At some stage the previous owner had fitted an aftermarket 16″ Moto-lita steering wheel. Even though there was absolutely nothing wrong with it, I was toying with the idea of swapping for either a 15″ or possibly even a 14″ wheel, which a number of owners fit to increase the leg room. The steering would also be more direct with the smaller wheels with the obvious trade off being progressively heavier steering around town and parking.
Still, the unanswered question was, how much heavier would the steering become? Finally I decided to stick with my approach of keeping to the standard specification and only making changes once I’d driven it for a while. However, while I was dithering on what to do, I got distracted by an original rather ropey 16″ wheel on eBay. The wood had dried and split beyond repair so it needed to be re-rimmed … as though I didn’t have enough to be getting on with already!
| 16″ Moto-lita wheel |
Original wheel from eBay |
Splits in the wooden rim |
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The splits in the rim ran almost for the full circumference which made its removal very straight forward. Fortunately there are a couple of people offering replacement mahogany rim kits. The new rims are ever so slightly thicker and so will have the benefit of being more rigid.
Unlike the very early E-Type steering wheels, the aluminium ring is entirely enclosed, in a groove cut into the bottom half of the wooden rim. The two halves are then bonded and a gloss varnish applied to the wood.
| Splits made removal a doddle |
Aluminium section freed |
Replacement rim kit |
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The Series 2 steering wheels changed from the polished finished to avoid the reflective surface. I wasn’t convinced I’d be able to get a satisfactory brushed effect and so have decided to go for a polished finish.
The numerous scratches and light pitting in the aluminium section were too deep to be removed by polishing alone. So it was necessary to lightly sand it to remove the blemishes, prior to polishing. Initially 600-grit paper was used and then 800-grit until the scratches had disappeared. It was rather worrying at the start as you tend to question whether you’re making it worse rather than improving things!
| Sanding started with 600-grit |
Followed by 800-grit |
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The grade of paper was then progressively made finer at each pass, finishing with 2000-grit. The aluminium started to gain an even sheen during the last few passes and then it was ready for polishing.
Fortunately I had a second bench grinder and so replaced the stones with two 6″ polishing wheels; one for use with a cutting paste and one for the final polishing paste. I’m sure it would have been a much more difficult task without it or trying to fit a polishing wheel to a power drill.
| Getting close : 1500-grit |
2000-grit produces an even sheen |
After polishing with cutting paste |
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The polishing cutting paste soon obtains a smooth shiny finish. Once the majority of surface blemishes have been removed, the polishing paste is used to obtain the final finish. The key point is to polish evenly rather than over polishing by concentrating on a specific area. It’s surprising how much heat is generated during the polishing process so there were frequent breaks to allow the wheel (and motor) to cool.
The steering wheel boss was also given the same treatment.
I believe the aluminium spokes were originally protected by a clear lacquer. I used Pro-XL two pack clear lacquer which should provide a tough scratch resistant layer, with both the steering wheel and boss given three coats. The curing time is 24 hours after which it can be mechanically polished.
However, once the aerosol is activated, it only has a pot life of about 24 hours. So it’s not possible to address imperfections in between coats. It was a fine line between getting an uneven orange peel finish and over-spraying causing runs.
I managed to get a combination of the two! Plus a few high spots due to dust pick up and areas where the lacquer flowed through the holes in the spokes and pooled underneath.
The wheel and boss were then rubbed down with 2500-grit wet & dry paper to correct any imperfections, adding a little water to the surface before sanding. A sanding block is a good idea for the wheel to ensure a flat finish.
The lacquer takes on an opaque appearance once sanded so removing areas of orange peel was very easy. Once the glossy low spots had disappeared, producing a uniform opaque finish, it was ready for buffing up with some standard polish. In this case, Menzerna Fast Gloss FG400.
Finally, it was time to re-rim the wheel! A suitable epoxy that had been recommended to bond the rim was Pacer Z-poxy. Several types are available, having different curing times. I opted for the 30 minute variety (PT-39) to provide plenty of time to make any adjustments! Like many epoxies, the resin and hardener are mixed in equal quantities.
To be on the safe side, I chose to tackle it in two stages; first bonding the aluminium wheel into the grove in the lower half and then once cured bonding the top half. The only issue was to make sure the countersunk side of aluminium wheel was the right way round!! Numerous clamps were used when bonding the second half of the rim, alternating between clamping the two halves together and ensuring the edges of the two halves were perfectly aligned.
One of the reasons for choosing Z-poxy was that it can be sanded. However any excess squeezed out by the clamping was quickly removed with methylated spirits. If I were to do it again, I’d not use the clamps to keep the edges of the two halves aligned. Clamping in this way did not squeeze out all the excess epoxy, so there is a slightly more visible join in places. Nothing too disastrous but not perfect.
A better approach would have been to use all 8 clamps to squeeze the halves together a firmly as possible. Any slight alignment issues could then be addressed when the rim is sanded down before the final finishing.
I believe many of the steering wheel restoration companies then apply a hard polyester lacquer to the rim. Although I’ve decided not to go down that route for a number of reasons; it’s not readily available, difficult to apply and I think not as pleasant in the hand.
 My preference is just to apply Colron finishing oil to keep the natural feel of the wood. The aluminium spokes were masked off and the wood sanded down with 240-grit and then 320-grit sandpaper.
The finishing oil was then wiped on with a lint-free cloth and allowed to dry for approximately 5-6 hours between coats. Once each coat had dried, the rim was rubbed down with ultra fine Steel Wool (0000) before applying the next coat.
|  Initially the oil produces a matt finish which progressively becomes glossier as additional coats are applied. In the end I had applied about 12 coats until I had the finish I wanted.
To keep the wheel in tip top condition, it should only be a matter of rubbing down with steel wool and reapplying additional coats. Far easier maintenance wise than varnishes or lacquers.
The downside of finishing oil is that it doesn’t offer the same protection against damage that a hard lacquer would provide. I’ll just have to be careful.
| After multiple coats of finishing oil …. the final finish |
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The final problem was the central E-Type motif (or horn push for the earlier cars – the S2 horn being operated via the indicator stalk). The clear plastic had numerous fissures on the surface and some had propagated to reach the base, causing these areas to lose the gold colouring.
| Surface cracks on horn push |
Comparison: Repro (L) v Original (R) |
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I’d hoped that it might be possible to repair it, in a similar manner to repairing cracks in windscreens. However my investigations so far have not found a suitable method to repair it. The general consensus on the E-Type forum was that it wouldn’t be possible to repair.
A reproduction motif was purchased as a fall back but I hadn’t noticed the differences between the originals and the repro ones until the moderator of the forum pointed them out; the colouring is more of yellowy silver than the deep gold of the original.
Why they can’t get simple things like this right I’ll never know. Chinese no doubt! So I’ll fit the repro one for now until an original comes up on eBay. Fingers crossed …..
It was frustrating to have gone through the process of re-plating/re-chroming all the individual components and to have rebuilt the handbrake, only to find that the ratchet had been butchered to fit an incorrect cable. Rather dispirited, I decided to keep the rebuilt handbrake as is and reuse the offending cable.
I’d hoped that it would be possible to rig up an alternative method of mounting the handbrake switch. However I wasn’t able to come up with a solution that I was happy with. Plus I’d found a number of forum postings of issues setting up the handbrake mechanism even with the correct, unmolested parts.
| Old & New Clevises |
Correct cable is shorter |
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The existing cable was either incorrect for the car or a poor reproduction part. Both of its clevises were far too long, resulting in an inner cable length that was over 1/2″ too long.
I’m fairly sure that a previous owner/garage had relocated the cable abutment on the ratchet about 1″ rearward as a bodge to compensate for the oversized clevis.
 The knock-on effect is the distance between the outer cable abutment on the ratchet and that at the handbrake compensator mechanism on the IRS has been reduced by the same amount. Squeezing the outer cable into this shorter distance effectively reduces the overall inner cable length by 1″ – so a net shortening of approx. 1/2″.
The handbrake compensator offers some adjustment to cater for stretching of the cable over time. Even so, 1/2″ would almost certainly put it at the limit of its adjustability. I’d probably be on a losing wicket trying to get it to work correctly. It was better to bite the bullet now rather than later. So a correct cable was obtained from the Jaguar Enthusiast Club, who now offered them via their online shop.
RM & J Smith were able to supply new ratchets which came as a relief, so it wasn’t necessary to buy a complete new handbrake. The only obvious difference is the pivot bolt spacers are welded to the replacement ratchets.
 The fitting of the new ratchet was a simple task but the completion of the handbrake was foiled yet again. The bore of the outer cable abutment was 1/32″ smaller than the 3/8″ cable diameter. It has a slot machined into its circumference and is designed to allow a slight expansion, so I didn’t think anything was amiss.
The bolt securing the switch bracket then clamps the abutment onto the outer cable.
The only way I could get the outer cable into the hole was by continually twisting and pushing it. It didn’t feel right the more I progressed. Considerable effort had been needed just to get the cable half way home. So I decided to remove it and have a re-think. It might be possible to re-drill the bore although I was concerned the slot might cause problems.
 I needn’t have worried. As soon as the cable was twisted in the reverse direction, disaster struck …. one half of the abutment fitting snapped clean off.
Aaaaargh and much cursing of repro parts!! Another case of what I now refer to as the Restoration March …. 1 step forward, several back!!
Looking at the fracture, it appears that the whole ratchet is hardened during the manufacturing process, presumably to provide the necessary hardness in the ratchet teeth. The downside, as I found out, is it makes the part brittle and prone to stress fractures. Not ideal for clamping parts which need a degree of ductility, such as the cable abutment.
RM & J Smith have been an excellent source of difficult to find parts and, to their credit, were very good, offering to send out a replacement immediately free of charge. They had identified the problem with the size of the hole and returned the ratchets to their manufacturer to be corrected. I had received one that slipped through the net. The following day the replacement arrived and it fits perfectly.
Getting the warning light switch properly set up proved to be much trickier than I’d anticipated and quite frustrating. The switch is activated by a ‘S’ shaped spring striker. When the handbrake is fully released the protrusion at the base of the lever presses against the striker, which in turn depresses the switch.
 The main problem was mounting everything far enough forward so there was sufficient pressure on the striker to operate the switch.
Both the switch and striker are mounted to the bracket by two locking half nuts. So there is very little fore and aft adjustment that can be made. Mounting the switch progressively nearer to the striker starts to pre-engage the switches’ plunger, making the switching more hairpin-like until ultimately it’s permanently on.
I finally got it set up and working on the bench although I still wasn’t 100% happy. The switch had to be angled slightly and the warning light would be on as soon as the lever was moved off the end tooth of the ratchet. The plan was to mount the pre-built handbrake and switch but much to my dismay, I’d completely missed that fact that the cable has to be fed forward into the cabin through a guide bracket in the transmission tunnel.
All the set up was then lost, as the handbrake switch needed to be removed to free the cable. In situ, it wasn’t possible to reproduce as good a set up as before because the floor pan was stopping the angling of the switch. I found the best fit to mount the ‘S’ shaped striker horizontally.
I’m tempted to add some packing washers between the striker and bracket to allow the switch to be moved forward slightly. I think I’m going to leave the fitting the central console until after its first MOT so I’ll still have access to the handbrake.
One of the first modifications I’d decided to make was the change to an adjustable reaction plate for the torsion bars. In part the decision was due to the enormous trouble I’d had removing the torsion bars and reaction plate.
Also, even though the front suspension should only need to be set up once, if there was some settling of the suspension after the rebuild, subsequent fettling would be far easier. So I purchased an adjustable reaction plate from Rob Beere and followed Bob Skelly’s excellent installation guide.
 – PDF Version
 I’d planned to install the front suspension and torsion bars on two previous occasions. However, both times, progress had been thwarted due to some other fitting ‘difficulties’ that had been encountered. The first when installing the IRS and subsequently the engine.
So it shouldn’t have come as a surprise that fitting the reaction plate would be equally challenging! The first problem was the adjustable reaction plate was approximately 3-4mm wider than the original. The tubes for the bolts securing the plate to the underfloor channels protruded much further beyond the outer edges.
Rob Beere suggested using a pry bar and the need for a tight fit, which may well need hammering to ‘persuade’ it into position. If this didn’t work, the ends of the tubes could be ground down slightly to fit. No matter what I tried I couldn’t get it to fit and so had to resort to the latter.
 Even so, it still required hitting home with the nylon hammer. The various attempts to get the reaction plate to fit resulted in some damage to the paint work, which will need to be repaired.
Fortunately there are a number of other adjacent areas that still need to be touched up, where the chassis was attached to the support frame during painting. So these can all be tackled at the same time before the exhaust is fitted.
It was surprising to see that the new clutch slave cylinder had started to show some surface rust, even in the short time since the transmission was installed. I’ll have to treat it with some Dinitrol hard wax asap.
Bob’s instructions suggested tightening the large Allen key bolts once the upper bolts had been inserted. However I had slight alignment issues with all the mounting bolts and the torsion bar ‘ear’ brackets. Once the Allen and upper bolts were tightened, it was impossible to fit the remaining bolts and brackets.
 I found it was necessary to have everything initially finger tight, which enabled a screwdriver to be inserted in bolt holes to pry the other mounting holes in the frame into alignment with those in the reaction plate.
The fitting order that worked for me was the large Allen bolts followed by the ‘ear’ brackets, the upper bolts and finally the lower pre-cut bolts.
Only once all these were in place could everything, except the bolt through the ‘ear’, be fully tightened. It is worth reiterating that:
i) the Allen bolts need to be tightened before the adjusting cam is fitted, as the nut securing the cam obstructs access to the head of the Allen bolt
ii) the ear brackets needs to be at the top of their permitted travel before tightening the lower pre-cut bolts.
 I also followed the advice of labelling the cam steps and then painting the outer face with some clear lacquer. However I didn’t bother highlighting the edges of the steps as I thought this was a bit of overkill.
With hindsight, I think not adding the highlights was a slight mistake. It would have provided a better visual guide to ensure the step of the cam is parallel with the edge of the torsion bar ‘ear’ bracket.
It’s not a major problem, provided there’s sufficient light when setting the cams. If I were to do it again, I’d use two bright, contrasting colours to paint alternate step edges.
I’d not been looking forward to fitting the torsion bars. I hadn’t been able to dismantle them in the conventional manner, described in the various service manuals. There wasn’t even a slight hint of movement in the torsion bars despite some very hefty blows wielding a club hammer. In the end, as an act of self-preservation, I conceded defeat and removed each side of the suspension as single units.
Time for some (dubious) Maths – the torsion bar setting link
The shock aborber is replaced by a fixed length link to provide a datum point when setting the torsion bars. This should then give the correct ride height, although the adjustable reaction plate would then come into its own if it needed subsequent tweaking. The setting link for the early cars was 17 13/16″, however this had increased to 17 31/32″ for the S2 cars.
I’d obtained some replacement torsion bars at Stoneleigh but hadn’t realised at the time that almost all new torsion bars are ‘uprated’. The standard bars are 0.77″ in diameter while the replacements were 0.85″. As a result, the bars will be stiffer, so using the recommended setting link length would result in the ride height being too high …. but by how much?
 After some research I found that Classic Jaguar in America had produced a chart with recommended setting link lengths for various torsion bar diameters.
Unfortunately they don’t have a figure for 0.85″ bars so I thought I’d plot their recommendations in order to determine the link length required. The graph wasn’t what I was expecting, with a linear relationship between the setting link length and the torsion bar diameter.
Hmmmm! Perhaps I’m missing something as I thought the torsional stiffness or angular deflection of a solid bar was inversely proportional to the diameter to the power of 4. Still, without anything better to work from, using a linear calculation the setting link length needed was 43.1cm.
Fitting of the torsion bars
 The calculated length of the setting link should give me roughly the correct ride height (fingers crossed etc). So I chose to set the reaction plate cam to the mid-setting ‘4’ and will be able to raise or lower the ride height if it’s not exactly right. With the setting link in place and the ‘ear’ bracket locked at setting ‘4’, the rotational positions of the front and rear splines in the suspension are fixed.
The torsion bar has a different number of splines at each end – 25 at the rear and 24 at the front. This provides a high resolution vernier adjustment, allowing the torsion bars to be set very accurately and therefore the ride height. The fitting of the torsion bar is now a matter of trial and error, rotating the bar by one rear spline at a time until the front splines are perfectly aligned with those in the wishbone.
A rotation of one rear spline is equal to 14.4 degrees while it needs 15 degrees of rotation to move on by one front spline. Another way of looking at it is when the bar is turned by one rear spline, the relative position of the front splines is altered by 0.6 degrees, in the opposite direction to the direction of rotation. The front splines will align perfectly for one of the 25 possible orientations!!
 I had passed both splined ends of the torsion bars through their corresponding mating pieces a dozen or so times until I was satisifed it would only need three or four solid blows to hammer them home.
The torsion bar need to be passed rearward through the rear ‘ear’ mounting and then forward again until the front meets the splined hole in the lower wishbone. However the splines were still too tight a fit. It was necessary to carefully file the spline faces on the torsion bar until it only took one firm tap to fully engage the splines.
This enabled the torsion bars to be pushed forward by hand until the front was 1mm or so from the rear face of the wishbone. A tap with the hammer would then bring the bar up to the wishbone, at which point it was possible to determine if the splines were correctly aligned. I used a 12″ pointed concrete chisel for a drift, so the point could sit in the indentation at either end of the bars.
The mistakes I made were:
- Smothering Copperslip over the front splines on both the bar and within the wishbone
- Blindly accepting the view that it’s a matter of trial and error to find the best fit
The Copperslip did a splendid job of masking whether the splines were properly aligned and so it was all wiped off. The best time to apply it was once the correct orientation had been determined and the front splines had just engaged.
I followed the advice of adopting a methodical approach of rotating one spline at a time until an exact fit was achieved. After completing one full rotation I wasn’t convinced I was any the wiser. The correct orientation had probably been missed under the cover of Cooperslip!
It was only at this point did I sit down and work out the Maths of the relative 0.6 degree movement of the front splines for a rotation of one rear spline. A couple of minutes of thought up front would have saved several hours of grief and frustration with a club hammer! Armed with that knowledge, it was then quite easy to quickly home in on a small area of splines spanning the best fit.
As an example:
| Front spline need clockwise rotation |
Result of rotating anti-clockwise by one rear spline |
Eventually an exact alignment is reached |
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In the left photo, gaps can clearly be seen between the splines. The front splines need to be rotated clockwise to close these gaps. The middle photo was taken after the torsion bar had be rotated anti-clockwise by one spline. The gaps have clearly been reduced.
Eventually an exact or best match is achieved. Although I found when viewed from the lower inboard (7-8 0’clock) the front spline alignment would look spot on. However when viewed from the top outboard position (1-2 O’clock), gaps would be visible.
I think this is because the angle between torsion bar and the wishbone isn’t exactly at 90 degrees. So the lower inbound splines start engaging before the top outbound splines. Hence why gaps are still visible from one view and not the other!
Finally the torsion bars were both in and I’ve now less fear of tackling them again in future.
One of the safety features introduced during the production of S1 4.2 cars and carried over to the S2 was a collapsible steering column. The lower section of the steering column housing consists of a lattice structure. In the event of an accident where the steering wheel is impacted with sufficient force, the column’s two upper mounting points are designed to shear and the lattice structure collapse to absorb some of the impact and allow the steering wheel to travel forward.
To enable the column to collaspe, the total length of the inner steering shaft must also be allowed to shorten. To achieve this, the inner shaft is comprised of two sections which are fixed in position by two nylon pins. An impact will cause the pins to shear, allowing the two halves to slide over each other.
The same design is used for the lower steering shaft, connecting the steering wheel column to the rack. Therefore some care needs to be taken when handling and refitting the steering shaft to avoid any heavy impacts and the use of mallets to fully engage the splines!
The steering wheel’s fore and aft position can be adjusted by rotating the large black cup-shaped locking nut to release the clamping pressure on a split collet, thus allowing splined inner columns to slide over each other.
Another difference between the early S1 and later cars was that the horn was now activated by pressing the indicator stalk rather than the E-Type motif in the centre of the steering wheel. I assume this might have been partly due to having to make the steering column collapsible but it does simplify the dismantling.
The E-Type motif is normally held in place by three grub screws in the aluminium steering wheel boss but for some reason a previous owner had also glued it in place! It’s removal provides access to the nut clamping the boss against a split cone located in a recess in the inner shaft.
 I was surprising how much force was needed to loosen the nut. It was necessary put on full lock and then use an extension tube over the socket wrench handle to get enough leverage.
It’s just as well I didn’t take it off the car as a complete unit as it would have been a struggle without having the resistance of the steering rack at full lock.
As mentioned, the adjustability in the steering wheel position is achieved by two splined inner columns being able to slide over each other. Their travel is limited by a ‘stop button’ which is screwed through the female inner column and locates in a machined slot in the male inner column.
The steering wheel is then locked in place by a splined split collet, which is attached to the underside of the cup-shaped lock nut by a circlip. When there is no clamping force, the male column is free to move on the splines. However, by screwing the lock nut onto the female column, the collet is compressed and clamps the two inner shafts together.
Once the circlip is removed, the lock nut can be unscrewed and withdrawn, followed by the collet. Next is the stop button to allow the male inner column to be removed.
The female inner column passes through the indicator mechanism, attached to the main steering column housing by a semi-circular bracket. Automatic indicator cancelling is built into the mechanism by the use of a control striker attached to the inner column.
The striker interlocks within a white nylon ring in the indicator mechanism so that the ring rotates as the steering wheel is rotated. Protrusions moulded into the nylon ring hit ‘cancelling’ cams which force the indicator stalk back to its non-indicating state when the steering wheel returns towards the straight ahead position.
All that remained was to liberate the female inner column from the steering column housing. The inner column rotates in roller bearings at each end. The lower bearing is held in place by a retaining cover which itself is secured by a circlip and a number of washers. One of which is a wave or spring washer which takes up any free play and provides a small amount of load bearing capacity.
Once the cover and washers are removed, the splined inner bearing race can be slid off the inner steering column and the roller bearing withdrawn. The outer bearing race is simply a press fit into the steering column housing.
The steering column housing’s upper end cover can be removed by releasing the three small retaining bolts.
 At which point the key needs to be turned in the ignition to withdraw the steering lock. This enables the female inner column to be removed.
The ignition switch and steering lock housing is secured to the main housing by a security bolt, which needs to be drilled out in order to remove the lock. The security bolts are designed so the hexagonal part used to tighten the bolt shears, removing the ability to remove it easily.
It’s worth noting that it would be possible to remove the whole inner column as a single unit, even keeping the steering wheel in place, by:
- Removing the lower roller bearing circlip and withdrawing the washers, cover and inner race
- Undoing the three bolts securing the steering housing’s upper cover
- Turning the key in the ignition and withdrawing the entire inner column
This would enable the roller bearings to be replaced without resorting to dismantling the entire steering column.
The missing handbrake parts for the warning light switch were ordered from SNG Barratt – the bracket, switch and ‘S’ shaped spring. It looked fairly obvious how it should all go together but what puzzled me was the parts list indicated only two nuts are required to secure both the switch and spring to the bracket.
The switch is actuated by a finger-like protrusion at the base of the handbrake arm, which should press against the spring as the handbrake is nearing the fully released position. This causes the spring to depress the switch’s plunger, breaking the circuit and so switching the warning light off.
 The only way I could get the switch’s plunger anywhere near to the ‘finger’ protrusion was to mount the switch to the bracket and then use two locking nuts to position the spring at the end of the switch – as shown in the photo.
I’ll be swapping to half nuts to secure the spring but pressing the spring just about operates the switch. However the problem is the ‘finger’ protrusion of the handbrake only just brushes the spring and doesn’t push it against the switch.
I posted the photo on the E-Type forum and within no time at all the moderator, Angus, had responded, directing me to an image of the correct set-up on a S2 car currently going through his workshop, Moss Jagaur.
I went backwards and forwards between the two set-ups but still couldn’t see how mine was so far out. After all, the geometry is fixed. Eventually I noticed the length of my cable fork was much longer and then it dawned on me what was wrong.
 My handbrake had been hacked about at some time in the past. The bracket attachment has been cut off and welded further back.
There had been some obvious welding around the attachment point but I had assumed this was just a repair to strengthen it and, as it has come off the car, was correct. It now explains why they hadn’t refitted all the switch parts!
The annoying thing is all the parts have been re-plated and the ratchet teeth are all in good condition. I think I’m going to keep it ‘as is’ and adapt the bracket, although it’ll bug me now!
Further responses to my forum post pointed out that the handbrake cable is an incorrect reproduction item, which would explain why the clevis fork is longer but more importantly that they cables are too long to get the handbrake to work correctly.
The repro cables have been on sale for many years, and still are!, and it points to a previous owner having gone the wrong way trying to find a solution to the problem. The repro cable problem had been picked up by Jaguar Enthusiast Club, who now offer the correct cable so one is now on order.
It’s cases like this where the E-Type forum is invaluable. There are members with a wealth of knowledge of these cars who are happy to spend time offering others advice and solutions to their problems.
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Finally to the trickiest part of the rebuild – the fitting of the indicator stalk mechanism. One which caused quite a bit of head scratching! Although in my defence, this was because one of the critical parts was missing. A previous owner had obviously taken the indicator off at some stage and bodged the refitting.
Even Google and eBay searches hadn’t found anything so the only option would be to fabricate one based on the packing piece. The completion of the steering column was put on hold for a month or so while I pondered what to do. When it was picked up again, I made one final eBay search, just in case …. a USA auction for a clip had finished two weeks ago although without any bidders.
The tab on the drive clip needs to engage with one of the slots in the white nylon indicator ring. Therefore when the column shaft is turned the nylon indicator ring turns at the same time. 
The final components to go on are the split collet (although I had added this much earlier) followed by the large black cup shaped locking nut, which needs to be fully screwed onto the outer column shaft to reveal the circlip groove inside. 
