antijam
CCCUK Member
Among the numerous small liquid deposits my C3 leaves on the garage floor, the one from the power steering is the worst. A check underneath revealed a uniformly oily mess making the leakage source impossible to trace, plus everything looked as if it hadn't been disturbed since '71 and certainly the hoses looked well past their use-by date....
So, time for a change. With the arrival of new valve, ram and pipes from Corvette Kingdom......
....it was off with the originals.......
....and on with the new......
Everything quite straightforward except that the ram taper connection to the relay rod was loose, making the nut impossible to unscrew, so I had to cut it off with an angle grinder.
While the Pitman arm was disconnected I took the opportunity to adjust the steering box for minimum lash. Without the steering linkage connected it's easy to tell the sweet spot just before it tightens up at the dead ahead position,
While under the car I tried to trace the source of a noise coming from the clutch or somewhere in the linkage. It's a rattle that disappears as soon as my foot contacts the pedal. Straight away I could see that the two anti-rattle springs attaching to the clutch rod were missing.....
..... and the return spring on the clutch fork was badly overstretched.....
Aha I think, there's my problem; so with three new parts (again from CK) I replaced the missing anti-rattle and overstretched clutch return springs.
Back on the road, the power assistance was fine and the tightened steering - combined with my previously replaced rag joint - was much more precise. Unfortunately my analysis of the clutch rattle problem was obviously incorrect. The noise is still there - probably coming from the release bearing or possibly a gearbox bearing - so at some stage it looks like a box out job will be necessary.
However, next job on the list must be that totally ineffective handbrake.......
So, time for a change. With the arrival of new valve, ram and pipes from Corvette Kingdom......
....it was off with the originals.......
....and on with the new......
Everything quite straightforward except that the ram taper connection to the relay rod was loose, making the nut impossible to unscrew, so I had to cut it off with an angle grinder.
While the Pitman arm was disconnected I took the opportunity to adjust the steering box for minimum lash. Without the steering linkage connected it's easy to tell the sweet spot just before it tightens up at the dead ahead position,
While under the car I tried to trace the source of a noise coming from the clutch or somewhere in the linkage. It's a rattle that disappears as soon as my foot contacts the pedal. Straight away I could see that the two anti-rattle springs attaching to the clutch rod were missing.....
..... and the return spring on the clutch fork was badly overstretched.....
Aha I think, there's my problem; so with three new parts (again from CK) I replaced the missing anti-rattle and overstretched clutch return springs.
Back on the road, the power assistance was fine and the tightened steering - combined with my previously replaced rag joint - was much more precise. Unfortunately my analysis of the clutch rattle problem was obviously incorrect. The noise is still there - probably coming from the release bearing or possibly a gearbox bearing - so at some stage it looks like a box out job will be necessary.
However, next job on the list must be that totally ineffective handbrake.......