I am aware from the various forums on the internet that a ‘knocking’ noise from the steering column is quite a common problem on the Daily 4×4, and even the 4×2.  It seems that the way Iveco repair this problem is by replacing the lower steering spindle and floor bush plate. However, when we approached Iveco in Chile to supply this, we had to wait 4 weeks for a new set to arrive from Italy.  Once the new parts arrived, I was able to remove the old parts and really get to the bottom of the problem.  This has led me to find a much more cost effective, and probably better, solution than buying an expensive steering spindle set.  Here’s what I found.

The Daily 4×4 has a very comfortable ride thanks to its suspension, the suspended seats and the fact that the cab is mounted onto the chassis with big rubber suspension blocks.  This is why there is such a large rubber seal between the front bumper and the body work:  to allow for the large relative movement between the chassis and body while driving on rough roads.  For the same reason, the steering column design also needs to allow for the movement between the cab and the chassis.  It does it by using a sliding joint in the steering column’s lower spindle.  The lower spindle is attached to the bottom of the main steering column with a universal joint (UJ); it has another UJ in the middle of its length; and is attached at the other end with another UJ.   Obviously with 3 UJs it is quite wobbly and it is therefore supported by a plastic-rubber bush as it passes through the floor.  Unfortunately, this plastic-rubber bush is prone to wear quite quickly, which leads to an annoying knocking noise when driving on rough surfaces.  You can easily check the state of wear of the bush by waggling the spindle near to the floor in the cab.  Unfortunately, even though this is supposed to be checked during each routine service, it wasn’t noticed by Iveco.

It would be great if I could buy from Iveco, a replacement plastic-rubber floor bush – it can’t cost more than a few pence to produce.  But Iveco would only sell the bush to me as part of a replacement kit for the whole lower spindle and, given that this consists of the sliding joint and the UJ, it was quite expensive.  Anyway, I took the bush from my new lower spindle replacement kit and fitted it to Cuthbert’s old lower spindle. The knocking noise was cured and I now have an expensive, new, lower spindle sat in my spares box!

Having changed the floor bush, I decided to find and test a better solution than having to buy yet another whole spindle assembly the next time the bush wears out.  The spindle passing through this floor bush only has a rotary motion, the vertical motion is taken up by the sliding joint that is below the floor.  I drilled out the three pop-rivets which hold the floor bush assembly together and removed the old bush.  It has a 22 mm inside diameter, a 40 mm outside diameter and is about 15 mm thick.

As luck would have it, I had a spare poly-bush left over from my field repair of the Transfer Case bush in Zimbabwe last year [see here for full story].  This poly-bush was the correct inside and outside diameter but a little too long.  I quickly cut it down to length and trimmed the outside corners so that it fit the floor bush assembly better.

It fitted perfectly, so I riveted the floor bush assembly back together and installed it.

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