Got the Rolling magazine published and to the printers Sunday, so back on the wagon project.
I got the steering shaft out yesterday, and today I cut the new shaft to the correct length to enable use of a "short" U-joint at the steering rack end. I also drilled and inserted roll pins on each end to mimic the OE shaft's tangs to prevent the shaft from being able to come out if the bolts came loose.
It was a real pain to get the shaft in of course…with the short U-joint on the bottom, there's not enough space to slide the U-joint up the shaft to get it onto the rack, so the rack has to be dropped down a bit. The main issue is some of the U-joints seem to be so tight on the splines, so a lot of cursing was involved!
Anyway, it's back in and tightened up and I have much more clearance. In the one pic I've circled where the upper bolt on the original long U-joint was fouling the turbo drain pipe. Looks like it got hammered pretty hard. At least with this set-up even if it does hit or rub, it won't prevent the steering shaft from turning like it did previously.
When I was down there, I also noticed that the small + terminal on the alternator was very close to the wastegate actuator (photo shown has a rubber vacuum cap stuck over the terminal threads). I fitted some shorter belts, but it's very tight to the oil pressure sender so the shorter belts couldn't go on without removing the water pump pulley. Once everything was back together it's very tight. Hopefully it'll work out OK.
Got the relays and wiring tidied up (as much as possible) for the horn, driving lights, turbo + kit and E-fan. Tomorrow I'll swap out the passenger side headlamp lens I got from @DCW242 on the weekend, then should be ready for another test drive. If all goes OK I'll just be finishing up the beautification cover for the battery and relays, then it should be ready for the big 240 photo shoot on the 10th of May at Shannons HQ.
