I’ve disconnected the cable housing from the wiper motor, but the cable will not come out of the motor box. I’m afraid I’m going to damage something if I tug any harder. The shop manual does not address removal.
How do I remove this intermediate steering shaft? The bolt holding the split collar is loose and I can’t seem to spread the collar any further, but when I pull on the shaft it hits something solid. I didn’t see this discussed in the shop manual, but I could have easily missed it.
Hi Joe,
Your images haven’t loaded for some reason, so I can’t tell what stage you are at, but with the wiper motor, you need to remove the aluminium cover and disconnect the drive tang part of the cable from the gearwheel, IIRC. Circlip, spring and maybe a washer, and unscrew the nut from the motor body, which I assume you have already done.
Again , can’t see where you are at with the steering column, but I think there is either a U shaped retainer at the lower part of the steering column that prevents it pulling out, or you may actually need to unbolt the entire column from the bulkhead to get the clearance to remove the intermediate shaft. See if you can reload the pics and I’m sure someone will chime in.
The pinch bolt needs to be removed completely as the groove isn’t machined all the way down the splines.
As Kevin states the ali cover needs to be removed.
If you remove the cable per Kevin’s description (which is how I’ve done it on our MK2 and several other British cars), make note of the orientation of the copper contact that resides on the gear wheel before removing the circlip and washer. This contact is located on the gear via a slot that traverses the end of the drive pin. The contact may be reinstalled 180 degrees out from its original position.
As a precaution, I suggest that you remove the wiper arms from the wheel boxes on the cowl before you begin pulling the cable out. When you pull the cable out of the tube/wheel box assembly, the splined male drives on the wheel boxes will begin to rotate and if not removed, one could drive the arms/blades onto the cowl top and damage the paint.
I also suggest that you keep the arms off until you reassemble everything and cycle your wipers on/off using the self parking function to turn off the wipers. I like to tape a toothpick to the top of the wheel box splined male drive (pointing in what would be the parked position) to verify the physical sweep and parking of the system. The parking adjustment will likely change once the alloy cover is removed and the top-hat that controls park placement is free to move. Once satisfied that all is right, I place the arms back on the splined male drives.
Lastly, if you go this route and you have the wiper motor opened up, it’s a good idea to clean out all of the 50+ year old hardened grease and re-lubricate everything in the system. this step has dramatically improved the function of our wipers across several cars.
Assuming the steering column is the same as my 1965 S Type you will need to remove the U shaped thurst bearing (item 20) which is accessible near the floor inside the car. A ring (item 21) with a clip (item 22) needs to be removed first, the the thrust bearing slides out. The inner column can then be slid upwards a inch or so to clear the splines shown. And yes, the bolt has to be remove as well. Take care to not damage the turn signal cancelling arm and “flippers” on the switch. I recommend removing the lower and upper plastic column nacelles first to visualize better. Image is from an S Type book, yours may vary.
Also, before you remove the shaft, make sure you put matching alignment marks on the shaft and the steering box shaft at the lower end, otherwise you may install it on different splines, which would reposition the steering wheel off-centre.
Even though you can re-centre the steering wheel on the splines at the top of the column, the cancelling position for the winkers won’t be on centre. I have this task on my list of leftovers from a previous owner.
Your rubber boot looks sad and should be replaced. Make sure you have a new one and that you have it warm for pliability. After you dismantle the top swivel joint, the boot can be stretched over the lugs. If there is any wear in the bottom UJ, replace it too.
John, I’m trying to remove #1 in that diagram. I think #20 is too far up the column to matter for this.
Peter, the front suspension has already been removed, so too late for marking anything on the box. The car has sat for 40 years. Everything rubber needs to be replaced!
