Steering Relay Rebuild Guide

[cnfowler]

Recently I disassembled, cleaned, and reassembled the steering relay in my ’69 SIIa. I figured I’d post how I went about doing so. Don’t consider this a How-To, maybe just a guide. You could do things differently if you wanted to.

---First, I removed the relay from the chassis. The relay can be rebuilt in place, but if it isn’t seized in place it’ll probably be easier to do this job with it removed. There are multiple ways of removing it so I won’t get into that. I’ll only say I was able to remove mine by using a jack under the relay. YMMV.




---The end caps are removed by removing the four screws on each cap. At this point the innards won’t explode so don’t worry too much. Just don’t go pointing it at your face – once out of the line of fire, stay out of the line of fire. Accidents do happen. You are wearing eye protection, aren’t you?


---Place the relay inside something like a pillow case. Go to town banging on the end of the relay shaft. This will keep everything in one place instead of the contents exploding all over your garage like a party popper.

Once the excitement is over, this is what you’ll end up with.




---Clean everything and inspect for excess wear. Check the relay shaft races that the oil seals ride on for wear. Hopefully the races are good because that shaft is half the cost of a new relay.

Don’t forget to clean up the housing so it looks purdy. No one will ever see anything other than the end caps once its reinstalled, but that’s not the point.



---Replace the oil seals in the end caps. Don’t forget a smear of Hylomar around the edge of the seals before seating them in the caps.




---This is where things get interesting. You’ve got to find a way to compress the spring for reinstallation. There is a factory tool that is dang near impossible to find (but I’ve seen handy folk make them) or you can come up with your own jerry rigged method. I used a truck bed bolt and clip along with some homemade compressed spring holders and spacers. These were made out of flat stock steel. The spacing between the tangs is 60mm. You’ll have to notch the tangs so the relay shaft will slide into the spring while these are attached (you’ll see what I mean from the pictures).