Lwb steering dismantle

[newto912]

I have recently acquired 912 and have decided to go for a bear metal resto
Anyway are there any tips for removing the steering rod in the front compartment
Do you undo as the rod goes into the back of the dash or at the smugglers end as you drop the rack
Any tips greatly received


Andrew


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[inaglasshouse]

For what it's worth, I did it in this sequence:
1) loosen all clamp bolts, including removing the saddle clamp
2) Drop the rack, inc pulling the shaft out of the lower UJ
3) Pull upper shaft out of upper UJ
4) Remove steering column
5) Dismantle anything still bolted together.
... but I think my method was largely driven by which bits came apart easily (disassemble while on car) and less easily (disassemble on bench)

[newto912]

Thanks Richard
Another question as I see from your resto thread you have taken apart your car
I am deliberating leaving the wiring harness in situ whilst having it blasted
I don't fancy taking it out of the rear through the tunnel
The ends as you know are attached to black connections which I presume will all have to come off , and they look like they might be trouble to reconnect
Also cannot see how you can get the harness through where it is pinched in the pics
What's your experience of all this?
Thanks
Andrew


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[Gary71]

I took the harness out of my ‘72 recently, which has a different rear bulkhead, but same concept.

Getting it through that gap was spectacularly difficult. I think the combination of a stiff harness that hadn’t moved for 45 years and a slightly bent seatpan didn’t help.

It came eventually, but I’d wedged a block between the torsion tube and seat pan to make the gap bigger as the final straw!

As for getting the column out, I did the same as mentioned above. I had to drill out the column bolts as they had a head that snaps off on assembly.

[Gary71]

Oh I forgot to say. Pain in the arse as it was taking it out before restoring the body is the right thing to do. It will just get in the way, get damaged and generally slow every job down having to work around it.

[Dougieboy1]

agree with all the comments, have done all this myself relatively recently.

Steering - in order to dismantle it, you need to remove one end of the steering system, either the steering column or the rack and the rest comes apart easily. if you are stripping the car, it doesnt really matter which end you start at.

Wiring - you must remove the loom to clean the shell properly. The plastic connectors do not go through the tunnel. I cheated and hacked mine apart and pulled it our bit by bit. It was massively compromised and i bought a replacement from Kroon. Expensive but i thought worth it. I know Richard took a preserving route, kudos to him, i dont have the patience. you learn a lot about how it comes out, unfortunately only when you put it back in!!

Good luck, perseverance is key!

Andrew

[Gary71]

The plastic connectors do not go through the tunnel.

Do you mean the round ones with the rubber outside? Mine came out complete with all the connectors, you can just see them in this pic.

[Dougieboy1]

When i fitted my new loom, as i said, i learned about how it should have come out. sadly, too late!

The only electrics that go though the tunnel are the bare ended wires that connect into the front fuse box. They are fed in from the back of the car so none of the rear rubber connectors for rear lights, engine etc go through the tunnel. Nor would they fit through the channel inside the tunnel through which the loom fits. The connectors at the front (lights and dash connectors) disconnect at the fusebox so dont need to go through the tunnel.

How did you remove your loom?

[inaglasshouse]

The plastic connectors do not go through the tunnel.

Do you mean the round ones with the rubber outside? Mine came out complete with all the connectors, you can just see them in this pic.

Yep, same here.
A '69 is slightly different, in that it has a number of the round connectors instead of the rectangular one (which plugs into the rear panel near the CDI) of 70- cars. But the principle is the same: pull the loom out from the back, and none of those connectors needs to go through the tunnel.
The part you disconnect at the front, from the main fuse boxes, has only individual wires; no large connectors. The dash wiring is a separate small loom which just unplugs.
The pinched part in the photos, where it goes over the torsion bar tube at the rear, is just a massive PITA. But it can be done...
Refitting is the reverse of removal (as they used to say in the Haynes manuals).

Good luck, cheers, Richard.

[inaglasshouse]

Sorry, same info as Andrew. He types faster!

[newto912]

thanks guys for all your replies - very helpful
make sense now to remove from the rear
most things are stripped and out now
in for a penny in for a pound!

Andew

[PeterK]

When I took mine out ('79 Targa), all wires passed out the rear, except for the main battery cable and the connection to the auto-heat. I had to cut the battery connector off to get it out, then later realised that with a small terminal in the engine compartment, that would have gone out forwards without dismantling / destruction. I released the pins from the auto-heat connector plug and can pop them back in on re-assembly.

Sorry to hi-jack with a pair of questions, but ....
1) My pull-thro's for the fuel lines are in place, but unfortunately the one for the wiring loom seems to have gone walkabout during the stripping process. Does the loom pass through the small tunnel on the right-hand side of the tunnel ?
2) what does the grommet (where the main loom enters the shell from the engine compartment) look like ?

[Dougieboy1]

Richard, i dont type faster, am on holiday so have more time - spent a week on the car. Getting very close.....

Peter,
yes, the loom goes through the small tunnel within the tunnel itself - on the right hand side as you look from the engine bay. I wrapped all my wires into as tight a bundle as possible with the pull through in the middle and attached to the wires. Its a tight fit when you get to the fat bit of the loom but it all goes through pretty well with a bit of patience.

The gasket is best described as a section of bicycle inner tube (maybe 6 inches long) that sits around the main loom. It goes into the entry hole in the rear chassis and you then fold it back over the entry hole and zip tie it in place.

Hope that helps, dont have any photos of it i am afraid.

Andrew

[PeterK]

Many thanks Andrew
I have the length of tube still on the loom. I can now stop looking for a 'lost' grommet
Peter