SherpaPilot
Jedi Hopeful
Offline
I know this issue has been addressed before but I was unable to find the previous posts. To make a long story short, I had a progressive vertical movement in my steering column. This has been one of those issues, I kept putting off for awhile. Sometime ago, I had ordered two new bushings thinking that was the problem. Yesterday I finally decided to tackle the job. I am now into day two and have just removed the column from the car after damaging the poorly designed locking collar that holds the ignition switch. I don't know who the Einstein in England was that designed those headless bolts but he did not do us any favors. After removing everything today, I found the problem in the excessive play. The forward part of the column is bolted to a thin piece of sheet metal which is part of the car. Apparently over the many years, this metal fatigued and cracked. This was the problem with the vertical play and not the suspect bushings. I have read where this sheet metal failure is quite common with the TR4-TR6 models. It will be impossible to weld in this tight area. I am now considering an epoxy like JB Weld. I don't know if there is a better product on the market.
Does anyone have a different alternative to this problem? Knowing the failure rate of this metal, I would recommend to any Triumph owner never to put any weight on the steering column such as getting into or out of your car. Sooner or later, this support structure will fail and your steering column will be excessively loose.
Does anyone have a different alternative to this problem? Knowing the failure rate of this metal, I would recommend to any Triumph owner never to put any weight on the steering column such as getting into or out of your car. Sooner or later, this support structure will fail and your steering column will be excessively loose.