I am starting to get a lot of play in my steering wheel. Not so much left to right but up and down. There is ~1/2 inch of movement. Does anyone know what is the likely cause as i am concerned about losing steering mid corner.

As far as I can tell it is standard rover, but it hs had a woodgrain dash added so may have had the steering rack lowered at some point.

_________________
1970 Mini Deluxe - 1275, Weber, Clive 346 cam, MS 4-pot slotted discs, Megajolt ignition Now with new improved Mambas... almost on the road
1966 Van with Traveller rear seat conversion
2008 Prado GXL
All in various states of repair...

Id want to confirm that the rack U bolts were loosened b4 anyone lowered the colum. If not it can chew out the splines in the end of the colum... Thats bad.... otherwise it could be the upper colum bush is U/S.

_________________

http://www.youtube.com/user/Hanras

So which way is the play in the wheel , is it as though the column is moving side to side in the tube it sits in ? Or is it moving towards the dash and away from the dash in the tube ? Or is it moving up and down from the floor to the ceiling ? Or is it the wheeel itself on the column ? Just trying to figure out if it's a worn bush like Hanra suggests or something else .

Edit> or is the whole steering column (tube included) moving towards the dash and back as if the bracket that mounts the column to the dash is loose .

_________________

i had a similar problem, altho i think yours is a bit more serious than mine, all mine was was the bolt that goes under the column which holds it up was almost completely worn through, like it was eating through the bolt if you know what i mean, it had gone through the thread of it, so just check your bolt is where i would say to start then check more serious things. other than that i have no idea

_________________
'73 clubby s "cryo" - sold
Operation Evil Sesame Street!

Stop driving it and get it fixed

_________________
"Show me the Mini!"

probably the bush (at the bottom) or bearing in the steering column......nothing unusual best get it rectified asap!!!

_________________
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDMkVq1jRGU

I had that happen to me, on the Calder freeway. The car ever-so-slightly changed direction over an expansion joint, and after pulling off the freeway the column completely stripped off the rack splines.

Don't drive it, until you sort it out. Seriously. If you like, I can have a look

_________________
Simon

The adventures of an owner builder in the Tallarook Ranges

So Simon, are you free tomorrow?

_________________
1970 Mini Deluxe - 1275, Weber, Clive 346 cam, MS 4-pot slotted discs, Megajolt ignition Now with new improved Mambas... almost on the road
1966 Van with Traveller rear seat conversion
2008 Prado GXL
All in various states of repair...

???

The lower bush, if you can call it that is a strip of felt soaked in oil... The top bush is nylon plastic sorta stuff. Cant find any bearings in my colum.....

_________________

http://www.youtube.com/user/Hanras

Sorry I should clarify, the plat is up and down the steering column, so the wheel moves up and down the shaft. Although if I look behind the wheel, it appears the the whole shaft is moving up and down the steering column.

_________________
1970 Mini Deluxe - 1275, Weber, Clive 346 cam, MS 4-pot slotted discs, Megajolt ignition Now with new improved Mambas... almost on the road
1966 Van with Traveller rear seat conversion
2008 Prado GXL
All in various states of repair...

PM

_________________
Simon

The adventures of an owner builder in the Tallarook Ranges

Sorry I should clarify, the play is up and down the steering column, so the wheel moves up and down the shaft. Although if I look behind the wheel, it appears that the whole shaft is moving up and down the steering column.

_________________
1970 Mini Deluxe - 1275, Weber, Clive 346 cam, MS 4-pot slotted discs, Megajolt ignition Now with new improved Mambas... almost on the road
1966 Van with Traveller rear seat conversion
2008 Prado GXL
All in various states of repair...

If it moves that far, either the 2 pinion bearings are shot, or more likely the spline is loose or worn out in base of column.
Tighten the split clamp nut at bottom, but if no gap left where it's split, take it out and inspect. It's dangerous if spline is worn out, you can go straight ahead on corners. Eh, 9YaYaH...

<edit> I've never seen pinion bearings give much shaft movement, even when shot.

_________________
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.

Ok so its in and out the free play. Check the bolt at the spline end of the colum. Confirm its tight. If it is, then its the pinion itself moving up and down inside the rack.....

If so, drop the front subframe out of the car about 3-4 inches and remove the entire steering rack and get it reco'd, and check the condition of the splines in the lower part of the colum.

_________________

http://www.youtube.com/user/Hanras

It's dangerous if spline is worn out, you can go straight ahead on corners. Eh, 9YaYaH...its 9YaTaH Doc ...you make me sound like an old cricketer

Yeah or worst of all...you might not go straight ahead where you might at least have had some chance of getting on the brakes.

When a Mini steering becomes unnconnected you have a big chance of the wheels flopping to full lock depending on the camber of road, previous wheel angle etc.

Hanra...no offence, but checking the tightness of the pinch bolt whilst good practice completely ignores the possibility that it is almost worn through and no longer clamping the pinion. If the splines on the pinion are damaged or missing then it is also a little academic to be checking the tightness of the pinchbolt.

If the pinion has major problems with the rack then it needs to be fixed ASAP because it can kill you.

Rant nearly over

To reiterate....the reason we need to be careful here is that there are plenty of youngsters and others out there in Mini land who have no idea just how important this area of a Mini is and how hard it can bite if not quckly attended to....

Both the Doc and myself have walked away (eventually!!) from big shunts caused by failures in this weak area of design in the Mini. In my case, I kept driving a car with about 1-2 inches of freeplay in the steering wheel whilst I waited for a replacement rack to be delivered. Not an excessive amount of freeplay in an old steering system...but it jumped up and bit me
(and please, nobody rabbit on about how Mini racks were good enough to be used in Ferrari 308s after lengthening etc....)

_________________
"Show me the Mini!"