That's great Dan, thanks.

If your MR2 is not going to be on the road for a while, you could send me your pinion. Make sure you send your details with it so I know who it is from.

I'm not sure how long it's going to be off the road but it will be a few months at any rate. Hoping to have it on the road for summer time. Which this year I hear is the first week in April.

Filthy and Wingers have paid in full excluding shipping, thanks guys.

Lemoncake has paid in full excluding shipping, thank you.

mk1rally20v has paid in full excluding shipping. Thank you.

Would the remaining members of the group who have not yet paid in full excluding shipping, please pay the remaining amount within the next two weeks. Thank you.

I need to pull the finger out and get this sent up to you.

Hey Martin. Sorry for not getting back to you sooner. What is the best way to pay? I can call up and give you the cash or maybe PayPal?

WIDEMR has made his final payment not including shipping, thanks.

-Totenkopf- has paid his remainder, thank you.

Harper wrote:
I need to pull the finger out and get this sent up to you.

Yes time to get your finger out Harper. You are in a position where you can have your cake and eat it because you have a spare pinion.

Try and get the pinion sent to me this coming week.

Yes Sir! Will post it this week.

I received Danthemans' power steering pinion today.

If you have chosen the option to have your power steering pinion to be assembled, please do not send them yet if you still need to use your MR2.

As soon as I have been given the go-ahead I will ask you to send your power steering pinion to me.

If like Dantheman, you are not going to be using your MR2 for a while, I am accepting the pinions for upgrading.Please allow yourself at least one full day for the removal of the power steering rack and the removal of the pinion.

I removed my power steering pinion today.

It wasn't too difficult but with it being nineteen years old, it did need some persuading with a hammer and a small block of wood.

I used the guide I posted earlier here.

So here are my tips to help you with the removal of the power steering pinion.

If you are doing this by yourself you will definitely need a vice as some of the nuts and bolts have become stuck after all the years being on the car.

Before removing the power steering rack brackets, loosen the 22mm cap while under the car

I removed the left tie rod end to ease removal from the car.

After removing the two 12mm bolts that hold the valve housing to the rest of the rack, I used a block of wood and a hammer and placed the wood against a lip on the valve housing and hit it with the hammer to release the valve housing.

The pinion may be stuck in the valve housing so grip the housing in a vice and use the block of wood on the end of the pinion and hit it with the hammer. The pinion should come out without too much force.

If you are replacing the seal in the valve housing use a 19mm socket to tap it out.

Dan has paid his remainder, thanks.

UPDATE

I phoned the manufacturer yesterday and today. The guy that I usually deal with was not there, but I am told that he should be contacting me tomorrow.

UPDATE

I was talking to the guy who is overseeing the manufacture of the power steering pinion parts. He apologized and told me that they have been extremely busy and it looks like we are going to have to wait another three weeks before the parts go into production.

I know some of you was hoping to install this soon for track use, but there is nothing I can do to speed this up.

I thank you for your patience and understanding. I will post further updates as I get them.

Marty.

UPDATE

OK after a bit of hounding the manufacturer through emails and phone calls I got this reply. I personally think it's good news (some of you may think otherwise) in the fact that they are not entirely neglecting us for their customers that have the big bucks.

Again I must stress that this is out of my hands and like the rest of you be patient. Remember this is a one of a kind and is a very small production run for a large company to produce.

"Hi
Firstly I must apologies for not getting back to you end of last week.
We are up against it here, so much work and not enough hours in the day. We needed to get your job through our drawing office and at last we have done this, the problem was two fold, because of the current heavy work load it was easy to put your job to one side and wait for answers to come in from suppliers regarding the internal bearing. Finally we have the drawings, after much nagging, our works manager has not been best pleased with the delays as he has had machine time booked and has had to move it several times.
We will be cutting metal early next week. We will send you a soft sample of the part so you can approve it before we complete the batch, I would hope to get this away to you by 25th.
As much as we value the work we get from people like your self, it can take some time to get the first batch of the ground as our big customers do have all the clout. Once all the drawings are in place and all the works process sheets are signed of repeat work is easy to load to the workshop and completed in good time.
Once again I am sorry for the delays encountered to-date.
I will be in touch again next week."

Hey Marthy,

Thanks very much for the continued updates, I have to agree with you on that its a good thing and the email was very informative with no silly excuses just lain to the point and tbh its expected that the regular big ticket customers come first!

Cant wait to get it installed in teh car and looks immenient now :-D Again just like to say thanks for all the ahrd work on your end getting this project out to the community so KC for you

I mentioned my concerns to the CEO of the company today and told him that people are not happy with the hold ups. He told me that he will email a design of the parts to be produced and send a "soft" version of the upgraded parts to me next week.

My thanks go to each one of you who are probably a bit anxious but have not lost faith in the product waiting for production. If I had known it was going to take this long for production I would have mentioned it before any deposits were taken.

Soft parts so far, but no yet finished. Still getting excuses but still putting the pressure on to get them manufactured.


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Hey Marty,

Just curious if there has been any update from the manufacturers?

Thanks,
Baz

I was on the phone yesterday talking to someone else who works there. They said that the soft-sample could be ready by Friday. I told them that I am not happy with having to wait this length of time and it needs to be produced soon. Whether they will do this is another thing. I don't want to fall out with them, but at the same time I have a duty to the people that have paid for the product.

Thats cool thanks Marty for the quick reply its appreciated Seems like they are being asshats about it but know where your coming from with trying to keep on good terms! Anyways good luck with sorting it out and looking forward to some good news

UPDATE

To cut a long story short, the soft sample should be sent off to me tomorrow.

UPDATE

Good news, I received the soft sample less than a hour ago. Providing the weather stays good I will install it today and report back tomorrow.

Below are photos of the upgraded power steering pinion soft sample.


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Harper wrote:
I need to pull the finger out and get this sent up to you.

Yes please send your spare power steering pinion to me as soon as possible.

PM sent to you.

Just back from the post office. It's being sent by owls as their are no roads in Donegal.

Harper wrote:
Just back from the post office. It's being sent by owls as their are no roads in Donegal.

We used to have roads, but all the power going through the rear wheels ripped them up.

I tried the soft sample in my power steering rack, but not on my car. The new part fits, turns and has reduced the number of turns lock to lock with no problems.

However I have noticed three things that need to be addressed. With one of them I had a feeling that fluid may leak as the manufacturer has turned the helical part right down to the thread on the end. There should be a smooth section in between the helical and the thread that goes into a bearing.