By Corky Guenther

“So, You Want To Own a Sports Car”

You may have heard me utter the above from time to time in a nasal style poorly imitating W. C. Fields usually followed by: “Gee, I’ll bet they’re fun”.   These phrases originated, as far as I know, with a Navy buddy of mine who at the time owned an MG TD.  He rebuilt that car, system by system, engine and paint into a reliable driver and kept it for a couple of decades before moving out of the hobby.  He uttered these words periodically as one frustration or another was encountered.

And so, here we are again.  Last week, after Cars and Coffee, we stopped at the CVS in Granite Falls.  Exiting the parking lot, I chose the wrong side of the driveway lane divider and had to reverse to get to the right side.  The reverse went well (I do that a lot) but when I tried to go forward and to the right, the problem became apparent.  No steering control.  Turning the steering wheel had no effect on the direction of travel.  Hmmm, the difficulty was that we were halfway into the right hand lane of the road.  Fortunately, we were able to continue into a small median where we could consider the next move or not.  Just then, a Sheriff's Deputy arrived and blocked traffic.  He then helped get us across the road into a driveway out of harm’s way.  After checking the tie rod and steering link (all securely attached), the only culprit left was the steering box.  Not going to be repaired right there.

My first thought was to get a trailer and bring the car home so I called David Poe who said I could use his and then called the Ahrendt's to ask them to come to get me and take me home to get the van to get the trailer.  They weren’t home but soon called back and said they would come.  Meantime, we moved the car from the driveway onto the adjoining grass.  As I went to knock on the door of the house whose property we were on, the lady whose house it was arrived home and assured me that it was fine for us to park there.  She also offered water which we gratefully accepted.

When the Ahrendt's arrived, we reviewed the condition of the car (suspicions confirmed) and my plan for recovery.  Kathy pointed out that my plan was going to be very time consuming (get van - get trailer - get car home - return trailer) and suggested calling AAA.  I had not really considered that as my past two instances had involved very long wait times.  But we weren’t out in the middle of nowhere this time so, I placed the call.  The original projection was about 2 hours which was still less than my plan.  A follow up projection was for about an hour and the actual arrival was about 45 minutes.  While waiting and discussing the failure, we decided that it was probably a broken sector shaft as the wheel encountered stops in either direction indicating that the steering shaft, cam and peg were still functional. 

The car was secured gently (all soft straps) on the flatbed and we were off for home where we unloaded it into the garage.  Then off for a late and much needed lunch as our breakfast pastries had long since dissipated.

With the front of the car on Jack stands, I could see that the sector shaft was indeed broken as the drop arm was about an inch below the bottom of the shaft housing.  When I pulled on the shaft it came completely out of the box.  Fortunately, after removing the steering wheel, interior mounting clamp and undoing the bolts securing the steering box to chassis bracket on the chassis, there is just enough room to rotate the assembly to facilitate removal of the box to bracket bolt allowing the two to be separated which then allowed the steering box and shaft assembly to be “withdrawn” ( a term the British fondly use with great frequency to mask the difficulty of the particular task at hand) through the triangle formed by the front fender, the radiator shell and the headlamp support bracket.

Pulling the box cover revealed that the indeed, the shaft had snapped at the junction with the arm.  I moved on to the next bit of fun, obtaining a new sector shaft.  When the car was originally restored in the late 1980s; the sector shaft, because of wear on it and the steering box, was hard chromed and ground oversize with the box bored and honed to match.  I don’t think that new sector shafts were available.   It lasted over 100K miles.  Now, new sector shafts are available.  One is even .012” oversize to allow for a worn box to be bored and honed.  Unfortunately, the original shaft and thus box are already .020” oversize.  Another available shaft is made from tough modern steel but is ground to the original .750” size.    That is the one I chose.  It and the box are now at the machine shop awaiting the installation and honing of bushings in the box.

Then begins the fun characterized by what British manuals frequently say: “Assembly is the reversal of disassembly”.

Yes, I do and they are fun.