Afternoon all,

Recently bought a 'fixer-upper' Bike engined Locost and have been working my way through the long list of jobs required to get it through its next Mot in May.

It has quite a bit of play in the steering which I've tracked down to the column up at the wheel.

Did the book Locosts use the steering column from the Escort too? Apologies for the poor pictures below :-










It looks like there is a nylon type bush here? Is it just a case of buying one of these :-

https://www.burtonpower.com/top-steering-column-bush-ford-escort -mk2-mp1010.html

Cheers
Tony

Your steering column doesn't look at all like mine did, and mine was Ford Escort mk2 based

If you take the steering column apart, the plastic bearings will come out, and I imagine will have a part number on them,
so perhaps a bit of investigation work is needed, on those

Last ditch attempt would be to make some new bearings out of a nylon blank, and I did do that on my lower bush setup, as the part was not available

steve

Cheers for the reply

I was hoping you were going to say "yeah that's standard Mk2 Escort" though.

Ah well - Will have to try and strip down and see what's going on inside.

Any one else recognise what this column might be in the mean time?

Cheers again
Tony

The last picture makes it look like the “U” clamp is around the inner column? If it is then it needs serious attention!

No, that's the outer column that's clamped - it goes all the way to the uj. I'm beginning to think this is not a column from a car but some Heinz 57 thing made up of outer tubes and inner rods?

The more I investigate on this car the more I'm amazed it has ever passed an mot. The handbrake still won't release properly (and clearly has been like this for a long time). Despite cleaning and lubing the adjusters inside the drums/replacing the cables (twice now)/ re-making the ally bar that connects the lever to the cables and also buying a new handbrake lever from Rally Design to replace the original that was bent over at 45 degrees for some reason, it's still chewing through the plastic cable coating on the cables and not releasing when the handbrake is dropped

I 'was' hoping to be able to drive this thing through this summer and strip it back to the chassis and re-do everything properly during the winter. Grrrr - anyway whinge over

Sorry but it looks junk and I'd just throw it in the bin and fit a proper quality column.

The mx5 column looks a good candidate for a replacement.

quote:

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Originally posted by big_wasa
The mx5 column looks a good candidate for a replacement.

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Thanks all - I'll add 'bin the steering arrangement' to the ever increasing list of things to throw away and do properly!

Is there any particular 'mark' MX5 column that works well on these - or is it just any?

Cheers
Tony

I used a Mk 2 but I think the Mk 1 will be very similar. The top of the column is secured with two bolts and the bottom has two small leg brackets that can be bolted directly to the footwell bulkhead so you o not need the spherical bearing support (one leg will need shortening by a cm or so). It then has a uj and it is helpfull if you have the bit of splined shaft that goes into it as you can then sleve and weld whatever extension you require to reach the rack. I put another uj in to get round my alternator with the final short length to the rack supported is a rose joint bearing. Yours may well route differently but the principal will be the same

Mk1 is a little skinnier around the steering lock than the mk2.

Steering locks fetch more than the column but it doesn't look like your using one.

They are cheap as chips compared to the Sierra.

Thanks everyone - that's really helpful and much appreciated!

I'm going to try and fix the current column to get it through the mot and then replace it properly over the winter.

Cheers
Tony