It’s time to do some spring maintenance on the two-stroke. The most important thing I had on the to-do list was the steering rack. There was clearly some play on the rack. Not good.
I also wanted to fit the lambda gauge I bought last summer.
The first thing to do was to pull the engine:
Pulling the engine and gearbox as one unit is pretty quick.
Motor removed – awaiting a wash…
That’s a pretty greasy engine bay…
Washed – much nicer to work here now.
While we were at it I decided to add a backup light on the car. Here’s the switch.
New rear mount for the gearbox.
Rear mount in place.
Next job was to weld a fitting for the lambda sensor on the exhaust pipe:
Drilling a hole in the exhaust pipe for the lambda sensor fitting.
Test fitting
Lambda sensor position in the pipe.
Welding the fitting.
Done.
Once the steering rack was removed it was pretty easy to figure out what was wrong. But we still needed to take the rack apart to see if there’s anything to be done about it:
Taking apart the steering rack. Please note that the rack ends are different construction in V4.
Opening the claw washer locking.
Opening the rack end.
Rack end removed. The ball joint and adjustment washers visible.
Opening the claw washer nut with a flat piece of iron.
Claw washer and nut.
Where the claws go.
Still need to remove the pinion axle for the rack to come out.
Pinion shaft cap and seal removed.
Pinion shaft coming out.
Pinion shaft removed.
Opening the rack guide locking nut.
Opening the rack guide spring cap.
Rack guide removed and the rack coming out.
And here is the problem. The brass bushing at the end of the rack housing is worn out.
I don’t yet know where to get a new bushing, so we decided to fit in a spare V4 steering rack. Needs a little adjustment…
Some new paint and I think we will be good to go.
One comment
Tommi, great job of repairing or replacing worn out parts. Keep up the good work, as I am learning a tremendous amount of knowledge about Vintage Saabs. recently about the free wheel in a two stroke is much stronger than the V-4 free wheel. Now you have me looking for a the two cycle transmission. Keep the photos coming also. thanks Tommi Bill…Cheers
Tommi, great job of repairing or replacing worn out parts. Keep up the good work, as I am learning a tremendous amount of knowledge about Vintage Saabs. recently about the free wheel in a two stroke is much stronger than the V-4 free wheel. Now you have me looking for a the two cycle transmission. Keep the photos coming also. thanks Tommi Bill…Cheers