Update #12 - Steering column removal #

2020-04-04

Objective today is to remove the steering hardware.

The rod in the top left of the picture is the accelerator. This connects mechanically directly to the carburetor. The other end of this rod goes through the firewall and the accelerator pedal is at the end. I love the simplicity of this.

In the top right is the steering box. You can see how it links to the steering arms.

In the center of the picture is a stiffening strut.

Below that again, with a little red paint on them, bolted to the shock towers, are the engine mounts.

You can see a little bit of the sway bar under my feet.

I took off the steering wheel. This hack job was inside. The steering wheel is not original to the car. It looks like the original steering wheel had a two bolt fitting and this newer one has a three bolt fitting so these bolts were welded to this hub by someone to make it fit.

Took a while to figure out how to get this hub off. Turns out you just pull it off.

There are three bolts holding the steering box to the frame rail. The whole things pulls out after that.

Coming out of the steering box, up through the steering column is one crazy-huge bolt. That ruler next to it is 81cm long. The bolt is 19mm in diameter. It points right at the drivers chest. This is a notoriously dangerous part of this car. In a crash where the front folds up, this bolt can essentially skewer the driver. This has definitely got to go.

This is the area where the steering box bolts in. You can see the hole in the firewall on the left where the steering column goes through.