There really is just a short list of items that are keeping me from scheduling a track day. One of them, however, is this issue with the steering column. It moves when it's not supposed to. I've been avoiding dealing with it, but it has to get done, so I figured I might as well get it over with.
That's the steering column going through the firewall into the engine bay. You can sort of see some sheet metal damage at the 5-o'clock position. There's supposed to be some sort of bushing and grommet holding the steering column in place here, but they've been popped out.
So the column wiggles around as you turn the wheel. Not confidence inspiring. Our best guess is that when the steering column was dropped during the interior disassembly, it banged on the bottom there and popped those two pieces out.
Here's the view from underneath the car, looking up at the firewall underneath the brake booster where the column comes through. At this stage I'd managed to get the white plastic bushing back in place and was trying to get the rubber grommet/housing re-installed. It was a very annoying place to try to work. Only could get one hand in there, with access to maybe 200 degrees of the circle.
And the cabin side:
I tried for way too long to get it pressed in place before I finally admitted that I needed to pull the steering column out. I'm always scared of hard-to-reach keyed and splined attachments; they always seem so hard to put back in. But there was no way I could get this in with the column in place.
Fortunately I had a second pair of hands to help. Another one of my really good racing friends has returned from overseas (does Newfoundland count as overseas?) and came to shop night to hang out. He helped me out with a bunch of this stuff. Thanks, Kevin!
Anyhow, the column came out pretty easily, really, which left good access. It took about 10 seconds to get the grommet on like that, then another 3 minutes to get the column back in.
What a waste of time. Oh well. Live and learn I suppose. With that, the steering was back to nice and solid- yay! I really was dreading that, so I'm glad it's over and fixed.
The harness bar arrived, along with (2) RaceQuip 6-pt Camlock FIA-rated 2"/3" HANS-compatible pull-up harnesses that I got on closeout. They were amazingly cheap compared to the top-of-the-line harnesses, but apparently are trusted enough to be used by serious rally and hill-climb racers. Good enough for me.
Kevin helped me get the harness bar installed, which was pretty straight forward. I thought very briefly about keeping the OEM 3 point belts in, but when I saw how moldy they were from the flood, it was easy to pull them out and bin 'em.
For some reason, there was a bunch of dirt in the shipping box with the harness bar. Unwashed, organic bar I guess?
Not too much to report from the bar, other than that it feels extremely solid. Like lift-the-car-from-it solid. And the geometry seems nice for the direction of loading. And the harness angle to the seat is well within the spec, which you don't typically get from harnesses that bolt to the back seat seatbelt mounts.
So I'm happy enough. It was pretty late at that point, so harnesses will have to wait til next time.
My plan is to track the Saabmarine until it blows up (which NASIOC has convinced me will be sometime before the first turn on the out lap), then rebuild it. I'll cage it at that point as I can't imagine rebuilding it without adding some serious power :)
Thanks for reading!
damen
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