1971 MGB GT - Steering sorted, again - see page 33

[Westbay]

27 minutes ago, Bmwdumptruck said:

Surely Peter would be able  to feel if there’s any sloppyness in the joints rather than just a smooth moving loose joint?

"I’ve had the UJ in my hand today. It’s as loose and floppy as an ..."

[sierraman]

On 16/06/2025 at 20:22, captain_70s said:

Had one of them newish LRs right up my arse on Saturday.

Two lane stretch of the M80, conga line of traffic in the left lane doing around 45/50mph about 15cm from each others' bumpers despite pissing rain and significant standing water. Me doing a mildly perilous 60/65mph in the right lane in the Dolomite.

LR flies up behind me at 90mph odd and then proceeds to flash his lights at me as if I can merge into a solid block of traffic which I'm already significantly faster than.

Over the course of 30 seconds or so he gets closer and closer until all I can see out the rear window is radiator grill.

I eventually spot a gap in traffic big enough to dive in and he does that thing where, while passing, they drift into your lane. I genuinely thought I was going to get wiped out but they swerved back into their lane and fucked off into the distance.

I'd be lying if I said I didn't hope I'd come across them a few miles up the road having wiped themselves out...

I take no small amount of pleasure when you read they’ve had the Range Rover took off the drive at 3am, hopefully under duress. Then a pleading post requesting everyone making it ‘too hot to handle’ despite it being half way to Tilbury Docks. 

[Peter C]

These funny looking things arrived a couple of days ago. Once I'm done fixing the MGB they could be fun in the bedroom.

I put the guides on the ends of the upper and lower steering shafts and immediately I knew that the shafts were misaligned.

I sorted the vertical misalignment by placing a washer between the steering rack and the subframe.

At first, I couldn't figure out how to adjust the horizontal misalignment. Most of the advice I found from Google searches discussed adjusting the upper column up and down but nothing about moving it left or right. 

Then I found this: Steering Column/Rack Alignment

And I figured out that adjustment can be achieved by loosening these two fixings, which secure the lower steering column bracket to the underside of the bulkhead. 

Luckily, despite the extensive corrosion, both fixings loosened just fine and enabled me to adjust the upper shaft across.

Hey presto.

I re-fixed everything and went for a test drive. 

The problem is 95% fixed. There is still slight tightness around the straight-ahead but it's very slight and the steering now self-centres ok. The remaining tightness might be down to the steering rack having just been rebuilt or perhaps some more adjustment is required. Now that I know what I am doing, I might have another go in the future.  

More soon.

 

[danthecapriman]

Nice one👍

That alignment didn’t look that far out without those pointer things, but it actually was miles out wasn’t it!

[Westbay]

"I’ve had the UJ in my hand today. It’s as loose and floppy as an ..."

 

Did you replace the UJ ?

[Peter C]

7 hours ago, Westbay said:

"I’ve had the UJ in my hand today. It’s as loose and floppy as an ..."

 

Did you replace the UJ ?

No, it’s fine, doesn’t need replacing.

[beko1987]

Hopefully that straight ahead stiffness is the tips of those new parts being nice and tight. Might sort itself out with some use?

It did look mega out before though so 🤞