by: Corky Guenther

No, not musical.  Though I played the Saxophone throughout Junior High & High School and even a Navy Schools Command marching band, if the notes weren’t on a score, you wouldn’t want to hear the result.    When I was in the Navy it was called “Jury-Rigging”.  As a kid, I remember it being called “Cobbled Up”, some say improvised.  In any case, it’s resolving an issue for which there is no readily available solution and so one must be invented.  Such was the case recently when I started to install the steering column in our MGB which is undergoing a major refresh.  When I disassembled the car, I didn’t pay much attention to the state of the steering gear as it was working without any issues of which I was aware.  Failing to pay attention turned out to be another of a number of (as yet un-totaled) mistakes.

I had, a few years ago, during a complete front end and suspension rebuild; removed, overhauled and reinstalled the steering rack and all was well.  This is a 67 B so the steering column is a simple shaft within an outer tube supported by a couple of brackets inside of the car and passing through the bulkhead into the engine compartment where it mates with a universal joint which in turn, is attached to the pinion shaft of the steering rack.  The hole in the bulkhead is sealed to the outer tube of the steering column by a rubber excluder.  The excluder has a groove (much like a grommet) that fits the hole in the bulkhead and has an accordion section about an inch and a half long reaching into the passenger compartment ending in a smaller diameter that seals the outer tube. This theoretically keeps nasty engine bay fumes at bay so to speak (sorry).  The problem was that when I removed the steering column, the existing excluder was severely perished and was only held against the bulkhead by the friction of the upper seal around the column and I failed to regard that as being of any consequence.

Now when it was time to reinstall the column, I discovered that I could not install the excluder because the hole in the bulkhead was not round, nor was it flat.  During its lifetime SPO (Some Previous Owner) had installed the rack with the pinion shaft sitting too low which made the steering column too low at the bulkhead aperture.  This SPO just pushed (beat?) the edge of the sheet metal down to accommodate the mispositioned shaft, making a round hole egg-shaped with a ledge on the bottom making it impossible to install the excluder correctly.  When I rebuilt the rack, I just removed it from the bottom of the U-joint and paid no attention to the shaft passing through the bulkhead.

The first task was to flatten – and make round – roughly, the hole in the bulkhead so the excluder can be fitted and also make it easier to center the column.  I don’t know how much time you have spent in the foot well of an MGB but there is not a lot of room to swing a hammer.  Also, something to hammer against in the engine bay would be nice.  Not going to happen.  Arms are too short anyway. 

Jury Rig #1:  After some noodling I came up with a tool comprised of a pair of 1” x ½”pipe couplings, a 6” carriage bolt 4 nuts and a 1-1/2” fender washer (size of the hole as a centering device).  Inserted from the foot well tightened from the engine bay. Voila!

The second thing required was to realign the steering rack so that, when attached via the U-joint, the steering column would pass approximately through the center of the hole in the bulkhead.  The procedure requires that the steering column and the rack pinion shaft be attached to the U-joint and the steering column clamped in place with the steering rack mounting bolts loosened.  The rack mounting points are then shimmed to maintain the rack in position when the bolts are tightened.  The problem was that I didn’t have a complete OEM steering column to use.  I’m going to install an electric power steering unit in the car and manipulating that weighty assembly while trying to align everything was not possible.

Jury Rig #2:  The outer steering column is 1-1/4” in diameter.  I went to Lowes and purchased a 1-1/4” dowel.  After finding the center of the dowel, I fastened a socket with the OD matching the ID of the U-joint on the end.  Inserted the socket into the U-joint, centered the dowel in the bulkhead hole and clamped it in place.  Shimmed the rack and tightened the mounting bolts.  Fingers crossed, I can now install the real column without great difficulty. Or more Jury-Rigging.