut and runs the entire circumference of the bushing from bottom to top in this orientation. These types of bushings existed before technology came up with sintered, or oil-impregnated, bushings. The dimples hold the oil/grease when things are static so it is ready to provide lubrication when things start moving. The spiral promotes movement of the oil/grease up and down the bushing as, in this case, the steering rack moves along it. A thank-you to my brother for educating me.

Assembly was also a good excuse to take a trip to Harbor Freight to get some more stuff which I'll talk about as I go. As with my previous post, I'm including some exploded views of the whole process from the workshop manual and including these part numbers in parentheses after the part name, as applicable. Everything I'm doing follows the Workshop Manual unless stated otherwise. However, there are several measurement points with various specifications that I do not go into. Please, if you decide to tackle this, ensure you have a good reference. Besides brakes, this is probably the next most important safety-related item you've got.

Now, on to the show.

First portion of assembly was getting the pinion assembly end float measured and set. This required putting it together inside the pinion housing without any shims (12). 

Pinion Assembly after cleanup. I couldn't get the bottom bush (17) out of the pinion housing, so I left it.

The rubber o-ring in the upper left of my photo is not identified in the manual figure. It fits inside the recess in the retaining ring (11). I was able to source a pair of these from my local True Value for about $1.50. I couldn't see a difference by comparison by eye between the new and old.

These were identical as far as I could tell.

To measure the end float, I purchased a Clamping Dial Indicator from Harbor Freight. Not the highest quality of stuff, but I bet it's as good as they had in the 60's. It did the trick.

New Toy #1

Dial indicator set up. Not zero'ed out in this picture.

The end float came out to be about 0.040" which, funny enough, was just about the exact thickness of the shims (12) that I pulled out. How do I know this? Well, I measured the shims with my other new toy, the Harbor Freight 6 in. Digital Caliper with SAE and Metric Fractional Readings. I had a coupon for this so it was like $11. A bit flimsy, but it works.

Thickness of the three pinion assembly shims. And, new toy #2.

Once complete, this was all loaded back in the pinion housing, including shims this time, new o-ring and the dowel peg (5) which the manual tells you to be careful not to lose. Yeah, thanks....almost did about 9 times.

The dowel peg (5). 

Next was assembly of the pinion pressure pad. This also required some measurements and shims (29) and, as expected, it all went back together just as it came apart with good measurements.

0.026" gap. Again, funny, almost perfectly accounted for by the shims.

After this is all assembled, there is a test for measuring resistance that entailed suspending a 2-pound weight 7.9" from the pinion. I couldn't come up with a slick way to do this, so I didn't. Hopefully this will not impact me in the future.

Next was putting the tie-rod inner ball joints (38) on. I followed the manual for measurements and assembly instructions and used the shims that were already there. I used new lock tabs (35) to make it all good.

Locking down the lock tab (35). Squeezed in a vise vice using a hammer.

The lock nuts (33) are then put on either end of the steering rack and are spaced 24.4" from the inner side of each nut. This was a tricky measurement because you are dealing with a relatively long distance over an uneven surface. I eventually got it right. The manual doesn't really mention whether you should expect to bottom out the inner tie-rods into the steering rack, but only says to screw them in until they meet the lock nuts. Once I got the measurement correct, the tie-rod ends met the lock nuts before they bottomed out, so I assume this is the correct way to do it. Definitely something that you have to experience trying yourself to understand clearly. Once this was assembled, I tightened the lock nuts (33) into the inner tie-rods(38).

Once done there, the next step was to put on the big rubber bellows or boots. Of course, I tore one as they are not that easy to deal with. I can't imagine how much money my impatience has cost me when I know better. Anyway, I kept going to try and learn more lessons but I have a set on the way from SpitBits.

Whooops.

The manual tells you to grease and put the boots on and secure them with the clips. You can grease them, but I wouldn't secure them yet. There are additional measurements you need to take to get the outer tie-rods sets right and the boot gets in the way since it covers the inner tie-rod lock nut, which is what one of the measurements is based on.

I ordered new outer tie-rods from The Roadster Factory as part of their front suspension major rebuild kit a while ago. While they are nice, the threads were very dirty on the inside with machining residue. I figured this out when I tried to thread it up the inner tie-rod and it starting galling. Fortunately, I didn't strip any threads and used a brass round brush and some de-greaser to flush it out and clean it up.

Thread-cleaning kit.

Another measurement to take is the center of the outer tie rod (where the grease fitting is) to the inner portion of the inner tie-rod lock nut. This should be 10.13". This was a painful because of the rubber boot being in the way and what-not. On the second side, which I hadn't put the boot on yet, I screwed in the outer tie rod and got it measured up properly, then marked the threads with red Sharpie. Luckily, assembly of the boot, the lock not and tie rod did not remove the Sharpie totally and I was able to get very close to that 10.13".

Red Sharpie mark. The outer tie rod lock nut came off before the boot when on so I didn't tear another one.

That was about it. I'm sure there will be several and probably frustrating measurements and adjustments to make once I get this on the car. But, at the rate I'm going, that will be so far in the future that I won't remember any of this anyway! Of course, I have to take one side back apart to get the new boot on, so there's always that.

In all her glory.

Oh, and one other Harbor Freight toy was an extension cord on a reel so I don't have to drag cords across the garage. There aren't a whole lot of outlets in there and this will help with my garage re-arrangement. I also got a halogen light to go along with it because the new corner that I'm working in can get kinda shadow-y. Oh, and a welding table, (on sale) but that's for another post!

Triumph Spitfire Steering Rack Disassembly

For my regular readers (both of them), you know that I have a logistical problem that I have complained about for a while. Specifically, my lack of garage space. In a probably futile effort to more efficiently use the space that I do have, I was able to move some more parts up in the attic and open up some shelf and floor space. This enabled me to put "real" legs on my previously sawhorse mounted workbench (this guy) and move it against the garage wall instead of in the middle of the floor behind the car.

New work bench location. Yes, I have three snow shovels. Last year was bad, okay?

Doing this gave me about 4 feet behind the car so I pushed her back a bit and now have good room in front and behind. The sides are still an issue, but I'm pretty much screwed there. Little steps, I guess.

Behind the car. At least I can get around it better than when the workbench was there.

NOTE: If you decide to do this, I cannot stress enough to keep your parts segregated by group (e.g., driver's side inner tie rod), bagged and labeled. There are items that are easily lost and several stacks of shims that make up required measurements, all of which I'm sure are not easily replaced.

So, to the topic at hand, last night and tonight I worked on taking apart the steering rack from the '64. In keeping with my transmission rebuild, I've decided to include a picture of the steering rack from Canley Classics (and which is also a copy of the one from the parts manual) and will use the part numbers listed to help the discussion.

Should be able to read most of the part numbers on here, hopefully.

I had previously tried to take this thing apart a while ago but got my butt kicked by the locknut (42) and I didn't want to break anything. This time, however, I put the whole rack in the vice, put a large adjustable on the locknut and knocked it with a 4 lb. sledge. It worked, though not in the order intended.

Weapons of choice.

Doing it this way loosened up the inner tie rod (or ball pin (37)) but this was just fine with me. 

(Bottom to top) Ball Housing (36), ball pin (37), and the ball socket (38).

I put the rack in the vice again to remove the rest of the nuts. Because I kind of removed it backwards, the (lock) tab washer (39) came off before the locknut and adaptor sleeve (40) and spring (41).

(R to L) Spring (41), tab washer, adaptor sleeve, locknut and end of steering rack.

Blurry...sorry. The locknut backed off using the weapons of choice.

I did the opposite side of the rack the same way. The order came apart differently this time, but in essence the end result was the same.

Next was to take apart the pinion housing (21) to get the pinion itself out which would allow removal of the steering rack (22). The grease nipple cap (35) and screwed cap (34) came off without issue, but the cap required the weapons. I had some issues with getting the plunger (31) out but it was just because it's in there under tight tolerances and it needs to come out very straight. Painful but easy.

Next was to remove the pinion (25) itself. This proved more difficult. The rack and pinion body is made of aluminum. However, everything in it seems to be steel. Dissimilar metals sets up an opportunity for corrosion...galvanic specifically. While its chances are not great between iron and aluminum, after 50+ years...it's going to happen. So, I used a combination of an overnight soak with WD-40 and some propane heat today to break it up. I did have to use some more weapons of choice (different choice this time) but was successful while being very careful not to damage the splines on the pinion where the steering joint (15) connects.

Using a small pry bar and hammer to pop out the pinion.

The pinion, post clean-up.

The pinion comes out with a sandwich full of stuff. Of note, there is a little pin (not shown) that locks the thing rotationally. Almost lost that about four times before I finally got it in a Ziploc.

The recess for the pin is in the very top.

Also in that sandwich is a rubber o-ring that helps seal in the grease. For me, it was obvious that it was no longer in serviceable shape (squared off on the inside and stiff).

Thrust washer and its o-ring.

Trying to show the recess of the thrust washer where the o-ring sits.

Once the pinion and its sandwich was removed, the rack could be removed. Unfortunately, the rack tube had some corrosion in it because it was a real pain to get the rack itself out. Fortunately, I was able to pry it out with a screwdriver using the rack teeth until I cleared the problem area.

Flat blade screwdriver in a tooth recess, prying "up" in this picture, against the rack tube body.

Future me problem to figure out how to properly clean the inside of the rack tube to remove the corrosion. I'm sure I can use vinegar to break it up, but how to get the tube nice and clean and smooth..?

Other than that, I am soaking the rack and pinion body itself in some Purple Power to get the nasty old grease out of there. I am also soaking the rack mounting hardware (53 through 56) in vinegar to break up the rust for future cleaning and painting.

Vinegar soak. Used vinegar, hence the cloudiness.

Triumph Spitfire Battery Box Removal

After too much time, I finally got around to working on the car yesterday. I wanted something lightweight but also something that I had never done before, so I decided to pull out the battery box. Like most, if not all, unrestored Triumphs and probably other LBSCs, my battery box was corroded through on the bottom. The PO had put down a thick fiberglass matt to fix it up. I'll have none of that, of course.

The corrosion. Post removal, obviously.

View from the top. You can see the little red-ish circles where the spot welds are.

A while ago, in preparation for this and I'm sure many other spot weld removals, I purchased a Blair 11096 Spotweld Cutter Kit from Amazon. It got good reviews and came with all of the necessary pieces to remove spot welds as well as two replacement cutting heads and one replacement pilot bit. The pilot bit itself is much like a regular drill bit and is sprung such that with minimal pressure, it recesses back into the tool as the cutter comes into contact with the metal.

What's in the kit

The cutter and pilot bit.

This forms a concave/convex cut in the metal that essentially cuts around the spot weld. The object is to then go back grind down any remaining metal.

Post cut. You can see the two layers of metal here. The center and right is the box and the left is the body.

The first order of business was to identify all of the existing spot welds. I used a wire wheel mounted on my cordless drill to remove the paint and rust to identify the small dimple of the spot weld. The instructions called for using a small drill bit to give something for the pilot bit to rest in so that the tool doesn't get out of control. This is very important as a few of the holes were not deep enough and the thing walked right off the spot weld.

After pre-drilling everything, I started with the spot weld remover. I spun the pilot bit in the hole for several seconds to allow it to make a nice depression so that it would be stable and then applied moderate pressure, bringing the cutter into contact with the metal. I rocked the drill slightly in a circular fashion and slowly cut through. In some instances, it was easy to tell when I had gone through the layer of the top metal as you could feel the drill take a step downward. Other times, it was not obvious and I stopped often to make sure that I didn’t do damage to the underlying metal. Unfortunately, I punched through a few times.

The dash support brackets need to come out as well since they formed the top of the metal sandwich that was the support, battery box and body. The outer strut was relatively easy to remove, though the chuck of my drill rubbed against it at times. However, I was able to drill perpendicular to every spot weld.

The four upper spot welds of the outer support all done.

The inner support, however, was not as easy as the firewall bows out where the suction vent for the heater is and there was much less room for the drill. I was able to get at the three upper spot welds and then had to pull in on the strut a bit, bending it, to be able to reach the remaining spot welds with the ones closest the firewall being cut at an angle. It all worked, though.

Inner support. Bent it up a bit trying to pop some of the welds.

After that, it was quick and easy work to finish out the remaining spot welds. I completed drilling through the battery box for the spot welds that joined it to the body and re-drilled the common spot welds that held the supports to the box.

Most of the way through. The factory was not always neat with their spot welds. No robots, though.

The battery box came right up. I discovered an area of pretty significant corrosion that was under the inner support that will need to be cut out and replaced. Otherwise, this was a simple job, with the right tools, that only took about an hour. Getting the new one in will require much more work, I'm sure. And me learning how to weld.

Area of corrosion on body. So surprised to find rust on my Spitfire...NOT!

The new box will require some bending as it is stamped with the edges flat while installed the back edge flares up a bit to follow the firewall.

New and old. Not hard to tell which is which.

Close up of where the flare of the back edge needs to happen.

On a side note, some of the reviews you will read for the cutter, if you get that far, mentions lubricant also made by Blair. Of course, I purchased the lubricant back in August when I got the kit. And, of course, I forgot that I purchased it and therefore, didn't use it. I also didn't store the cutter and lubricant in close proximity, to help remind me to use it. Even said to myself "you know, some lubricant would probably be a good idea". Dork.

For Your Other Car #3 - 2007 Honda Odyssey Rear Hub Replacement

At least I'm working on one of my cars!

Around July of last year it was time to replace the tires on my family truckster, the 2007 Honda Odyssey. I'm not a tire guy and believe that rubber is pretty much rubber and the minivan doesn't need anything special. Given that, I looked for the highest-mileage, lowest cost tires I could find. I came across Uniroyal Tiger Paw Touring that were about $110 and had four of them installed for about $510 out the door. Not too bad.

Now, I rarely drive the car and everything was fine as far as I was concerned. Over time, though, I started to notice what sounded like some pretty obvious tire noise. Though it didn't change with different road surfaces (which, in hindsight, didn't make sense), it was annoying as hell. It was a low sort of rumble that changed pitch with the car's speed but it drilled right through your head as it seemed to come from everywhere inside the car. Over time, it got louder and onset at lower speeds but it was still hard to pinpoint location-wise.

Around October, we had some mega-maintenance done on the car for its 100,000-mile birthday. Timing belt, water pump, brake fluid, coolant...just about everything. I had Honda do it and paid dearly for it, but the peace of mind was worth it. Honda noted the tire noise on the work order but didn't mention it further.

Around Christmas, we took a family trip down to Charleston, SC and I thought I was going to have a mental breakdown due to the noise. It's very hard to explain but, like I said, it just drilled through my head. I was determined, when I got back home, to get the tires replaced. I went to the place that I got them and they swapped them out for Hankooks which were similarly priced. I should be getting a full refund on the Uniroyals based on the warranty.

After I picked up the car, I was very angry to discover that the noise had not abated one bit. Guess we were all wrong about the tires. The only other thing back there that rotates is the hub. I did a bit more listening and, sure enough, sitting in the back (instead of driving) I could pinpoint the noise to the rear passenger's side wheel. Armed with that information, I jacked her up, pulled the wheel and turned the hub by hand. Felt like rocks and sand. Did the same on the driver's side and while it was nowhere near as bad, it didn't feel as smooth as I thought it should. Guess 100k miles is about all they are good for. So, hub replacement, here I come.

Turns out, the hubs are little engineering marvels (and pretty cheap, too). They are self-contained units that bolt up directly to the rear suspension. Other designs have them bolt to a center spindle, which seems to be how the 2006 and prior Odyssey's were, but I think this design is much more slick (and I could use my Spitfire-sized torque wrench instead of a 180 ft-lb one)!

Self-explanatory. The hubs I ordered came with the o-ring already installed. Nice.

I also ordered another set of rear pads and two new rotors. The rotors were in pretty bad shape and new ones were only about $20 (from Amazon, if you can believe it!) each. I think they were cheaper than the ones for the Spitfire.

I wanted to do the passenger's side first since it was in imminent failure mode. If I ran into problems, I'd get the one that really needed it done and skip the other. Fortunately, it went as smooth as you would imagine the removal and replacement of only two screws and 13 bolts would go (5 for the wheel, 4 for the brakes, 4 for the hub).

First one. Time to dig in.

You can read in my previous post the the brake caliper is a two-piece design. Two 12mm bolts hold the inner piece (the pad housing) to the outer piece (cage?). I would not have pulled those if I wasn't changing out the pads. Two 17mm bolts held the cage to the car and these were also removed to allow removal of the rotor.

The two 17mm bolts. Note the funky washers. They went between the caliper cage and the mounting bracket on the car.

Once the caliper assembly was removed and wired up out of the way, I removed the two Philips-head screws (I had WD-40'd and smacked those during my previous inspection to loosen them up and they came off easily with a large screwdriver) and removed the rotor.

The hub (the wheel studs are attached) and the parking brake assembly, which did not interfere.

Really glad I made the cheap decision to replace the rotors. I had let the rear pads go too far last time and didn't inspect the rotor all that well. Turns out the inside of the rotors were in horrible shape and just ate the fresh pads right up. Way to go, Chris!

Looks better than it was. There is a good 1/16" drop from the rusty band to the shiny metal.

Then came hub removal. This was the part I was worried about as the hub bolts were at a respectable torque (~70 ft-lbs) and were not that easy to get at.

Picture from behind the assy. The front upper and lower hub bolts (red dots).

But, with a short cheater-bar, I was able to break them all free without rounding them off. The hub pulled right off by hand.

Recess where hub goes in. You can see the bolt holes. That little black square on right is the ABS sensor.

I was careful of the ABS sensor. It must be a magnetic pickup of some sort. On the prior design it was a toothed gear that was monitored by an optical sensor (I assume). There was some minor aluminum corrosion (a white powder) but this was easily brushed out.

Now it was time for the new hub to go in. I set it in and aligned the holes and started all four bolts. I then used a star-pattern, similar for putting on a tire, to evenly draw the hub into its seat so that I wouldn't cut the o-ring (it was already on the new hub, remember). I then torqued each bolt down (star-pattern).

The new hub, awaiting its fate.

All pretty and installed.

Other than that, installation was the reverse of removal and there were no surprises. For good measure, I also adjusted the parking brake. There was the adjusting star wheel at the bottom (sorry, no clear picture) of the parking brake assembly. I turned it until the rotor would not turn, then backed it off 5 tabs. The rotor turned with a very slight rubbing sound.

All done! The black dot is the rubber cover for the parking brake adjustment hole.

After I got that all bolted up and done, it was on to the driver's side. This turned out to be easier because of the reverse direction in leverage (I found it easier to push down to loosen vice pull up...or maybe it was just the practice) and I knocked it out in about 45 minutes. All in all, it took about 2 1/2 hours to do all of the work, including the brakes and the post-work test drive. Darn thing drove like new with no noise. The wife was very happy and, at the end of the day, that's what matters most. Of course, I knew that the hub was eventually going to fail. At the best, it would have left her stranded. At the worse, it could have caused catastrophic damage to the car or even cause an accident.

While I'm sure a Honda mechanic would have easily beat my time, I probably saved about $500 in parts and labor by doing it in my driveway. With another 4-8 inches of snow just forcast for tomorrow into Tuesday, I'm glad I got it done!

For the two or three of you that may check this blog regularly, I apologize for the lack of Triumph work. Unfortunately, the garage thing hasn't materialized and I'm not sure it will. I need to adjust my plan...I just haven't. But, fear not, for I will not give up!