Steering Rack and Column

So following the front suspension being off I wanted to get out the steering rack, steering column and finally the PAS system. I will be leaving the electronics till last to do it all together (my weakest point).

So first I dropped the rack out, very simple, held in via 4 bolts on brackets and two pipes leading to the rack and a small bolt inside the front boot where it joins the column.

TIP: undo the large bolt on the rack before fully dropping it, it can be quite tight and the PAS fluid will need to drain out, to help it drain keeping turning from lock to lock to get it all out. Once out it will be like the below;

Next I moved on to the column itself, again another small bolt will need to be undone on the column so the swivel joint can come off. when you pull the column through to the cabin area.

Next you will need to remove the lower half of the dash around the wheel which will be held in with a few screws. Once off remove the plastic around the column as well. The first step is to disconnect the electrics, what you do now may save hours later...so get into the habit. I simply wrap masking tape around the wires and on the loom end put a description and number 'Ignition 1' and on the ignition end just put a 1...I know its the ignition....its attached to it!

The column is held in with 4x 14mm nuts on studs, when you undo them the column will fall to the floor, so be ready! this is what it looked like when removed.

Not exactly clean looking for your new kitcar is it. Rust gets everywhere even if light surface rust so first i used a paint brush to remove fluff etc... and then a cloth for excess grease, don't remove all grease it is needed on the parts. Following that I wanted to paint it to give it a better look, so I used rust inhibitor / converter  Basically you paint it on and it stops it rusting and gives it a nice finish, you can paint over the top again if you wish, I don't need to on these parts.

I then decided on areas I wanted to paint, I didn't paint the main area in the middle due to its use and grease around there, but I may change my mind and do it later, below is how the piece came out, as you can see, much better. I will be using the rust converter paint a lot and then spraying silver in some cases as we go along....

TIP: You will see I redid the masking tape and numbers before I went and stored this piece away with the nuts for this piece in a bag tidied round the column.

next...
remove the PAS motor and piping.