Steering, Suspension, & Brakes

Hello All,
I dropped the steering rack from my B and when I went to put it back the center rod of the column had slid out about 4 inches.
To put the rack in I had to use a prybar to compress the spring at the base of the column and align the rack bolt holes. I havent pulled a rack in over 20 years and I cant remember if this is normal (aging minds are a hazzard). Any help?
Thanks,
JB

John, we just had the column apart in the MGB-Roadmaster, it's a '69. The thing we ran into is that the way the lower bearing is made it depends on the column itself not extending in order to keep the balls in place during installation. The column has two plastic pieces inside that were apparently formed by injecting the plastic into cavities after the parts were assembled, where the plastic holds them but will shear in an impact. As it ages it takes less and less of an impact to shear it until it eventually fails. When that happens the lower section slips down and allows the bearing balls to drop out of their race into an inner cavity of the bearing. This can all be put back right but requires a full disassembly. The lower bearing is a press fit and the shaft comes out the bottom after the top clip, spacer, wave washer and shims are removed. As for the spring and nut.... well that's just a little weird but if undamaged it can be left alone. The balls can be coaxed back into the bearing race by removing the internal rubber washer (and hope it doesn't have the double plastic ones that tear up) and coaxing them back into place with a scriber. The slip joint needs to be fixed and various methods have been used, including drilling the inner shaft and using a cotter pin. We used RightStuff sealant to glue it back together and pumped it into the cavities too. No report yet on how well that holds up but it should do fine. That has to be done before reassembly so the shims can be set right. Good luck!

Jim

quote: We used RightStuff sealant to glue it back together

I think I've heard of people using hot melt glue to repair these too...

Sooooo it's not right. THANKS JIM! I'll let you know what I find and how the repair goes.
JB

oooowwww Curtis , I like the hot glue gun idea, I just would have never thought of that and my wife uses them all the time.
Will