The Rebuild Part 5

Neil Fletcher Racing

JIJ9975 - Running Reports No2.

Click on any of the images below for a larger photo.

September 2009 and my next project is fitting power steering - to be exact a Corsa C electric power steering unit obtained off eBay for £47 plus postage.
	Before starting I spoke to a guy down the road from me who prepares Mk2s for rallying to get a few pointers on the best way to go about this conversion.
	One of the first jobs was to remove the steering lock mechanism and various bits of switchgear that I would not need. The trouble was the top bearing was housed within this complete plastic unit. I ended up butchering off most of the plastic with the hacksaw and angle grinder just leaving the centre bit with the bearing in it.
	Rather by luck than design the Corsa unit that I had bought came with the short double ended sliding universal jointed bit at the bottom end of the column. This makes the job of fitting it to an Escort a lot easier.
	I only needed one half of this bit, the ended which attaches to the column itself. There's a couple of small peenings which hold it together, these need to be drilled out first.
	Then it should slide apart fairly easily, a good hammer blow or two might help.
	Next up I get a standard Mk1 column and dismantle it - no way was I going to butcher a proper Mexico short column. Anyway you need to remove this circlip at the bottom of the inner column before it can be slid out of the top end of the outer column.
	The complete inner shaft can then be slid out of the top of the outer column. It's a bit rusty from having lain about for many years but I first gave it a go with the sander, later I'll take it round to mum's and give the splines a proper clean in the blast cabinet.
	I have a bit of a look through all the old scraps of metal that I keep lying about and find this little bit with slotted holes, I reckon that I can use this to make a bracket to bolt the column under the dash.
	I also cut and bend a couple more scraps into "L" shaped brackets, these are then welded onto the bracket above - see below.
	At this stage I do a trial fit into "Project New Mexico" - I don't want to start into the rally car yet as we're rallying this weekend. The little bracket I made holds the top end of the column in place and the universal bit just extends through the Escort floor.
	A few days later and with no more rallies for 3 weeks I can get the rally car into the garage and up onto the axle stands in preparation for so serious work.
	The first job was to remove the steering column etc and make room for the new column and motor to go in.
	There's a bit of a jumble of wires in here with various items having been added after the car was originally rally prepared.
	And at the other end there is the ubiquitous group 4 joint, one of the good quality solid cast ones that aren't so easy to get nowadays.
	This black plastic part is the remnants of the Corsa switch unit and steering lock mechanism which I had butchered off with the angle grinder, a roll pin holds this to the main outer steel tube of the column.
	This plastic collar will be retained because it houses the top column bearing and it's a very sturdy bearing when compared to a Mk1 Escort one.
	The next bit off is the collapsible part of the upper column, this just kind of twist and slides off - it's not permanently fixed other than being bolted to the dash in a Corsa.
	It's probably not very clear in this photo but that bolt hole thingy beside my thumb is actually plastic and obviously meant to break away and allow the column to collapse in the event of an accident - I'll be getting rid of those eventually.
	A close up of the inner tube of this column and you can just make out a long raised ridge of metal, there are three of these round the inner tube and the outer is then a tight sliding fit on these ridges.
	In a Corsa the steering ECU gets speed signals from the engine and wheels, when fitted to another car it needs a control box to supply these inputs for control. This little unit costing £13.75 from Motorsport Innovations supplies the required signals.
	Everything, column, control unit, ECU etc all get bench tested before going any further - being out of a scrap car you just never know with the steering but luckily all proves to be working OK.
	I had originally intended to buy a boss to fit my Astrali steering wheel to the Corsa splines but when I heard that it could well cost over £50 I decided that the budget for this job wouldn't stretch that far. Well OK I was just being a typical tight Irishman. So the splined end was cut off.
	As well as being splined it's also threaded up the inside and I have to cut another little bit off to clear the threaded bit. It's hollow inside for a good few inches so I intend to fit the top of an Escort column right down inside it.
	And here's a couple of Escort inner columns, an early pre-ignition lock type one and the upper one is the later one.
	Notice also as well as being a slightly different shape the lower early one has also a finer thread on the end - a very rare British Cycle Thread, I didn't realize it at the time but this was to cause me some problems in the later stages of the project.
	The early style column is the same thickness for it's whole length, this is handy as both ends then fit inside the hollow Corsa inner column without any further modification.
	If you are going to use a later column you will need to get the top part of the column lathed down so that it will fit inside the Corsa one.
	Anyway I went ahead and cut about 8 or so inches off the top end of the early Escort column.
	And I proceeded to slide this right down the inside of the Corsa one, part of the reason for cutting it so long was to give me a little come and go once I got round to doing a proper trial fit in the rally car - it's always easier to shorten something that's too long but if you cut it too short you're kind of stuck with it.
	After having done various trial fits I also cut about 7 inches off the bottom of the Escort column.
	This will go just over 2 inches up the inside of the Corsa bottom joint that I split apart at the start of the project. It's not quite as tight or firm a fit as the bit in the top end but it is good enough to keep it all straight.
	Next up it's time to start welding the shaft. This is not something you want to be doing yourself unless you are very confident of your own welding ability and even then only if you have a fairly powerful machine - at least a 150 and preferably a 180 Amp welder.
	And this is the first proper trial fit just to see how I like the position of the wheel, basically I want it to be as near as possible to where the wheel was when using the original Escort column.
	I also need to be sure that the motor will clear the pedal box etc - I was a little worried about the accelerator pedal as I have the long Twin Cam/RS1600 style one fitted to my car but I needn't have worried, there was plenty of clearance.
	The bit of tube, the washers and nut etc are used to protect the splines and threads from any possibility of getting damaged by welding spatter.
	I had to weld a little bit at a time as there appeared to be both plastic and grease down inside the outer tube of the column.
	The weld was then ground down flush with the Corsa part of the column to allow the top bearing and remains of it's housing to slide down into place. Just visible is the circlip which helps to hold it in place.
	Moving on to the main part of the column I need to make a mounting bracket, this will attach the motor and housing to the pedal box. Luckily the Corsa unit comes with a steel bracket already in place.
	To this bracket I bolt a length of 1" flat steel, it needs to be offset to one side to allow it to line up with the pedal box.
	Using some more 1" flat steel I start to make up the other end of the bracket which will bolt up to the pedal box.
	This part is then bolted to the pedal box using the bolts which hold the cylinders in place - these had to be removed and longer ones fitted. Just visible to the left side of the photo is the part of the bracket which is bolted to the column.
	Next up was to join these two bits of bracket using some old off-cuts of inch angle iron. This looks simple but actually took quite a bit of trial and error fitting and tacking and refitting etc.
	Part of the trouble was there was really very little room between the pedal box and power steering motor that I couldn't really see what I was doing but I eventually got it shaped and welded so that it would hold the motor and column in exactly the right place.
	It was cleaned down and given a nice coat of paint before final fitting.
	As mention earlier I don't really intend to keep these bolt on wings and I tack my bracket directly to the upper column before cutting the remnants of the wings off completely.
	Another trail fit and once I'm happy I can finally weld my bracket solidly to the upper column, it's much neater with them sticking out to each side.
	I then add another strengthening piece down the back of the inverted "V" before finally painting this part of the outer column.
	And with all the welding done the plastic upper bearing housing can be replaced and the complete column is finally ready to fit into the car - at this stage it has been in and out over a dozen times on various trial fits.
	With the car lowered to the ground again I mess about with the settings on the controller, this does throw up one problem particularly with the controller turned up to "full assistance" - there is considerable torque created by the motor and even with the mounts already fitted it actually twists slightly in place.
	To combat this twisting I decide to fit another bracket between the motor and the roll cage. This consists of a length of inch box section, two wings are welded onto one end to bolt to the wings on the alloy housing of the middle section of the column.
	At the other end I fix it in place using an exhaust clamp round the roll cage rather than welding. This completely eliminates any twisting and makes for a really firm installation.
	It also allows me to fit a little panel between the dash and this bar and on this I can the mount the fuse box which is seen in the photo above as well as the adjusting knob for the controller and a main on-off switch which I decide to install as well as two other switches which had been mounted on as small bracket in this area.
	Finally all the wiring is tidied away and I am all ready to hit the road so to speak.
	As required by the MSA - the governing body of motorsport the ignition lock was disabled many years ago by grinding off the internal bolt mechanism. The alloy housing is still there but just to hold the ignition switch, I just fix this to the thicker Corsa column using longer than normal bolts.
	Also the indicator switch is fixed to the column by a similar method. It no longer has any self canceling mechanism but that's not really required by law. The truth is that when I'm rallying one of the few times that I use my indicators is during vehicle scrutiny.