Steering Rack and Diff

Steering Rack and Diff

Well I didn’t get as much done today as I would have liked and tomorrow we are going out with the Land Rover group to do some off-roading. I did get the steering rack installed. You would think it seems like a pretty straight forward install, after all there’s only 2 bolts holding the thing on. It would have been if the passenger side holes in the mounting bracket had been lined up. Nope, so I had to carefully drill them out slightly. This involved putting the rack in and taking it out multiple times to get everything lined up. After that it was just a matter of getting the spacers right and then getting the rack centered. You can see it in the pic below as the silver part in front of the X member on the frame.

Steering Rack-004-web

In this pic you can see the steering arm attached to the tie rod end and attached to the spindle. I showed the drivers side because the passenger side is missing the jam nut and I figured someone would point that out. For some reason that completely befuddles me, the tie rods where in sealed bags that had the tie rod, the lock nut and the jam nut. One of them had the wrong size jam nut, not sure how that happens. So I’ll just have to add that to my punch list of things I need to take care. Only thing left on the front are the brakes, they’re on order and hopefully will be in soon.

Steering Rack-002-web

Here you can see the steering shaft going from the steering rack up to where the steering wheel will be eventually. Its the silver shaft that goes through the center of the pic. The steering shaft is only in temporarily for fitting. I’ll have to take it out to get some of the driver foot box panels in.

Steering Rack-005-web

This week I also received the new used differential that Caroline won on ebay, she was really surprised that she had even bid on a differential. It’s used and will have to be rebuilt but it’s the 28 spline trak-lok that I needed. I’ve received all the parts this week, now I just have to decide if I want to take on rebuilding it or out source it to a drivetrain shop. I dropped the rear spindles off today to have the new bearings and hubs pressed in. Oh yea and to have a broken bolt, yes one I broke, machined out.

New Diff-008-web

If you’re wondering what the white stuff in the gears and pretty much all over the place is, well it’s the foam packing material they used. Not sure it was the best choice as it appears the weight of the unit pretty much shredded it during shipping, as you see in the box below. No biggie, no damage and it’s going to get cleaned when it’s rebuilt.

New Diff-003-web

Oh one more thing, I learned something interesting about the floor today. The epoxy with the color specks looks great right up until you drop a small silver washer on it. It’s just like camouflage , yep the washer pretty much disappeared on the floor. And of course a small part never drops straight down and stays where it fell, it’s got to bounce and roll. It took me 15 minutes to find the little sucker. I finally got a little smart and just started sweeping the general area and finally found it, of course not even close to where I was looking.

Since I’m still waiting on rear-end parts I think the next thing will be the gas tank and then I can start running the fuel lines, it will have to come back out when the rear-end goes in but I can still make progress. So stay tuned for fun with the tubing bender.

5 Comments

  1. Mike Kelly
    Aug 4, 2013

    Randy, fantastic progress and great recovery on the set back of the hole mis-alignment! I would vote to send the rear differential out to a shop for the setup as that can be a bit tricky from my mechanical experience.

    When you load up all the power from your 400+ HP engine you need the axle to stand up to the test.

    Best, MK

  2. Ewers
    Aug 4, 2013

    Never thought I’ds say it but, “Nice rack Randy!”. 🙂

  3. Wilson Glover
    Aug 5, 2013

    WOW! It’s come a long way! I wish I were in Denver! I’d Be glad to help! See you at CL!

  4. Philip Powell
    Aug 7, 2013

    What kind of brakes and size did you end up ordering? What size wheel/tire package will be the final?

    • admin
      Aug 8, 2013

      I’m going with a Wilwood brake package. 12.8″ discs in the front and 12.1″ in the rear. The wheels are 17″ with 9″ wide in the front and 10.5″ in the rear. I haven’t decided on the tires yet.

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