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Steering column/subframe swap S2 to S4/S5

Jeffrey.Sweeney

Donation Time
Has anyone done this, if so, how bad was the process and do you have any photos of what all it entails. Is it pretty straight forward or is there a lot of re-engineering required?

How does the overall handling of the car change?

Just mulling over a few options.
 

junkman

Gold Level Sponsor
Bolt in simple, no need to change the column or steering wheel. Does not change the handling, just makes it much easier to rebuild and maintain. Done by a lot of guys including me.
 

jumpinjan

Bronze Level Sponsor
If you go from the king-pin suspension that is found in the Series I & II suspension and retro fit the later ball joint suspension, the brake calipers are different and not interchangeable. So make sure it comes with everything.
Jan
 

Bill Eisinger

Platinum Level Sponsor
For my SI V6 conversion project I’ve swapped the front (and rear) suspension for late series parts. I’m also using DanR’s electric power steering setup with a late series steering column. All of the front suspension and steering pieces are compatible across early and late. No issues at all. Rear suspension takes a bit of modification to the leaf spring hangers as later series springs are wider than early ones.
 

Bill Eisinger

Platinum Level Sponsor
And what I meant about early and late being compatible means that you have to use the whole works...control arms, spindles, dust shields, steering arms, etc as they are all different but it all bolts up to the cross member the same.
 

Barry

Diamond Level Sponsor
Like most car makers, Rootes did a lot of "parts bin engineering." The best I can tell, the front suspension on Series Alpines is simply a slightly lowered version of the front suspension used on contemporary Rootes passenger cars.

While there are differences in the parts & pieces between early (S-I/II/3) and late (S-IV/V) cars, the front suspension geometry appears to be the same for all Series Alpines. The main functional difference is that the S-IV/V front suspension has about 30% more compression travel than the S-I/II/3 front suspension.
 

DanR

Diamond Level Sponsor
Does anyone know the diameter of the S1/S2 steering column shaft? And the number of splines?

Jeff, Spline count is 36 for SI through SV

Diameter at the spline is 0.617 - 0.619. for both steering units (SI/II & SIII/SIV/SV). I MEASURED Five different mixed units.

Hope this helps,
 
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Hillman

Gold Level Sponsor
If you go from the king-pin suspension that is found in the Series I & II suspension and retro fit the later ball joint suspension, the brake calipers are different and not interchangeable. So make sure it comes with everything.
Jan
According to the WSM, the rotors are different as well. When I did this swap, I swapped rotors as since I was re-using the SII wire wheels and hubs.
 
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