no10chris wrote:

If I remember correctly, we used a big hammer, ball joint splitter, and a fork splitter,
It’s been on there a while, I’d give it some plusgas, let it soak then a few good pneumatic shocks should do the job.
Otherwise I’m wondering if a plate surrounding it and a 2 leg pulled should do the same as the proper puller

Hooked the 12 ton ram puller on via the big flat bearing puller plate both cold and heated with a medium size Sievert propane torch. Which didn't do owt except bend the connecting studs and also the joining studs (5/8" diameter) of the bearing pulling plate. Ooops! Cant hammer on a hydraulic puller. Currently sat there done up as hard as it will go using the three legged set up. Well anointed with PlusGas of course. At least its centralised and pulling straight

Not thought of ball joint splitter. That 12 ton ram also goes in a heavy duty lever type ball joint splitter. Probably about 3 or 4 times force multiplication and you can smack it with a hammer so think I'll try that before spending some quality lathe time.

Fork splitters are not my favourite tools. Significant risk of bending and lots of effort lost in sliding. Reckon that as what got me into trouble with the drag link. Heat, lever puller and good smack shifted that.

Clive.

I must admit, after the fight with Marty’s, I bought a second hand one ( although it wasn’t the problem ) , and as I finished the scrap guys came past and I threw mine on there truck.
It’s a bit annoying that you can buy for certain models, but as per usual not for p38s

The saga continues.

Finally got the steering arm off on Monday night. Wound the screw pusher into the heavy duty balljoint splitter Friday night after 12 ton ram had leaked back. Couple of decent heating cycles with a big propane torch over the weekend along with anointments of PlusGas. About 9 pm Sunday it got another tweak and a couple mighty whacks on the splitter with a club hammer. Jumped apart on the second one. Yay. Result.

As a backstop I'd ordered a second hand one just in case the arm wouldn't come off. Arrived on Tuesday after I'd got back from buying Dowty seals having received an E-Mail from Craddocks said they couldn't supply the 14 mm ones and would have to order them in special. Whats with these people. 3 working days to tell me they hadn't got them. So used to not being able to get stuff round here that I'd forgotten that there is hydraulics place next town over who stock such things. 50 pence each + twenty miles on the bike. So I got ten in both sizes. Annoying that I'll be stuffed best part of £40 for OEM ones I don't need but such is life.

Just to make life interesting one of the bolts holding the washer bottle in had snapped off in it's welded on nut thingy. So I got the pleasure of drilling all that out. Naturally things didn't go straight so a Timesert thread insert wasn't gonna fly. Made up a 1/2" x 20 tpi UNF insert, tapped it 8 mm, loctited it in place with an 8 mm aircraft quality button head allen bolt running in from t'other side so one of the washer tank fixings is now a stud. She'll do.

Went to fit the new steering box this afternoon and the centralising indicator position didn't look right. An hours worth of playing measuring, counting turns interspersed with mutterings of the "But its a brand new ZF unit!" type I finally concluded that the indicator was indeed about 1/3 rd of turn out. Probably just been fitted wrong but I'm not messing about with a brand new unit. Called LR Direct and they were remarkably helpful considering its not their fault. They've made arrangements to have it picked up on Friday, it will go back to Britpart for examination and I should get my money back sometime next month.

Should've listened to Richard and just got a second hand one in the first place. Still the used one is on now. Steering column to connect up tomorrow and everything to torque down before its all fixed. I hope. I shall get mine re-conditioned in due course and put it back as I know its history.

Clive

I've seen Britpart manage to screw up with a slotted head machine screw from my mate with his series III. If they can screw that up, they can screw anything up (slot in the head on the screw not in the middle of the head - really can't get any more simple than that, and they still got it wrong, luckily they only sell them in packs of 10 so he could manage in that case without a couple of them).

Finally all back together this morning with second hand steering box fitted. Naturally I overfilled the power steering reservoir and kept level too high during initial running. Air came out with some impressive gulps and wheezes spraying red Dextron foam all over the left hand inner wing area. But it works.

Replacement box gives lighter steering than the old one so I suspect there was trouble coming anyway. In retrospect better for it to do the sit down strike thing in the middle of a servicing job than in the middle of the motorway. My old box is going off for re-con. Maybe re-fit next year or maybe not. Don't like running on something that vital of unknown history. LR Direct say that I should get refund on that new one once its been examined. We shall see.

Connected the steering up a spline or two out so the U-J comes out tomorrow to be re-set. All cleaned up and copper slipped when I slid it back together so thought it will come out easy. Really. Got back from shopping at 4 pm this afternoon, "only take half an hour so I'll do it now". Optimist. Doesn't want to shift. Par for the course on this job it seems.

Decided to change the brake pressure accumulator whilst things were de-pressurised. Intended to do that when I did the brakes but didn't have time due to limited availability of assistant for bleeding. About the easiest job on a P38! Right! Snapped my strap wrench trying to undo the old one. Eventually found a slim AF spanner that would slip on the hex at the bottom to undo it. 10 minutes later job done. Really needs a bent spanner to slip in easily. Time to root round the boot fairs for a candidate to be thinned and modified. May never do the job again but if I do I want it to be easy.

Clive

Well you've had a bit of a mission! If mine doesn't start steering straight very soon you might be unlucky enough to get a visit ;)