An Introduction: Chris Collins and Morris Tilly Project

[jack neville]

The later Morris has a trafficator switch that mounts on the centre of the steering column with the horn button. This is fixed to a steel tube, containing the horn and trafficator wiring loom that runs through the hollow steering column. The steel tube is fixed in place by a brass olive and nut at the bottom of the steering box. This allows the steering wheel and steering column to rotate around the tube. Disassembly results in mostly damaged tubes and stuffed wiring and the switches have been found to be dry of lubricant. The brass olive tends to damage the lower end of the steel tube. We had enough steering boxes to rebuild two good units but until now I had not taken much notice of the internal arrangement with the wiring. One steel tube was of sufficient length to use but had a score around the outside where the brass olive had become loose. This had worn through half the wall of the steel tube so I built this up with bronze. The second tube was damaged and after removing the damaged end was short by 10cm. We had some other damaged tubes so after cutting the required repair section I turned up a steel spigot to use to align the two pieces and also prevent bronze blocking up the tube. I chose to add the repair to the upper end of the tube.