The upper part is taken from the Mazda. Previously I've posted some comments about the fact the mounting bracket was welded in the wrong place so Westfield had to fabricate a new bracket for me. Then neither of the U bolts they provided fitted to my satisfaction so I ended up fabricating a new U bar to hold it in place.
The lower section that connects to the steering rack is a new Westfield part. There is a bracket that holds it in place. You can just see the top of the bracket here (it's temporarily G clamped in place):
The mid section is taken from the Mazda then modified. The existing UJ is removed and a new one welded on. This was done for me by Westfield when I collected the completion kit.
It was too short by about 20mm. I wondered if the Mazda column was telescopic and could be pulled out but this was not the case. I also checked to see if the column had "collapsed". There are a couple of plastic white o[pins in the mountings that break off if in a crash to allow the column to collapse but these were still intact.
My options were to send back to Westfield for modification (which they said they would do) or get done locally. I had an extra UJ in the completion kit so after some thought I rang Westfield and asked if they could send me just the spline end section. By replacing the UJ by a spline and using the double ended UJ I could make it fit and it had the bonus that I could feed the mid-section through the hole in the panel without having to enlarge (the hole the manual tells you to cut is too small to fit the UJs through) and I could re-use the Mazda boot to cover the hole.
Here are all the parts. On the left is the lower section that connects to the rack. On the upper right is the double ended UJ and the short splined section sent to me by Westfield. Below on the right is the modified mid-section that is too short:
and a close up of the UJs:
I rang Congleton Propshafts who had shortened the propshaft the 2nd time around and they said they could do it. So off I went to Congleton.
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1 comment:
i am currently having the exact same issue here with the column, mine is 20 mm too short as well, so i will be making a phone call monday to ask for a splined section so i can modify mine myself, luckily i am welder, good luck with your mods :)
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