The 65E is up on the lift ready to get the broken steering racked fixed tomorrow. I prepped the space tonight, with some help from Christopher to get the bonnet tilted up and hung off the block & tackle in the barn. Funny, when I installed it almost 10 years ago to lift hay bales, I never would have thought that I’d be putting it to this use!
Bob Rankin will be here in the morning to help me out, as I’ve never done work on the steering before (beyond some very minor stuff) so it will be nice to have somebody with some knowledge. I’ll be sure to take pictures and share the story. Right now I’m off to bed!
Update: Noon Saturday. Bob arrived right at 9am, and we removed the rack from the car. It came off quite easily. The tie rod end on the passenger side required a puller (which Bob brought) to separate, and we had to remove the fan from the radiator, but otherwise it was a shockingly smooth operation. Bob was very helpful to have around and enjoyable company. The new rack mounts went in with no problems but Bob noted a bit of wobble in the rack… on the passenger side, opposite from where the broken mount was located. Go figure.
The broken mount, when removed from the car looks fine, and in fact can’t be made to deform like it was on the car. I guess I’m just not strong enough! 😉 The new mounts went in with no problems. But we wanted to ponder the condition of the rack prior to re-installing it.
We took a break, washed our hands and went inside to sit in the living room and have some iced tea. We took this opportunity to call Paul Wigton, who provided some further troubleshooting steps. Tea finished, we headed back out to the barn and discovered the play was in the “wrong” part of the rack. So we’re done for now. I’m ordering a rebuilt rack from Terry’s Jaguar. Maybe I’ll have the car road worthy again next weekend! Big thanks to Bob (& Paul) for the assistance!
I’ve updated my pictures too.
