Dang, Makes you wonder if ZF specs for Brit cars require them to leak after 50k miles!

 

Replacing the steering rack means I need to replace the lower steering column too. The shorter S2 lower steering column is on the left, the longer S3 steering column is on the right.


My wife made a guest appearance in the garage today to help change the steering shaft. She normally only comes out for brake bleeding duties but she made an exception for today.


Probably not my proudest moment - making her lay underneath the car and push the steering column through the firewall while I was inside the car making sure the shaft went into the u-joint in the proper orientation. But I took her out for steak so she was happy.

Unfortunately we could never get the lower shaft into the u-joint, so I released her from her duties and dropped the entire steering column. It was much easier to re-insert the lower steering column into the u-joint when everything was all taken apart.

With the steering column attached and the new rack in place it was time to reassess the exhaust pipe. As I expected the power steering lines were right where the exhaust pipe was, so I pulled that section out and started reworking it. At the end of the day I'm not upset over having to redo it as I was never a big fan of the sharp curve it had to make. This time I'm doing it the popular way and routing it closer to the frame rail. More pictures to come once Summit Racing sends me a few more pieces.


I was able to reuse the -6an return hose without issue, but the pressure hose I made last year needs to be re-vamped. I'm not sure why I didn't buy swivel AN fittings but the steering rack end of the pressure is clocked 180° the wrong way. I have a new swivel fitting coming this week so I can correct that.

 

Bless her heart!!!

 

As we did Nix's rack 10 years ago now, and had no access to nor knowledge of swivel fittings, I mocked up the new hose on both ends and marked all the parts.



Then took it to the hydraulic shop and had both hose ends crimped on *Right* *There*.
Perfect fit.
But your way would have been much quicker and easier... IF we had known about such fittings.
(';')

 

The cold weather has really dampened my enthusiasm for working on the car, but today Chicago was above 50 degrees and I found my motivation. I started with finish making a new driver's side exhaust down pipe. The new one, with a much straighter profile, is on the left and most of the original down pipe I made is on the right. You can see the original took a couple severe turns along the way.



After that I finished hooking up my power steering pressure hose, filled the power steering reservoir, and cranked it up. The X-pipe gives the exhuast a nice mellow tone and most importantly there isn't a single drop of fluid coming from the power steering rack.

 

A short night in the garage because I'm running out of things to do. I had planned on putting the new tie rods on the steering rack but I didn't have the right size jam nuts - so we'll do that tomorrow.

I did make a decision that was partly cosmetic and partly functional. When I added the remote oil filter and cooler, I used braided stainless steel AN hoses. There's a lot to like about them - they're good for up to 1,000 psi, they're durable, and they look good. After living with them for a year there are some things that I don't like - they are stiff, they scratch anything they touch, and when they get dirty they look bad.

So tonight I pulled the braided stainless steel hoses and replaced them with braided nylon hoses. The actual hose is the same between the two hoses; only the outside covering is different. The braided nylon hoses are far more flexible and are incredibly easy to assemble. The downside is they are rated to 300psi instead of 1,000 psi but for an oil filter/cooler that's still plenty of margin.


I kept the braided stainless in place for the power steering system and transmission cooler as I felt those needed the extra margin.


The nicest part about the braided nylon is it cuts to length with a pair of razor scissors, and you don't get puncture wounds trying to assemble the ends.

 

Well done!

That's one thing I wish I had room for on Nix, an oil cooler and remote spin-on oil filter so I didn't have to jack her up to change oil.

I had a spin-on PH-8 filter adapter with an Overkill oil cooler on that ancient Chrysler 440 and 727 Torqueflight transmission (which ran 300,000 miles btw, but never got photo of engine oil cooler), they sat in the cavernous space between the grill and radiator, where no one could see unless they knew where to look.

But yours is Much prettier, looks Professional instead of accidental.

(Trans filter and cooler)

Try as we might, there was simply No space for that setup on Nix, and I do miss it... well I miss the idea of having them anyway.
(';')

 

I sent @slofut an extra plate I had and he noticed the holes for the fulcrum mounts we off slightly. He made a really good point that the inner fulcrum pivots are shimmed to each unique car and what was a great fit on my car doesn't necessarily translate to the next one. Seems like stepping up to the next size drill bit might fix it.

 

Definitely. Remember that we are dealing with a 1950s/early 1960s design. These were made with enough tolerance to accept quite large (by modern standards) production differences. For a start, the actual rear axle cage is not a rigid item until the bottom plate is fitted, and even then not that rigid until the inner and outer fulcrums are fitted. So the factory designed and made everything to allow fettling and shimming to get the assembly to the desired end result.
As Torsen knows, in my own rear axle I have fitted the differential to the cage using studs rather than the OEM taper-shoulded bolts. This enhanced quite noticeably the feeling of solidity to the axle-mounting, whereby only the designed-to-comply parts of the assembly were complying, rather than additional movement from other parts flexing.

1/2 inch UNC studs into the diff, loctited in. taper washers and nylocs

Studs screwed into the diff through the cage

Tapered washers to fit into the tapered hole in the cage

Finished item.

OEM diff to cage fixing bolt. Using a stud allows far deeper threading into the diff casing and more reliable clamping. Only just over half of the threaded portion actually is in the diff threaded hole.

 

Can I ask where you sourced your replacement rack? I rebuilt mine last year but am dealing with weeping again. I cannot find a single reman rack available anywhere on the internet, other than a few specialty distributors that are charging astronomical prices.

It's to the point where I'm just debating retrofitting a modern BMW rack (superb steering feel and modern reliability), but don't yet want to deal with the challenge of making mounts, adapting hydraulic lines, figuring out spline differences in the shaft, and of course calculating geometry to prevent bump steer.

 

I got mine from here, although in my opinion their price can be considered astronomical - especially if you don't have a core to return. But it was the only one available. RockAuto has been out of stock ever since I started looking. PartsGeek and the local auto stores didn't have one. I didn't want to pay that much but it was truly the only option.

Upgrading to a different rack would be a fun project but you're right about the challenges. The hardest thing would be finding something that has the right length so you don't end up with bump steer. The next hardest thing would be to mount it to the Jaguar in a safe manner. I think the hoses would be pretty easy.

 

If you are prepared to ship these guys in the UK are the best rack rebuilders and their prices are sensible.

https://steering-racks.co.uk/

They have done mine and all good.

 

Thanks for the link, you're right about the Aston rack, that price is no joke!

The standard 9006M rack is available on their site for a much more reasonable $495. I don't desire for my XJ6 to ever be a canyon carver, so a simple stock replacement (that doesn't leak!) is more than adequate.

Sadly I saw a few 9006M racks pop up on Rockauto and FCP Euro late last year, but I spent my car allowance on other projects and missed the boat.

My other hope was to see if these folks can rebuild my rack as they are not too far across the border.

https://www.globalrackpinion.ca/

 

It's been a few weeks since I've been able to make any meaningful progress but now that spring is starting to tease it's way out I spent the weekend playing catch up in the garage.

First up is to fit a new set of 32" all-terrain tires front and rear. Since I spend a fair amount of time off-road it only makes sense to be able to take the Jaguar with me. The tires fit under the fenders very well at full suspension droop and I am hoping they will self-clearance themselves when the car is fully loaded.


Just kidding.
I did finish up the steering rack and hooked up the engine cooling fan. Then I pulled her off the jack stands for the first time in several months. I vacuumed the AC system down and recharged it which is much easier to do with the hood out of the way.


I took this week off work, so the plan tomorrow is to put the hood back on and get it to the tire shop so they can align the front end. With the new steering rack I think I got the toe-in close but there's nothing like a laser alignment to get it perfect.

 

Very interesting front bumper mods, I never noticed before. I keep thinking there has to be a way to minimize that log besides a full euro conversion..

 

That's the stock bumper. I thought I could do something with the S1 bumper but it didn't work out. The euro bumper conversion is cool but for me the juice isn't worth the squeeze.

 

If you've never had it done before, I can tell you you'll Like Laser Alignment!
(';')

 

You trimmed off the rubber ends back to where the signal light pockets start? And put the euro signal lights in the fenders... I'd like to see how you finished off the rubber where cut.

 

It was like that when I got it. I thought all S2's looked like that?

 

Every one I've ever seen looked like this...