 | Home > Series Land Rovers > Steering relay and chassis replacement |
 
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| Gasket Member Since: 30 May 2020 Location: Manchester Posts: 629  |
Hi - I've done this a few times.
You're right it can be a pain to remove. The old approach was to strip the front of the bodywork and then use a jack underneath the relay. You would usually need to use straps around the base of the jack and up over the crossmember or it would just lift the car. But when replacing, just cut it out - it only takes half an hour. Roughly cut a square around the relay in the top and bottom sections with an angle grinder. This will leave you with the relay sitting in a tube of old knackered chassis steel. At this stage you can use penetrant or heat, but still just as easy to very carefully slit the outside of the tube of scrap chassis and peel the tube off with a pair of molegrips. Its really not hard or time consuming, just take your time. Re: replacement, my advice would be - don't. Replacements are well known to be poor quality - in particular the relay shaft which have been known to have sheared (leaving you with no steering). Quality may have imprved in recent years but for the steering I'm about to rebuild for my IIA I've made a point of paying the money for NOS parts. There's no need to replace it - the relay is entirely serviceable at a sensible cost. Either just clean it up and reuse or if you want to strip it and rebuild it its really simple, the only tricky bit is getting the tapered shims/collets back in but if you have a look over on the Series2club forum you'll see loads of pics of people doing with a couple of cable ties to hold them and the springs together on reassembly. If you do need to replace any parts (like the shaft) then go to PA Blanchard - they still have MOD stock of parts rather than fitting pattern. Cheap pattern parts have their place, but not in a steering relay. |
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21st Jul 2022 12:44pm |
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| jpboost Member Since: 13 Apr 2021 Location: Gatwick Posts: 377  
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Thanks Gasket, That's really helpful.
I'll be struggling for time (and borrowing a workshop), so it's good to know it's straight forward to cut it out. I'll probably lop off the front chassis section complete and then can attack it with a grinder while on the bench. I'm a little way off starting the job, but trying to get everything lined up so I can do it in one go. Good to know that rebuild is a sensible option. I'll go do some research. Cheers |
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21st Jul 2022 12:56pm |
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| Gasket Member Since: 30 May 2020 Location: Manchester Posts: 629 |
No worries. If time and space are a concern then I might suggest just getting a used steering relay off ebay and check/ rebuild that one on the bench before you cut the SIII chassis.
That way you can take your time and you don't need to even think about getting the old relay out until you take the scrap chassis to the tip. From memory I don't think there's a serial number or a date on the relay (might be wrong on the latter) so you wouldn't lose anything or any money buy buying one in advance and selling yours when you get round to it. |
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21st Jul 2022 1:04pm |
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| blackwolf Member Since: 03 Nov 2009 Location: South West England Posts: 17450 
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As Gasket says it really isn't difficult or time-consuming to recover the relay if you're scrapping the chassis or replacing the No 2 crossmember. It can be a royal pain if you need to remove it and preserve the chassis and can in fact be impossible to do without chassis damage. I have known occasions when the tube into which the relay fits rips out of the chassis rather than the relay coming out of the tube.
Your best friend will be a 1mm cutting disk in an angle-grinder. When refitting these things now I always slather the inside of the tube and the outside of the relay with a heavy grease in the hope that a future generation will thank me one day. |
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21st Jul 2022 1:38pm |
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| jpboost Member Since: 13 Apr 2021 Location: Gatwick Posts: 377
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Brilliant.
My Series 3 is far from original in many areas. All above board and much of the modifications were a very long time ago as far as I can tell, but I've certainly got no concerns about the originality of putting another relay unit in. yes, will certainly cover it in grease on the way back into the new chassis. tbh I think some of the play in the steering is elsewhere anyway, but I'll save that for another day due to time pressures. At least if it's a rebuilt relay in a new chassis, I can rule out those parts moving, and help narrow down any other play. |
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21st Jul 2022 2:23pm |
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| blackwolf Member Since: 03 Nov 2009 Location: South West England Posts: 17450
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It is also worth remembering that sometimes - very occasionally - they pop out as good as gold with no trouble whatsoever.
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21st Jul 2022 4:23pm |
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