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The old s/column is easy to remove but it is essential to remove the front apron and radiator. Here you can see the original set up.
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The only potentially difficult bit is separating the drag-link pin from the steering arm - club hammer and wedges usually work! As the column withdraws forward at an angle of around 30 degrees, the car has to be raised quite high to avoid fouling the carbs. I removed the carbs as I had a reconditioned set of H6's to fit anyway.
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I wished to retain a central horn push (rather than those awful conker size buttons that go on the dash) so this meant that the outer column or sleeve had to be insulated from the "ground" of the car. Hence the machining of a block of nylon to hold the column at the bulkhead end. The under-dash insulation was achieved by using a plastic tube over the last 6" of the metal where the dash bracket clamps locate.
The full electrical circuit of the horn and its associated insulating bushes, slip ring and carbon pick-up will be detailed in my technical article for publication in Essex News.
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The prototype mountings were both insufficiently rigid and placed the rack too far back, thus fouling the front engine mounts. They did, however, fit directly into the "sockets" originally occupied by the steering box and idler - these cheek plates have captive nuts which were re-used. The mods. to the mounts were quite easy (assuming you can weld!).
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A this is what it looks like when you've put it altogether.
You are probably looking at a total of between 60 and 70 hours work to do
what I did. This included mods. which others may not be so anal about and
re-engineering the mounting brackets. you propbably won't need this with an off-the-shelf conversion kit but I reckon that you are still looking at 2 to 3 days (15 to 20 hours) to complete the conversion.
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Is it worth it? Bloody right!! It has transformed the car. Steering is
light and positive and the car goes where I point it without any of the
"dither" associated with worm and peg systems. It now drives in a straight line at 90mph - hands off!! Parking is a pleasure and conducted with just one hand on the wheel - a smaller wheel, at that! All this is possible even though my car runs on 5.5J rims.
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