Other than buying one from England or other European sources, you have the option of taking the old one out and taking it to a clever machinist and have him replace the rubber with a piece of fabricated aluminum or steel. I have no rubber in my steering system and I don't really notice any difference. Here is a picture of my coupling. the "female" end (left) takes a stock GTV-6 steering column and the "male" end (on the right) fits into a Milano rack. This takes the place of that rubber coupling. You could make a similar one with the GTV-6 UV "knuckle" on one end and the GTV-6 rack spline on the other with just a solid piece of shaft in the center to make up the proper length.
[demime 1.01d removed an attachment of type image/jpeg which had a name of Figure 1. Power steering adapter.jpg] George Graves '86 GTV-6 3.0 'S' On Dec 29, 2011, at 1:38 PM, [email protected] wrote: > Hi George, > I spoke with John Norman and new parts are not available, except > possibly on eBay from one of the few sellers in the Middle East/ > Mediterranean or who knows will have a NOS part here. The big thing > is, why do they fail and how do you fix it so it stays fixed? > Stevan > > In a message dated 12/29/2011 12:09:58 P.M. Pacific Standard Time, > [email protected] > writes: > Yes, this is a common failure mode on this car. The bushing has a > rubber collar that separates two metal steering column connectors from > one another. When that coupling fails, it usually breaks the ground > wire that "jumps" the rubber bushing in order to allow the steering > column to be grounded - which is necessary for the horn to work. The > failure can cause the horn to either quit entirely or, become > intermittent depending on whether or not the wire has parted > completely. The big danger with this failure is that the steering > itself can fail altogether IF the rubber collar breaks completely > loose. It's so important that this dampening bushing not fail, that I > would try to buy a new one, if possible, and not rely on a used one. > When I fitted power steering from a Milano to my GTV-6, I had an > adapter made-up to mate the GTV-6 steering column to the Milano's > power steering rack (which are different). Since the Milano system > doesn't use this rubber collar between the steering column and the > rack, my car no longer uses this part. > > > George Graves > '86 GTV-6 3.0 'S' > > > > > On Dec 29, 2011, at 8:05 AM, [email protected] wrote: > > > I just found that on my low mileage 1983 GTV 6, that is has a fairly > > common > > problem in the steering column. There's a bushing in there that > wears, > > allowing enough play so that the horn doesn't always work. > > Specifically, if I > > push the top of the steering wheel away from me, no horn. If I pull > > the top > > of the wheel toward me, it works fine. > > > > I have a good used one coming and won't be taking things apart until > > that > > arrives and survives inspection. I kind of expect the problem to be > > some > > variety of poor bushing material and lack of grease on assembly, so > > I'm > > strongly considering adding a grease fitting. > > > > Has anyone else had to deal with this? Comments? How common a > > problem is > > it? > > Stevan Thomas > > 1983 GTV 6 > > 1973 Berlina > > -- > > to be removed from alfa, see http://www.digest.net/bin/digest-subs.cgi > > or email "unsubscribe alfa" to [email protected] -- to be removed from alfa, see http://www.digest.net/bin/digest-subs.cgi or email "unsubscribe alfa" to [email protected]
