Lancia Motor Club

I'm getting ready to remove the engine & subframe this weekend 23/3 on my series 1 coupe, but have got stuck. Any suggestions please on how best to remove the steering connection?  

Attached photos show the steering column on the inside of the car. The 3 washers are / were just loose and floating around. Is this correct? I assumed they'd come off the screws but it appears not and they seem to be just acting as spacers. I can lift the ring that's shown around the column but only about an inch because the top contact wire (that's connected to the ring) for the horn appears to be too short / tight to pull it any more without snapping it. I'm not really following the instructions in the workshop manual  ???

2nd photo is in the engine bay where I've loosened the bolt and it's almost off the spline. I was going to try and undue the bolts that connect the flexible connector, but not a lot of room.

Thanks
Chris

normally you would remove it at the knuckle joint just above the steering box i.e. inside the engine bay (at least that is how I did it).

in other words you don't need to undo the inside end of things. If it won't come off now you might get more space as it drops down as you remove the subframe.

Thanks Jai. When you say knuckle joint is that the fabric connector that's got the 4 bolts through it (the in-focus bit in the 2nd photo). Sorry for the basic question, but this is 1st time I've removed an engine so learning as I go.

S1 does not have a knuckle joint but a fiber disk thing and a solid steering shaft. I have only done S2 but I assume you need to undo the 4 bolts on the fiber coupling.

Thanks all. It's so tight that it's going to be a bit like micro-surgery in there, but I'll give it a go.

Just hoping for some decent weather at the weekend as this is an engine out on the drive job...

If the steering connection to the box is the same as a series 2, the bolt must be removed from the splined connection as the bolt goes through a grove in the shaft. Until this is removed the connection cannot be pulled off.

S1 is different!!

sorry for my late reply, my experience is only S2 unfortunately.
I don't know if it will be any help but I found with the S2 removal as it came out a little bit it did give a bit more room in certain areas, provided you're confident it won't go in unintended directions....

Success! - big thanks everyone. After much brow beating & knuckle grazing (simply because access is so tight) it suddenly dawned on me that the knack to this is to simply jack the front wheels off the ground to allow the rag joint to be rotated until each bolt comes into a position where you can get to cut the cotter pin off. Ran out of light tonight but crack on tomorrow with disconnecting the rest of the engine.

Loving the quality of the copper plated bolts...

One question though - I'm yet to figure out what the cut wire that goes through the connector is (located at about 6 o'clock of the joint pic) - clearly been cut off so presumably not doing much as it's got through the mot OK with everything seeming to work. Any ideas please?

Hi Chris, If you mean the black wire with the bolt passing through the eyelet, that is to provide an earth to the steering column for the horn etc as the fibre ring is effectively a non conductive barrier between the two pieces of the column. I hope that`s the one you mean.

Thanks Jaydub - yes that's the one - makes sense now.

Finally got the engine out today. Now comes the hard work - welding in new floorpans and replacing the suspension towers...
 

Good Luck. That`s looks hard working out in the open, no crane etc.

And using a trolley jack on block paving takes commitment too.