Technical Brava 1.8 ELX stering rack replacement

[kangarolf]

Hi all,

The Brava I bought has a bent steering rack arm on the offside. I managed to pick up a replacement steering rack at the old scrapy thats in very good nick.


¬¬¬ ---¦¦¦¦ ------[]-- ¦¦¦¦---- ¬¬¬¬

............................................^ this bit is bent


Please excuse my basic drawing but I dont know the exact names of all the different parts and this may help me explain. Each basic part is split with a space.

OK its not the first part of the steering rack (the bit with the rubber at the end that attaches to the suspension wishbone and that is easily removable). Unfortunately its the second part that ends in a ball joint underneath the rubber boot. I am assumming that this joint can not be seperated.

Now anyone got any tips about removing this whole steering rack! I have unbolted all the endless metal hoses, the two bolts attaching it to the chasis member and from the steering wheel arm knuckle joint. So the entire steering rack is now unattached. I can pull it all the way across to the drivers side wheel arch but the large chunk with the sprocket that fits up through the floor to the steering wont fit between the side panel and the anti roll bar. Its so annoying. I tried taking it out the passenger side just in case it was bigger but there is more metal hosing that side which makes it appear impossible to actually get it to the wheel arch.

I am thining I may have to cut a small section out the side panel or face a very lenthy extraction process!

Any ideas greatly appreciated..can provide a proper picture if it helps.

Thanks

Rolf

PS if I unbolt the roll bar at each end will it rotate..? That might give it enough room to get out.

 

[polecat]

Do you have power steering?

If so you may need to disconnect the exhaust downpipe. You usually have to remove the central engine mounting bolts (don't forget to support the engine).

 

[kangarolf]

Well what a job that was. Couldnt release the central engine mount bolts way to stiff and didnt want to risk shearing them. Was using a long torque wrench and was putting 150nm's on em!

Dropping the exhause and removing the steering fluid pipe and metal cooling pipe gave me just enough room to rotate the rack 180 degrees and then with a little bit of crow bar persuasion it fitted through the drivers side wheel arch..just! Got the new on in and eventually got it all fitted back together. Of course the exhaust is now blowing...dont think I have ever reconnected an exhaust without there being some gap somewhere.

For future reference DO NOT ATTEMPT TO SWAP OUT YOUR STEERING RACK!

Also the TD model from which I got my steering rack has a different arrangement of steering fluid pipes to the ELX petrol model and also has plastic sleaves into which the in and out fluid pipes go which are not present on the ELX and indeed wont fit with the pipe orientation.

Cheers for the exhaust tip..

Rolf