Thread: Steering Relay Box

The box is located by being bolted to the two vertical plates welded to the chassis at the top, and by a locating ring bolted to the chassis at the bottom. The clearance between the relay and the tube is irrelevant as long as the unit will fit. There will be slight movement as the chassis twists between the locating ring and the bottom plate of the relay, which will eventually result in significant wear - more if the top locating plates crack, as does happen. In this event the ring and the bottom plate can be replaced in situ.

The relays tend to rust into place as water finds its way into the top of the tube but has no free exit at the bottom. More clearance would seem to be an advantage - but the more clearance, the more water gets in, and if the locating ring fits properly it can never get out.

John

Thanks John,
the one I am working on has/had a lot of lateral movement at the base when the steering was flexed.
I assumed that maybe the housing had been replaced and was not up to spec, as the vehicle has had a fair amount of resto work done on it about 15-18 years ago.

Thanks again,
Cheers for now,
Mick

I also have S1 with similar problems, movement around bottom bolts. Noticed today but not tightened yet.

I was wondering if a tighten up will restore normality or whether its shot at this stage and not worth persevering with. Can the bottom 'ring' be replaced? When I tried to put oil into relay via 2 adjoining bolts wouldnt take any. Cant believe it was full given how much oil was leaking at bottom. Has grease nipple fitted. Do the units self adjust and take up with use?

The box mounting bracket also moves/ flexes which I am about to replace with S2 brackets.

What has worked for you?

Do I just replace with Later S1 or early S2? Which is preferable?

Thanks in anticipation.

The ring at the bottom can wear oversize and is available to replace. I bought one from FWD in Brisbane. The whole steering relay can be bought new for not much more than $100. The relay I replaced and put a new ring on was loose in the chassis but is held in perfectly by the new ring.

Cheers,

TimJ.

I checked and the bottom retaining ring on this one and it measures one millimeter larger in diameter than the base of the relay box, so no wonder it is moving!
The relay box needs a rebuild and I will get another ring as well and go from there.


Cheers, Mick.

I should point out that making an "undersize" locating ring would be a pretty simple turning job - if necessary the bottom plate of the relay can be removed in situ, turned round and a plate made to fit it, although with the cost of new relays, this would seem to be necessary only if you can't remove the relay easily.

John

Originally Posted by JDNSW

The box is located by being bolted to the two vertical plates welded to the chassis at the top, and by a locating ring bolted to the chassis at the bottom. The clearance between the relay and the tube is irrelevant as long as the unit will fit. There will be slight movement as the chassis twists between the locating ring and the bottom plate of the relay, which will eventually result in significant wear - more if the top locating plates crack, as does happen. In this event the ring and the bottom plate can be replaced in situ.

The relays tend to rust into place as water finds its way into the top of the tube but has no free exit at the bottom. More clearance would seem to be an advantage - but the more clearance, the more water gets in, and if the locating ring fits properly it can never get out.

John

Whn I replace relays now I always seal around the top with silicone so no water ever gets in.
Keith

The bottom locating ring is only pressed sheet metal and tends to oversize, the larger tyres make this worse. I have even seen a forward control where the flanges at the top were fractured off the chassis, because of so much movement at the bottom.

Rather than replacing the pressed rings, I had replacements machined out of 6mm plate to a tolerance fit.

You can re-build a relay in the chassis if you cant get it out.