Issue with the steering: When all assembled, after everything is aligned, I need to be able to index the steering shaft to the steering rack to make the steering wheel straight when the car is going straight. The steering shaft fits so tight between the support bearing and the rack that its impossible to remove and index the splined adapter. I read several possible fixes on the F5 forum and ended up using a combination. First I moved the support bearing to the inside of the footbox. This gained about 1/8″ of room. However, it did require trimming the bearing retainer to fit.
This is the modified retainer compared to the original. Both must be trimmed.
The bearing now installed inside the footbox.
…and the view from the inside and why I had to trim it.
Still not enough to pull the splined adapter and re-index. However, another tip from the forum said it requires less space to pull the shaft from the adapter, so I pulled 2 set screws and voila!
End result is I can now remove 2 set screws, push the steering shaft up into the bearing out of the way and then remove and re-index the splined adapter.
Lots of work for something I’ll only have to do one time, but if I didnt do it, I’d most likely have to drive the car with an off-center steering wheel. And that would not make me happy.
Onward!