Section XIII Pedal Box & Steering Assy

Warning:- Before carrying out any modifications to the standard design seek written approval from the Kit Designer. Use only high quality materials and fasteners and lock all threads. This applies particularly to Safety Critical items such as Brakes, Steering & Suspension Components.

Considerable time has been spent trying to work out how the Pedal Box Assembly, and the Steering fit into the car. This part is crucial, since it is the main Car/Driver interface and has to be correct, not only from a safety point of view, but from comfort and ergonomics. The integrity of the Steering and Brakes is paramount. I have come to the conclusion that the components as supplied CANNOT be easily assembled to meet any or all of these requirements. A major problem, as mentioned in a previous chapter, is the exit angle of the Steering Rack output splines. These come out at 45 degs and there is no way that the Hooke joint will handle this angle without fouling. (This design fault has been noted by other builders, see Note 1) A simple redesign of the chassis would solve this very basic design fault. (this has been carried out on later chassis) The intermediate bracket is designed to be bent in the wrong place and the upper Column Bracket is a very poor flimsy design. Also the pedal Box Bracket needs modification ! Having said all this, the pedals and Steering can be assembled to give a strong safe ergonomic unit with most of the major parts supplied, but a lot of time needs to be spent together with the fabrication of a few new components. The Steering wheel can be made to fit in the centre of the driver, at the correct height and square to the dash and spaced off the dash to give a working clearance for the Sierra binnacle stalks, despite what the video says. You just can't get in the car. See Mountney Steering Wheel note below.

Before we proceed, loose fit the Four Branch Exhaust Manifold c/w gasket. This is another of those immovable items that other items MUST go around. Make sure that there is plenty of clearance from the steering shaft to allow for engine shake & heat insulation. I would allow AT LEAST 1/2" more if possible.

The 3mm bracket for the pedal and Servo mounting needs modification. Quite what the point of the two projecting lugs is I am not sure, one gets in the way of the Accelerator pedal, so they have both been cut off and the bracket located accordingly.

Loose fit the drivers seat and set the rear squab at the rake angle you prefer. It is IMPOSSIBLE to set the steering wheel and pedals in a comfortable driving position without the seat in position. With the pedal Box bracket located in the position shown in the photo the pedals seem to fit with the bottom of the pedal rubbers about 8" off the floor. This seems very high at first glance, but standard saloon pedals are approx. 6" off the floor. By the time you have fitted a carpeted floor panel and a good rubber mat they come out at about 7" which is acceptable to most drivers. Bringing the pedals any further back is virtually impossible as the Servo Vacuum Drum fouls the chassis. Tilting the whole bracket MAY be an option. See the video. My wife cannot reach the pedals at all (what a relief) and the Recaro seat is to all intents & purposes non adjustable due to lack of space.

The RH video makes no reference to fitting an Accelerator pedal. There are at least two distinct styles of Sierra pedal, the design with the ball ended top fits into the car much better than the simple notched top. Both types of pedal bracket have a spot welded stud fitted, this is best knocked out and drilled 6.5mm, as trying to locate the ideal position for the bracket, with a stud in position, is difficult to say the least. The two designs of pedal and bracket differ considerably, the ball ended design is to be much preferred. Fit with the pedal as far over to the offside as you can and do not fit an internal trim panel adjacent to the pedal, as this gives a couple of inches more foot room. It is just possible to get the cable fitting of the ball ended pattern through the pre-drilled hole in the servo mounting bracket. As the hole is far too large at 19mm, you will need to turn up a simple nylon reducing bush with an 11mm hole, this accepts the moulding on the cable end, the photographs show this in some detail. The standard cable is far too long, but due to its method of manufacture, it is difficult to shorten. (You could fabricate a new ball or clevis end in brass and solder it to a shortened cable)

When I actually came to drive the car I found the clearance between the Throttle and Brake pedals insufficient and I have fabricated a new Throttle pedal set well over to the offside. Even with the seat fully back the Brake and Clutch pedals are in an unacceptable position for comfortable driving and these will need attention.

Loose fit all the bits using "G" clamps, string etc. until all the bits are where you want them. Try all the pedals for full & free movement. Note:- The accelerator pedal needs to be about 1" below the brake/clutch pedal and sufficiently to the right to allow your foot to fully depress the brake without fouling the accelerator.

No pedal must touch the steering shaft and be at least 3/8" clear in the worst case position. As they say in aviation. "Full & Free Movement"

Note 1 Care must be taken when fitting wedges to the Steering Rack. If the material is aluminium alloy, use a gasket between the alloy/stainless joint. Raising the rack causes a misalignment with the track rod ends. This is not best practice, but unavoidable. Use the lowest angle possible, say 10 degs. Ensure the wedges cannot come loose under any circumstances. Use 10 deg wedge washers on the underside as the bolts will also come through the chassis at 10 degs. This is not needed with the "U" bolts as they are more or less self aligning. Pay particular attention to clearances inside the lower spider joint. Mine failed on this point. Just ease with a file to give clearance for the bolt heads. see Section XXV The SVA Test.

A new upper Steering Column upper bracket has been designed which is easy to fabricate and is fully adjustable. Note the use of 2 alloy bushes to fill the holes in the Sierra bracket. The bracket fits onto the back of the Sierra bracket which means the entire column can be removed by releasing 4 nuts and pulling it up & out of the car, it also moves the column towards the driver about 2". Watch the amount of triangular lower column in the upper universal joint. It MUST protrude thro' the clamp by at least 1/8". Use the locking tabs. There is a hole drilled in the apex of the lower triangle. If you are careful you can use this as added security, but it needs very accurate drilling.

The centre support bracket needs to be carefully bent at the same angle as the column, which is NOT 90 degs, more like 70 degs, so that the bush is not under any misalignment. The rubber housing will correct for a little misalignment but try and get it spot on if possible.

There is a section on Caster, Camber, & Toe setting in Section X Front Hubs and Disc Brakes

Mountney Steering Wheel

I have come to expect that nothing in this kit fits, but you would think that the Mountney Steering Wheel & Boss at £45.00 would be a doddle. Not so. The boss is a very crude sand casting and the internal taper requires a lot of careful filling to fit well, there were no threads showing thro' when mine was loose fitted and the steering lock splines are quite crude, as opposed to the Sierra pressure die cast precision item. I discarded the lower RHE Mountney Boss and used instead the Sierra unit, what Sierra unit? If you do not have a lathe and are unsure as regards precision turning I suggest that you either struggle on with the RHE boss or get someone to do the following for you:-

Please bear in mind that this is the Steering we are messing about with here and only the highest levels of precision are acceptable. It may only fail once. If in doubt consult a competent Automotive Engineer. The author can accept no responsibility whatsoever for this conversion apart from the fact that I have fitted it to my 2B with 100% success.

1) Fit the RHE Mountney upper boss into the lathe and face up the back, turn round and face the steering wheel seat. Do NOT touch the inner wheel register unless required. Lightly bore the large center hole just to clean up. Measure the new bore dia. (should be approx 1.550") Remove as little metal as possible, just enough to clean up. Remove from the lathe.

2) Now saw off the two Sierra Steering Wheel spokes as close to the circular part of the boss as possible.

3) Remove as much of the foam padding as you can with a saw, then pull off the rest.

4) Fit the boss into the lathe with the steering lock notches inwards and the outer rim hard up to the chuck, then turn the outside diameter until it blends with the circular boss, be very careful not to over thin, remove any plastic covering. Take extreme care as this is an intermittent cut into steel and alloy and it can easily fly off. Take very light cuts.

5) Face the outer part of the boss to give a flat surface just on the two spoke webs. (where the steel spokes join the boss) Remove as little metal as possible to get a flat mating surface.

6) Turn a register on the centre to just press fit into the large newly bored hole in the RHE boss, (1.550" dia?) making sure it is deep enough to give a little bit of support on the other two small cast webs. The two other bolts will pull down onto these small flats.

7) You can now drill and bolt the Sierra boss to the RHE boss with 4 x 6mm c'sk socket head screws. Note that we can use 4 screws instead of 3 on the RHE unit, so we should finish up with a stronger job. Use Loctite and nylock nuts. Make sure the horn stator holes are clear for the two wires to pass through, and also that 2 of the 6mm screws pass centrally into the main webs. See photo.

8) Give it a couple of coats of black paint and clip in the Sierra horn stator ring, finally bolt the boss onto your column. (surprise, surprise, it fits perfectly) Use the Sierra nylock nut and a dab of loctite.(See note below)

9) Fit the Mountney wheel to the boss with 6 x 4mm St Steel button head socket screws and nylock nuts. (See note below) Wire up and fit the Horn push. Note that the outer terminal on the Mountney Horn Push goes direct to earth via a spring clip on the rim.

Note: When re-fitting the Steering Wheel set the front wheels dead ahead and make sure the lug on the self canceling black plastic cam is at the 9 o'clock position (the actual cam should be central under the little white s/c lever) with the direction indicators set at neutral. Fit the Boss so the notch mates with the cam. Failure to do so will not only ruin the cam but may prevent the wheel seating down onto the taper properly. Tighten the nylock nut as per Haynes. To get the 6 o'clock spoke in the correct position you may (will) need to re-drill the Mountney ring. Final setting can be done by altering the track rods.

Setting up the steering is a bit complicated, but at the end of the day the following must be correct. 1) Wheels dead ahead, Tracking and Camber correct, Steering Rack in mid position (this is most important), Track rods more or less equal length, Self canceling Indicator cam central to the white lever, 6 o'clock Steering Wheel spoke dead vertical & pointing down.

The photographs below (to follow) show the above procedure better than 1,000 words.

Before refitting the pedal box it is suggested that you consider fitting a new Clutch Pawl (the yellow bit with the teeth) or you may care to fit either a 50mm unit (white) Part No.CPR5 or the 55mm unit (red) Part No.CPR 6 (Approx. £5.00) as these give a more positive clutch action, either of these two units will pull the cable more for the same pedal travel, giving less clutch drag. If you do decide to fit the red or white Pawls it is a good time to strip the entire Pedal Box, check for any cracks (some older boxes were prone to stress cracking) and rebuild the entire unit, with a clean and re-grease. Check for wear etc.

The Sierra pedal box has holes for 3 bolts, one of which will need to be a thin countersunk head as it will foul the Vacuum drum. For maximum rigidity it is advised to use all three. Loose fit the 2 and spot the third with a squirt of black aerosol paint. See photographs.

Link the top of the pedal Box back to the Chassis with a strut, or even 2, to give a 100% rigid unit. This is a standard 2B modification. As this strut is under compression when the pedals are depressed it does not need to be 2" diameter ! A piece of 3/4" Stainless Steel tube securely fixed at each end will suffice. All this lot will need to come off to fit the Firewall panel so do not tighten all the nuts just yet.

Now that the Pedal Assy is complete we can return to fitting the rest of the Interior Panels. We need the Firewall in position so that we can route Brake Pipes, Fuel lines etc. See the section on the Bonnet before you go any further

Finished Pedal Box Assy

Go to Section XIV

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Copyright Text © Colin Usher 2009 Illustrations © Colin Usher 2009

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