Mk2 3.4 MOD Jaguar restoration

[rtcosic]

But I want a PAS rack, The BMW E21 pas rack could be shortened as it has a steel tube centre and alloy end castings but if I shorten it to Mk2 dimensions I would have the lock of a super tanker.............. I could have a short manual rack with an electric column but that would be modification upon modification, and I could use the original steering with an electric column but would be back to 5 turns lock to lock, or I could leave it std. but with wider tyres and castor alterations it would be even harder to park, my shoulders are knackered and my wife would not be happy to drive it.............. ho hum

Is the compromise to use the power steering box for the higher ratio and the electric column for the power assistance? Eliminates the pump and its attendant issues and gives the ability to adjust the level of assistance to your preference - or to that of the Ultimate Authority? Or even to make it switchable between 'mine' and 'hers'.
I'm unsure how complicated it would be to include the speed-related assistance feature for easy parking and comfortable weight on the move.

Or am I missing the whole point being to eliminate any steering box in favour of a rack and pinion?

Edit: I went from an unassisted S-type to a power-assisted 420. I found the 4.5 turns from lock to lock of the unassisted form mildly hilarious but can't say I noticed any problem with that 'on the move'. The wheel twirling in Tesco's carpark will occur so infrequently will it matter? The electric column with maximum assist makes it a one handed palm on the rim twirl anyway. Just imagine you are in California in 1965!

 

[Matchless]

I owned a Bentley T1 as a daily driver for a few years and the very light steering took a lot of getting used to, my reasons for modifying the Jag steering are two fold, to sharpen it up, less turns lock to lock and less parts, but as we are both older don't want to make it too hard to park / drive round town, hence a PAS rack, the ULEZ and a local CAZ look very likely to cause me daily expense as the family X3 is 2004, and my winter 318i is 2002, classics are exempt, if my wife is unhappy to drive it I will have to replace her X3..............

 

[Matchless]

car is in first coat of primer, working on suspension, brakes, steering, wheels blasted and ready for powder coating, steering shaft a mix of Jag and BMW, had to machine a hexagon onto the cut off Jag shaft, sump needs a bit of welding to clear the PAS rack, checking for bump steer with the std steering but with added negative camber and extra castor, has 2mm bump induced toe out over the intended travel, trying to position the rack to induce toe in and cancel that out, well that is the theory,

 

[minimutly]

You really don't want bump steer or roll induced turn in. A BMW rack with electric power would seem ideal. My xj has a hydraulic rack, engine driven pump with some electronic variable control, which I've yet to understand how it works.

 

[Matchless]

The BMW electric racks are too wide, it is the rack side rod pivots being displaced outwards (and therefore shorter side rods) that induces dump toe alteration, it only becomes bump steer when one front wheel has more grip than the other, doing my best to mitigate the effects, worst way I will re-install std. steering,

 

[minimutly]

Shortening racks is possible - did you check out the 318 compact type racks? If you do shorten one you then have to recentre it - this moves the input shaft position...
Ford escort racks - has anyone made a power version yet? I would guess they would be relatively narrow.
Sorry if I'm teaching you to suck eggs here.

 

[minimutly]

But I want a PAS rack, The BMW E21 pas rack could be shortened as it has a steel tube centre and alloy end castings but if I shorten it to Mk2 dimensions I would have the lock of a super tanker.............. I could have a short manual rack with an electric column but that would be modification upon modification, and I could use the original steering with an electric column but would be back to 5 turns lock to lock, or I could leave it std. but with wider tyres and castor alterations it would be even harder to park, my shoulders are knackered and my wife would not be happy to drive it.............. ho hum

Why this "lock of a supertanker" ? Does it just not have enough travel as std?

 

[Matchless]

Why this "lock of a supertanker" ? Does it just not have enough travel as std?

The centres of the draglink where the steering side rods attach with the old box and idler system were around 18", with 6 1/2" of travel to get the lock, if you shortened a PAS rack to 18" you would get at best 4" of travel, hence not much lock,

 

[Matchless]

More work today, test fitted the rack and side rods and all seems very nice, I checked to toe out on bump (bump steer) again with the rack instead of the std. box and idler system, previously the steering but with the extra negative camber I got about 2mm toe out when raising the suspension from normal ride height to bumped, with the rack I got about 8mm, tried inverting the track rod end (upside down in the taper) therefore raising the steering arm about 50mm, end result about 40mm toe out on bump! so after a cup of tea I decided to drop the TREnd about 18mm using a spacer, NO bump steer throughout the full range of travel, looks like I need to modify the steering arms to drop the track rod end position, raising the rack position would do the same job but there is no more room left under the engine sump,

 

[Melvyn Best]

Should be easy to bore out the steering arms to do away with the taper then turn up an insert with an internal taper to fit the TRE and an outer dia to be an interference fit in the steering arm .? Obviously there needs to be enough meat on the steering arms
Later Freelanders with ally suspension use something similar , just a top hat steel bush , everything held together by the track rod pin securing nut.

 

[minimutly]

Just bend the arm?
I don't like the look of your rack mount - it may just be the camera angle, but I think it needs beefing up?

 

[Matchless]

Just bend the arm?
I don't like the look of your rack mount - it may just be the camera angle, but I think it needs beefing up?

Well I took a decision to not over engineer everything as I usually do and just make it twice as thick as OE, the plate bolted on is 8mm steel, because that was what I had, the steel strips are 1/8" or 3mm and around 30mm wide, well braced but not over done, the OE rack mounts can be bent down with a pair of moles or an adjustable spanner to enable the rack to be pulled down and clear the oil sump, you just bend them back up when you reassemble, you cannot do that with mine, I will take another look at it but It looks ok to me at the moment,

If I bend the steering arms down they will effectively shorten so that will not work, I have spare arms so could cut and shut them as I have in the past but everyone will tell me I will die a horrible death if I do, so I am keeping that in reserve,

Should be easy to bore out the steering arms to do away with the taper then turn up an insert with an internal taper to fit the TRE and an outer dia to be an interference fit in the steering arm .? Obviously there needs to be enough meat on the steering arms
Later Freelanders with ally suspension use something similar , just a top hat steel bush , everything held together by the track rod pin securing nut.

BMW used the same sort of thing on some of their control arms, the top hat would often come out of the alloy, still attached to the pin, usually after being attacked by a big hammer, my issue is to drop the TRE as shown in the picture, may look at a Transit or Sprinter TRE, the side rod thread is 14mm, the taper in the arm goes from @ 14mm to 16mm, maybe some rose joints with high tensile M14 bolts and turned spacers to set it all up and re-assess,

Some of the things I have seen on vehicles make my job look like factory! M6 pound shop coach bolts holding the bottom ball joints to the uprights on a Fiat Polo I bought for my son, A rear hub on a BMW with no nut, no thread either, smashed to f****ck by someone trying to remove the rear flange and change the bearing, was driven into me with no nut, no balls in the bearing and using the rear disc to keep the wheel upright, he kept his foot on the brake to keep the disc upright............ and he never crashed, nothing was salvageable from that rear corner!

 

[Matchless]

Should be easy to bore out the steering arms to do away with the taper then turn up an insert with an internal taper to fit the TRE and an outer dia to be an interference fit in the steering arm .? Obviously there needs to be enough meat on the steering arms
Later Freelanders with ally suspension use something similar , just a top hat steel bush , everything held together by the track rod pin securing nut.

I only have one thread on the TRE in the picture otherwise a spacer might be possible, one thread is a bit sketchy... the steering arm joint looks to be at a very sharp angle but that is on full droop, and I will restrict the travel a bit by spacing the bump stops when I have finalised the geometry,

 

[Matchless]

Just bend the arm?
I don't like the look of your rack mount - it may just be the camera angle, but I think it needs beefing up?

 

[minimutly]

View attachment 280963

Hmm, you're not going to bend that down by much are you...

 

[Matchless]

Paint prep,

 

[Melvyn Best]

Any more progress on the steering?

 

[Matchless]

Now I can get on with the engine installation!

 

[Matchless]

Flatting and polishing started today, looking the dogs danglers, painted the boot lid and bonnet using natures oven, came out better than the paint done inside the workshop!

 

[Brad93]

Flatting and polishing started today, looking the dogs danglers, painted the boot lid and bonnet using natures oven, came out better than the paint done inside the workshop!

View attachment 285770View attachment 285771

Very red