Steering Relay Rebuild Guide

I am having "fun" trying to fill the steering relay with oil.

I still have some ideas left to try and will post what worked in the end when and if I'm successful.

For now, I came across this guide to stripping and rebuilding the relay and wanted to share it and keep a link to it for later should I ever need it:

http://forums.roversnorth.com/showthread.php?16554-Steering-Relay-Rebuild-Guide

Steering Link and Relay (2)

I have fit the new steering link, which was straightforward, and I've fit new gaskets and oil seals in the top and bottom of the steering relay, which was somewhat more interesting!

On the underside, the flange plate I removed appeared to be one piece, and to contain the lower relay's oil seal. After refitting this it struck me as so wrong to have the seal on the outside (i.e. underside) that I couldn't think about much else for a couple of days. The 2/2A workshop manual and parts catalogue didn't help much either, in fact they even showed the seal on the outside. I couldn't accept this though. To me, it looked like something should retain the oil seal up against the bottom of the relay.

Eventually I realised the flange plate was in fact two parts, and someone had inserted the middle part upside down some years ago. Weather and corrosion had then fused them together. I managed to separate them with a hammer and screwdriver, clean them up, and get the lower seal fitted the right way up and now concealed and retained in place. This also meant the lower few mm of the relay shaft was no longer exposed.. something that had led to it getting a little corroded where the lower seal runs against it.

Refit as I found it with the seal and end of the relay shaft exposed.. and I couldn't sleep!

A-ha! Not one, but two pieces.. flipping the middle around..

And following the brainwave.. with the lower seal and shaft now enclosed.

The top seal is on the outside against the base of the upper relay lever, and there's no similar way to reverse the piece it's contained by. I can accept this though, since it's at the top, and not the way the oil will leak out under gravity.

The relay was completely empty when I went to drain it. I scraped most of the old oil from underneath the relay and off the lower lever.. evidence of how poorly that outside seal was performing in the end (it was in pieces when I picked it out).

So.. that's new gaskets and seals on the relay, and new bolts for that upper housing. I'm waiting for a hand-pumped oil can with small flexible hose to be delivered before I can top the relay up with oil. The filler hole is about 6mm!

I also changed the steering box oil today, and replaced the painted battery cage and air filter, along with new rubber pads for the battery tray.

This completes all the steering work I should need for an MOT.

The next job is to make a start on the welding.

Steering Link and Relay (1)

With the battery and air filter cage off my attention was drawn to the condition of the steering link assembly that joins the steering box drop arm to the top of the steering relay in the front crossmember.

The steering link is a 22" tube with a ball joint each end, just like the drag link and track rod underneath. Closer inspection revealed the balljoints were at least dried out, if not worse, and the tubing had seen better days. With the other steering components now renewed, and wanting to clean and paint the front chassis as far back as the front outriggers, I decided it was time to remove this steering link and refurb or replace it.

The upper relay lever sits on a splined shaft, keyed slightly by a pinch bolt that has to be completely removed. The pinch gap can then be opened out with a screwdriver and the lever levered up and off. (You can't get a hammer to this as the chassis is immediately beneath it. I used a balljoint splitter that a friend had widened out with an angle grinder - this turned out to be a perfect fit.)

The drop arm is harder to remove. It's also on a splined shaft (the steering box rocker shaft), and is tight up against a brake pipe union which makes getting even a small 2-arm puller on it very difficult. There's a custom Leyland tool that is designed to fit (#600000), now made by Laser and sold for £35, but as it turned out, I didn't need to remove it.

With the upper relay lever off, you can pull the steering link further towards the front of the vehicle, which pulls the drop arm with it far enough to remove the ball joint on the front side of the steering box mounting bracket. Short version: you only have to take the upper relay lever off, which is easy.

I could now see one bolt was missing from the upper relay housing, exposing the inside to the weather, and another was bent in place(!). I carefully, and luckily, extracted the bent bolt without breaking it.

It looks like this top plate was fit very slightly off centre to the bolt holes, so when this third bolt was wound in it seized and started to cross-thread, but he continued winding until it stopped completely, and then.. he decided to leave it. And I don't know what happened to the 4th bolt. I am hoping when I remove this plate to replace the seal and gasket beneath it, when I go to refit it, I don't find the thread damaged on that side.

The more things like this I find, the more looking I feel like doing..

I was lucky to get this out in one piece..

I've ordered a new steering link assembly inc. balljoints, plus new bolts, seals, and gaskets for the steering relay, top and bottom. Next job will be get all that fit and the relay topped up with oil again.