Hi. I've just had a beast of a time replacing my Series 3 steering relay (rust welded into the chassis) as the shaft was sheared clean. I don't know what caused the shaft to fail and am worried that next time it may happen at more than 2MPH. She's a recent acquisition and I suspect that the relay may not have seen oil for ages and the steering certainly was (and actually still is) pretty heavy. That, however, doesn't quite stack up as it sheared just above the bottom lever arm as I turned the steering wheel so the break is after the relay effectively. Maybe I also need to go to work on the ball joints but I think that requires a special puller... Can anyone please inform as to what else might cause the relay shaft to shear like that - it's a bit of a worry as at 55MPH a shear like that will hurt someone I reckon. It may just be metal fatigue but I can't identify the brand on the broken relay - I nearly bought a Bearmach branded one but didn't and my new relay now in is unbranded but has Part No. NRC1269.
Many thanks in advance.
By way of contribution to the above discussion: the Haynes manual I have has an extensive list of what bits need regular maintenance and if I were putting a Land Rover back on the road after a long break I'd go through each of the items listed, including the stuff that only needs doing every 10k miles or more. There's also a good YouTube video showing how to get oil into the steering relay. I should also mention, for those having grief getting steering relays out, that heavyweight pullers must be the best (I used an 8 ton bottle jack but had to rely on the weight of the vehicle front right, maybe 1 ton, for pressure) and I had days of squirting ACF-50 (much better than WD40) in there to degrade the just weld inside the chassis sleeve. After much banging and bashing I did eventually get the old one out but tore a gash in the top of the sleeve and had more grief getting the attaching bolts to line up on the top side...
Cheers
Buzz Heard.
