TheRecklessEngineer Posted April 15, 2008 Share Posted April 15, 2008 I'm trying to get the busted steering relay out of a chassis. I've undone all the bolts (top and bottom). Collars are off, and the innards are out. I cannot persuade the casing to come out at all. I've tried tapping it, hitting it, hitting it with a big hammer, heating it, talking nicely to it, making offerings of jaffa cakes (both Sainsburys own and the real ones), offerings of blood and tears, swearing at it, cursing it, and glaring menacingly. Whatever I do, it stubbornly refuses to budge. So how do you get the *$&ker out? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fatboy Posted April 15, 2008 Share Posted April 15, 2008 James, It needs to come "up". Have you tried a jack underneath? Mine was ok, but jammed in the old chassis so I ended up cutting the chassis to bits to get it out Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kingdong Posted April 15, 2008 Share Posted April 15, 2008 I'm trying to get the busted steering relay out of a chassis. I've undone all the bolts (top and bottom). Collars are off, and the innards are out.I cannot persuade the casing to come out at all. I've tried tapping it, hitting it, hitting it with a big hammer, heating it, talking nicely to it, making offerings of jaffa cakes (both Sainsburys own and the real ones), offerings of blood and tears, swearing at it, cursing it, and glaring menacingly. Whatever I do, it stubbornly refuses to budge. So how do you get the *$&ker out? Hi james just as it says in the haines book ( just tap it out ) i remember trying to remove my relay on my old s3 i spent a week dowsin it in penatrating oil and after that i had to jack the landy up with large 3/4 drive socketbetween the relay and jack. over night i herd a loud bang in the morning found it had come out. cheers graham. s2a 88 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheRecklessEngineer Posted April 15, 2008 Author Share Posted April 15, 2008 I haven't tried a jack no...but it is a bare chassis, so very little weight on it at all. I'm 99% sure I've been hitting it in the right direction (upwards). I plan on cutting up the scrap chassis to get the good relay - I'm not going through this again! I wonder if I might have deformed it whilst hitting it - I might take the grinder to it tomorrow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobotMan Posted April 15, 2008 Share Posted April 15, 2008 Last time I go one out I ended up with the jack under the relay but about 2 inches above it on another jack then dropping it off one on to the other! Obviously not the safest or most sensible but it worked and was a giggle. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Night Train Posted April 15, 2008 Share Posted April 15, 2008 You could try putting a trolley jack under it and then chaining (or roping) the chassis to the jack before jacking up to put the pressure on. I know of one chap who did that and when it went bang over night it was the chassis tube that came out of the crossmember still stuck to the relay but it worked. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Les Henson Posted April 16, 2008 Share Posted April 16, 2008 The outer casing is cast iron, so I doubt you will have bent it. Loads of penetrating oil around it, then rest the relay on an axle stand with the weight of the chassis on the relay. Place a lump of wood on the crossmember and belt it with a sledge hammer - one side of the relay and then the other. These things are very difficult to get out. Les. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThreeSheds Posted April 16, 2008 Share Posted April 16, 2008 20 years ago, and after literally months of trying I gave up and sold the car with it half out... Chap who bought it said he would cut the chassis, but I wasn't into such drastic measures in those days... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon White Posted April 16, 2008 Share Posted April 16, 2008 Good luck!!! I drowned mine with WD40 for a few weeks first (which didnt help) I jacked the vehicle up by the relay, but also put a strop round the jack and round the chassis so that it kept the tension on and then pumped the jack up until i couldnt move the handle any more. I then made use of a BFH, and the metal head of a pick axe that i shoved a 6foot scaff bar over the other end of thus giving me a 6foot long pry bar. Several hours of swearing, bouncing on the pry bar, and beating the cr@p out of the relay unit finally (eventually) saw the bugger move! Worst comes to the worst you might have to cut a slit in the front x-member to free it, and then weld up again afterwards. Have fun - its a piggy of a job! Drown the new one in copper grease when you fit it. I removed mine several years later when i converted to PAS and it just pulled out the chassis with my fingers! Copper grease works!! Jon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tonk Posted April 16, 2008 Share Posted April 16, 2008 i used same method as jon, i'm not so patient though and got mr angle grinder out after about half an hour Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sotal Posted April 16, 2008 Share Posted April 16, 2008 Not to take the P, but I had to swap one from one chassis to another, so I had to remove the seized one from the one chassis, then remove the good one from the rotten chassis and put that in to replace the seized one. Both just tapped out with a hammer, I don't think the whole job took more than half an hour! I did coat the new one with plenty of copper grease, but the old ones didn't have any signs of anything Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tonk Posted April 16, 2008 Share Posted April 16, 2008 i think its all luck of the draw. i reckon mine was the original one so would have been in there for 40 years, after cutting the inside of the crossmember it still took lots of heat, penetrating oil and a jack underneath it and a big hammer to get it to shift. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
West4x4 Posted April 16, 2008 Share Posted April 16, 2008 Carefully take insides out (theres a big compressed spring in there) the smash the casing out with a hammer few good blows should do it it will split and eventually all come out. I spent forever jacking up and hammering chassis down all that did was bend the chassis a bit Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimfoo Posted April 16, 2008 Share Posted April 16, 2008 I wonder if taking the insides out, then loading it with dry ice, causing it to shrink some, would help? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
80INCH Posted April 16, 2008 Share Posted April 16, 2008 Try a propper penetrating oil .. such as plusgas. WD40 is not a penetrant its a water displacer/lubricant.. hence the name . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kingdong Posted April 16, 2008 Share Posted April 16, 2008 Try a propper penetrating oil .. such as plusgas. WD40 is not a penetrant its a water displacer/lubricant.. hence the name . Hi 80INCH where can you get plusgas i used to use it yrs ago but never seen it since. graham. s2a bronze green. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheRecklessEngineer Posted April 16, 2008 Author Share Posted April 16, 2008 Woohoo! It's out! A combination of wiggling it lots (scaffold pole in top), and thumping it very hard from underneath to move it up a few mm, then back down again, then up, then down etc... you get the idea. Found my hub nut spanner was a good drift...I now need a new one. Still took a good half hour of beating to get it the whole way out though. Thanks all for the advice Right - the next problem is the 4 bolts at the bottom sheared straight off when I undid them. Do they matter? As the other ends are inside the crossmember, could I replace with a bolt all the way through the chassis? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rtbarton Posted April 16, 2008 Share Posted April 16, 2008 The thing is held in place by the big bolts at the top. The plate at the bottom is described as a mudshield (this keeps the mud and water in so you can't get the relay out again). To be honest I reckon you could drill four new holes and use tapping screws to hold the mudshield in place. Put plenty of grease between the relay and the tube it fits into. AFAIK the earlier vehicles had very tight fit between the relay and the tube, later ones had clearance. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheRecklessEngineer Posted April 18, 2008 Author Share Posted April 18, 2008 Just got the good one out of a scrap chassis...took all of 20 mins, and half of that time was finding the right sockets for the nut! Just hit it a few times and out it popped! The LR gods are mischievous... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
80INCH Posted April 18, 2008 Share Posted April 18, 2008 Hi 80INCHwhere can you get plusgas i used to use it yrs ago but never seen it since. graham. s2a bronze green. My local motorist shop sells it. If you look on ebay there's quite a few on there also for sale... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bill van snorkle Posted April 19, 2008 Share Posted April 19, 2008 Sometimes the relays just won't come out without stuffing the crossmember. Whenever they put up too much of a fight I just rebuild them in situ. The outer case rarely if ever wears out, so just load it with new bits. Bill. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andyb Posted April 19, 2008 Share Posted April 19, 2008 Whenever they put up too much of a fight I just rebuild them in situ. This was the way I did it.......gosh nearly 20 years ago now .....used a bottle jack to compress the spring and made up a half moon shaped thingy to hold it all in there. I think that was an adaptation of a 'special tool' listed in the Green Bible. Basically as the manual says but you are doing it from underneath. It was my first major repair to that LR......bit of a baptisam of fire. Nothing else since has require that much ingenuity Oh, nearly forgot. Replace one of the top bolts with a grease nipple and use that to fill the relay with grease. Better than oil filled. HTH Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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