Adjustable Steering

[Peter Douglas W]

I have a late 2000 with adjustable steering. 2 days ago it started making a noise and with the lock fully on there was a small amount of movement up and down. I went to my parts catologue and to my surprise there is no adjustable steering shown. Any idea were I can find some drawings of these parts. When I have the drawings they normally give me a very good hint of where to start looking.

[Charles H]

All Mk2 had adjustable steering columns. In the March 1975 parts Catalogue it is all on page 22 - 82 under Body and Fittings, Steering Column Supports. It is unlikely that this is your problem, usually the bearings in the upper column.

[Peter Douglas W]

Charles by god you'r right. I would had never thought of looking there. I don't like the look of this. I think it could be a little bit tricky and a lot of stripping down.

[Peter Douglas W]

Anybody got any experienece with this job?

[johnnydog]

How about this brand new old stock Mk2 steering column assembly Peter?
A bit of stripping down (which would have to be done anyway whatever way you choose to tackle it), but the seller is Richard Symonds who is a Register member. Seems good value including postage, although there will be additional costs to Germany.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/276085276889 ... media=COPY

[johnnydog]

Anybody got any experienece with this job?

It's not particularly difficult - more fiddly than anything else. Parcel shelf out, steering column cowels off, disconnect the wiper and indicator stalks from the loom, undo the lower steering bolt on the rack and remove the bolt and undo the steering column clamp - that can be a bit fiddly with the lower shroud. Loosen the steering wheel retaining bolt and loosen the wheel on the splines but leave the nut finger tight as you may need the wheel in situ to assist in pulling the column off the rack.
Points on reassembly - worth replacing the bulkhead bush with PU from Chris Witor at this point. Centralise the rack before attempting to attach the lower column by removing the small bolt / bleed nipple on the rack, and inset a thin centre punch or 1 /8" drill bit and with a helper, slowly turn the steering rack until the punch drops into the small indentation. This procedure isn't mentioned in the 2000 workshop manual for some strange reason, but is in the Stag manual dispite the rack being the same. The rack is now centralised - don't worry if the wheels are off, this just means it has been tracked incorrectly in the past! Make sure the indicator stalk self cancelling lug is in the correct position before tightening everything. Don't forget there is a groove on the the rack spline for the lower column bolt - if not positioned exactly right in its up / down position, this bolt won't go back!! Probably worth having the tracking checked afterwards so that the steering remains in the straight ahead position relative to the indicator stalks self cancelling. I wouldn't just reposition the steering wheel as this defeats centralising the rack.
Reassemble the ancilllaries and should be job done!
Hopefully covered everything, but I'm sure some other tips may get posted!

[Peter Douglas W]

Great Info. Just been warned off by the doc. So it will be a garage job. I have printed out everything. I will now try and get an appointment. This is very difficult.