hey guys,

a friend in his mini deluxe came to pick me up last night from my house and as he was taking a hard turn on the road (only doing about 20km/h mind you) there was a considerable crunching sound followed by no steering control - we had to steer the car into the curb by turning the tyres by hand.

after a bit of road-side investigation (unbolting the column), I discovered that the pinion gear of the newly replaced steering rack (maybe 3 months ago) was in top condition, but the column's inner teeth where it engages the pinion gear were not feeling quite right. after farting around it seems like the teeth inside the column are stripped or damaged beyond repair, and that my friend now needs a new column. for your information the rack is in good condition and nothing is amiss under the car, it seems like this pinion gear to steering column junction is the problem.

so, my first question is if the teeth inside the column are damaged, what actually needs to be replaced? i am assuming the whole column needs replacing?

more importantly, why the hell would this happen? is this a common fault? he was not taking the corner at high speed at all, perhaps it is accelerated wear caused by the new pinion gear and the old column gears...

cheers in advance

Easiest would be to replace the whole collumn if you can find a good one . The best though would be to find another steering shaft (the inside bit of the collumn) and replace the bushes etc in the steering collumn since it's all apart anyway . The splined section was available seperate years ago but not sure now due to concerns of peoples welding skills , some specialists might do them on an exchange basis though so would be worth doing a ring around .

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minisport do changeover ones

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-jamie-
1963morris 850
1965 solid side van
1994 rover racecar

this problem normally occurs when people have fitted a steering cloum drop bracket and havent loosened up the u bolts on the rack itself and re ajusted etc etc. also can be due to to much dry steering when parking.
just replace the cloum shaft. about $15
easy job to repair. i had mine $h!t itself once while i was in the city.... funny story but like most cases the mini made it home safe

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real men race downhill - keiichi tsuchiya

Happens to the clubby steering column more often than roundy ones...probably a lower grade material used later on in the life of the mini..

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Starlet Conversion:
http://www.ausmini.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=15484

could also be from larger heavier wheels

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real men race downhill - keiichi tsuchiya

okay thanks guys, thats been a great help. 1970 Mini K, can you explain how it would cost $15? does anyone have an exploded diagram of the column?

how does one go about removing the steering shaft from the column, if this is infact what we decide to do (compared to a swap)?

cheers

A replacement column S/H is worth around $20..

You unbolt the column from the lower parcel shelf and from the spline on the rack and it should lift out.

Then you need to take the wheel off and if you have self cancelling indicators there is a little protruding 'T' bit that you need to unscrew and the inner column should slide out. Good idea to replace the bushes too while your at it.

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Starlet Conversion:
http://www.ausmini.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=15484

last thing without intruding on what others have said.

Never ever hammer the column onto the rack splines = the column is a soft metal and the rack splines are hard.

Generally if it doesn't easily slide into place its because the rack is at the wrong angle. Undo the four nuts holding the rack in position and rotate the rack up or down until it slides on easily and then nip up the rack holding nuts

NEVER EVER HAMMER IT INTO PLACE

Can someone tell me where i can get a second hand inner for this so called $20 or less, because everywhere that i rang wanted >%150. I did manage to find one for $50 after about six months of searching.

Ryan

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Ryan Filippi
Minis In The Gong
[email protected]
www.minisinthegong.com.au

this is exactly what my diagnosis was after a couple of hours of trying to fix the problem last night by the side of the road. it felt to me like the splines inside the column were okay, but the owner had the car towed to his mechanic after we couldnt get the column to engage the pinion gear, and the mechanic reckons its the worn splines in the column rather than the angle. It certainly entered my mind immediately to check the condition of both the pinion gear splines and those in the column, but both seemed fine by touch to me, but i could be wrong (it wouldnt be the first time!).

if the metal that constitutes the splines in the steering shaft is soft, i would assume this sort of thing happens a fair bit. I guess it would be a protective design measure, to prevent a more annoying job of replacing the pinion gear?

anyway. thanks for your help guys, i'll fit the new steering shaft soon and hopefully the mini will be back on the road again.

cheers

I've seen a few steering columns give trouble like this when put onto a new replacement UK rack, maybe the splines on the rack's pinion shaft are a few thou smaller than Oz ones.
Important to check the column still has splines in, and also that there is still a gap between the clamp lugs when the pinch bolt is tight.
If splines OK but no gap, I slit the gap again with a 1mm thick cutting disc.

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DrMini- 1970 wasaMatic 1360, Mk1S crank, 86.6HP (ATW) =~125 @ crank, 45 Dellorto (38 chokes), RE282 sprint cam, 1.5 rockers, 11.0:1 C/R.