Steering Rack

Session 4: 12th September 2020

The steering rack prior to insertion. A relatively quick job.

After the pain of installing the front wishbones, the steering rack proved to be a pleasure.

However, the first task was to locate all the necessary parts. This was the first point at which I realised that the hours I'd spent opening all the boxes and documenting the contents was entirely sensible. The parts I needed were spread over four different parts bags and contained in three different boxes and a poster tube. Given the challenges I face regarding storing all these boxes, being able to use the photos to pick through them one-by-one and only unstack the ones probably didn't save any time overall, but definitely saved a lot of lifting as the majority of the time was spent looking at photos on my phone.

The steering rack is a Caterham-branded unit and is held in place by a pair of lovely machined aluminium brackets, each bearing a Seven logo, and two bolts each. The whole lot was in position in roughly five minutes.

The steering rack mounts and ends were in the Steering Pack, the rubber boots were in the IVA Pack (each in a different box) and the UJ was in one of the Shortages boxes. Not shown, Parts Bag B (nuts, bolts and washers), which was in a completely different box again.

Once complete, this lovely thing will be hidden by the radiator, the fan and a bunch of hoses and belts. Only those that built it will even know it's there.

The UJ that connects the steering rack to the steering column is supposed to be part of this stage. Here, we're clearly moving away from Caterham-brand parts and towards general market parts. This didn't fit, and not in a "this is a bit tight" way. There was nothing for it but to take some photos and email-a-friend at Caterham for advice. This is all part of the self-build after-care service that Caterham provide, basically because they know that self-builders are amateurs and that their kits will yield these challenges every now and again.

So, there's a locating-groove. No problem.

So far so good.

Ah.

Edited to add: The response came a couple of days later. "The standard production procedure is to drill out the lower UJ bolt hole from 8mm to 9.5mm." If that's what's done on the factory floor, I guess I'm taking the Dremel to it...

Edited to add: And that's what happened. Fortunately, the job went very smoothly and quite quickly. The advice was to expand the hole, but as I had the tools to do it in a different way, and my way involved removing less steel, I opted to just machine the outer edge of the hole and "slot" it. I didn't fancy getting steel filings into the workings of the UJ, so it got wrapped up in tape first, and since this was all going to be done by eye I added a marker line on each side to give some sense of the volume of material that had been removed.

Some gentle work, and a couple of trial fits later, the bolt would pass. Only a very little material was removed in the end, which I was very grateful for.

Before, during and after. The collection of filings gives a sense of the volume of material removed - perhaps 0.5mm in total. As with many jobs at this stage, it's only for position for now and will be tightened later, which is why the nut is loose.

Next came attaching the ball joints that connect the steering rack to the wheel hubs. These, and the retaining nuts, dropped straight on... or, they will, once the weatherproofing boots (from the IVA Pack, which I'm increasingly wondering is, "things to remove and throw away once the car's passed the IVA test"...?) are finished. As I'm from a modelling background, the idea of modding an existing component, found by accident and taking it to a completely new use fills me with joy. This feels like what's happened here. The boots are sealed at one end, and the instructions require you to drill a hole for the threaded steering rack push rod. I had a quick explore with a Stanley knife, but concluded that fetching a hand-drill from home was a far better plan. These will now go on next time, hopefully in five minutes or so.

Edited to add: They were indeed finished in about five minutes, using a Dremel sanding drum, since I had it to hand for the UJ job.

After and before modifying the weatherproofing boots. These, surely, are actually the protective cap from a far more expensive component, that came with the instructions to "dispose before use".

The complete sequence in place. Steering ball joint, retaining nut and weatherproofing boot on the right side of the steering rack. I left the boot out of place for now, as the rack will need setting up properly later. Fully fitted, the boot should slide over the nut and ball joint thread. This is right at the front of the car, so very exposed to rain, spray, salt, etc. It's probably sensible that this assembly as some decent protection.

I finished the session by fitting one of the front dampers, but ran out of light before I could get to the other (which would also require moving the chassis back to being against the left hand wall). So, for ease, I'll describe that process in the next entry.

The steering rack (and one of the dampers) in place.

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