Starting to get back into it this week. I’ve disappeared into the garage each night and I don’t hear much complaining from my wife. I think she’s glad ‘that smelly thing on the couch’ is gone…
I needed something simple to get started since I’ve been away for so long. The steering coupler and shaft seemed like a good place to begin so I knocked that out quickly and was on to the filthy rack next.
I’m repeatedly reminded at how serviceable all of this old stuff is and the rack was no exception. Strip it, clean, inspect, new paint, some seals perhaps and she’s good to go for another 50 years.
A small crooked surprise was waiting for me in the left hand inner tie rod. Looks like the car had a battle with some gutter at some stage and the tie rod came off second best.
The left hand tie rod has a left hand thread. Amazing! What’s not amazing is the fact that they’ve been NLA for over a decade so are very hard to replace. One solution is to replace it with a right hand one and also replace the outer tie rod to match the thread. Seeing as I like punishment, I decided to rescue it.
After lots of heating, hammering and pulling with leverage, I remembered the press sitting in the corner. A few minutes later it was sorted. Right tool for the right job and all.
As usual, some small missing or broken part prevents completion of the job. In this case I need to source some boots, a seal, and a couple of zerks.
Onwards and upwards!