It started out so well…

On some older MOT certificates for BART there was a note about play in the N/S front wheel bearing.  I decided to take a look and found that in fact the slight play was in the track rod arm ball joint, an easy enough item to replace.  I also found the lower control arm ball joint boot was split and had allowed road grit to enter so that needed replacement.

I bought a pair of  track rod ends from Eurosport-uk and with the help of Dr.Jeff on the xweb forum found a local supplier in the UK for the replacement boot at https://www.balljointboots.co.uk/index.html

Changing the track rod ends was easy enough, just count the number of turns it takes to remove the old one and install the new one with the same number of turns.  

Splitting the N/S control arm joint was also straight forward as was cleaning out the old grease from it and repacking with fresh grease and installing the new boot.  There was quite a lot of dirt in the old boot but no lasting damage to the ball joint itself, think I caught that one just in time!

Ball splitting!

Old grease and grit

New boot fitted to control arm

I also decided to top up the steering rack oil with the correct SAE90 oil.  You can do this with a small oil can, inserting the nozzle down the small end of the steering rack gaitor and squirting away.  It takes 100ml or so.

Conscious that the alignment may now be out slightly I booked BART back into BlackBoots in Chesham for a check up and possible adjustment.

The guys did their usual stuff and I was surprised to see the rear alignment was out a touch both camber and toe and that despite counting the turns for the track rods ends the front toe was a mile out!  I must have mis counted.

The drive back was great, BART felt secure and stable with precise turn in on corners and amazing grip given the skinny tyres, excellent….

Then it all went wrong.

I parked BART on the drive and had some lunch.  I came back out after an hour to put him back in the garage and noted a large puddle of oil under the N/S front of the car.  I started him up and noticed a very odd clack clack clack sound emanating from the engine!  Oh  &£#%@#£&!  What now!

Crawling under the front of the car I found this:

I immediately blamed BlackBoots for splitting the passenger side steering gaitor and losing all the oil but as I laid under the car looking at it, it suddenly dawned on me that in fact (ok it shouldn’t have been left like this) it was a drivers side boot!  Some muppet, probably from the restoration (Outwood Cars) had fitted two drivers side gaitors to the steering rack!  No wonder the oil leaked out.

The gaitor is not long enough for the passenger side

Back on to the Eurosport-uk website to order up the correct part for under £4(!) it arrived the following day.  With BART back up in the air I pulled off the offending part and tried to fit the correct gaitor…no way in a thousand years was it going to go on with the rack still in the car, I wonder if the monkey who fitted it in the first place gave up and went for the easy option.

So I dropped the rack, do this by disconnecting the track rod ends, centre up the steering and rack, dab a bit of white paint on the steering column universal joint (UJ) and the steering rack input shaft to help align it later.  Remove the UJ securing bolt and still inside the car pull the carpet back either side of the central tunnel and undo the 4x 13mm nuts securing the rack to the bulkhead.  It doesn’t take long although access in the drivers footwell it tight and you need a bit of dexterity and flexibility to get your hands in.

With the rack out of the car it took me all of ten mins to fit the new gaitor and top off with 100ml of SAE90 oil.  Fitting is the reverse of removal!

The new, correct gaitor.

Fitted

BART is booked to go back to BlackBoots again next week for a follow up alignment if I can get to the bottom of the worrying noise from the engine in time, that’s for another post…