Rubber steering coupling - does this look right?

[llessur]

I swapped out the rubber steering coupling in my 2500 today as the last one had split quite badly but on reassembly it definitely looks like it's under quite a lot of torsional strain. 

I've loosened the top and bottom column clamps and also the steering rack clamps to see if a subtle shift in alignment might relieve things but nothing changed.

As the old one had already split I can't really compare the before/after situation but does this look right? It seems like a recipe for early failure of the new coupling to me but maybe that's just how they are?

[Pete Lewis]

well there is some angular changes but that does look a bit excessive   buy no obvious as to why

strangely mine when converted to P stg has the fabric disc from CW which i dont think is right for Pstg.

youve got me thinking 

Pete

[Mjit]

Popped out to look at mine and it doesn't look as loaded as that - but very hard to see with a full engine bay.

It could just be the angle you're looking at it from, or rather the only one I can look at mine from, which is basically just between carbs and inner wheel arch.  From there it seems to be a small twist in the rubber coupling, with a much bigger angle change down at the lower/metal UJ.

I guess the other thing is where do you have the steering wheel set, and does raising/lowering it change the position of the shaft at the rubber coupling (don't know if it does - never had to look at that end of things)?

[johny]

I would say that looks correct especially in the second picture when you look at the relative angles of the fixing bolts. This will twist the rubber coupling and tend to make it seem the assembly is under a compressive load...

[Nick Jones]

My Mk2 PI had a UJ there rather than a rubber coupling.  I don't think it was born with it but it's a mod from another version (Mk1).  I prefer the UJ because I have zero trust in modern repro rubber components......

Nick

[RogerH]

Hi Folks,

I don;t know if the splined clamp on the right of the rubber UJ in the top pic is the same/similar to the ones used on the TR's but they have an issue from new.

The gap that the clamp bolt tries to squish down has excess metal in it and stops or seriously reduces the clamping action.

There are a number of ways to overcome this. My way is to machine a 3mm slot to remove the offending metal.  The clamping action improves beyond measure.

The shiny areas in the pic shows where the excess metal was.

Roger