Did I collapse my steering shaft?

Soooo, I was finalizing the installation of my floor shift steering column into my Dart. The whole thing was in and I was ready to bolt it up to the steering box when I realized it was a couple inches short! I tugged at it a little to see if it was hung up on something inside but nope, no such luck.

Out it came to see if something was out of whack but nothing popped out visually. I disassembled the top collars and t.s. switch but everything looked normal. I don't have a snap ring pliers here at my house otherwise I would've removed the shaft to check it. I have the snap ring pliers at work so I can pop it out tomorrow but I'm a little perplexed as to how it may have happened.

In lieu of that, I figured I would see if anyone else has run into this issue. I do recall seeing the little plastic buttons about halfway up the shaft which are designed to collapse it. I don't however remember dropping the thing directly on the ground or anything like that.

I lined up the collars next to each other and they are the same length. I gotta believe it's collapsed somehow. Maybe when I tightened down the nut on the end? But over 3"? Dosen't add up.

I have a power to manual adapter but I didn't want to use it since the only thing converted here was the floor shift collars - the shaft is from this car which was power steering and will be re attached back to the same box.

Hoping you guys may be able to shed some light here as to what I may be dealing with. Also, is it safe too use the shaft after it's been collapsed?

Thanks for any input!

- Greg

You lost me--- do I understand you are using the same shaft that you had in the other housing, AND on the same steering box?

You recall "stomping" the column on the floor when you had it out?

Frankly, I don't see that it would matter SO LONG AS you make darn sure that "collapsed" is what you had done, and "extended to original" is what you end up with.

In other words, if there's a difference in the two housings, and you yank the extension out further than it was, you may be on dangerous ground so far as telescoping material. I would do some careful measuring.

After all, it's only your steering. 'Be like Microshaft -- the windshield turns blue, and the steering won't do anything

67Dart273 said:

You lost me--- do I understand you are using the same shaft that you had in the other housing, AND on the same steering box?

You recall "stomping" the column on the floor when you had it out?

Frankly, I don't see that it would matter SO LONG AS you make darn sure that "collapsed" is what you had done, and "extended to original" is what you end up with.

In other words, if there's a difference in the two housings, and you yank the extension out further than it was, you may be on dangerous ground so far as telescoping material. I would do some careful measuring.

After all, it's only your steering. 'Be like Microshaft -- the windshield turns blue, and the steering won't do anything

Click to expand...

The only things that have been changed from original are the upper collars to get rid of the column shifter. Everything else is as the factory done did it.

No stomping of the shaft occurred.

So you removed the column shifter collar and put on the floor shift collar, right? When you did you lost about 1-3/4 inch in length since the column shift collar placed the shaft further down inside the column. If you have the power to manual adapter use it. Its a ***** to pull the collapsable part further out. Usually what happens is that it is hard to move then all of a sudden comes out real fast and oops, its apart and now how in the hell do you get it together agin. Been there, done that.....

When you had it in position, did the inside column brackets line up with the bolts that it hangs from under the dash? The metal triangular firewall cover (floor plate), did you remove it when you were working on it? If so, you may have reattached it to far down the shaft. Loosen it from the round collar that it attaches to so that both pieces can slide along the shaft and try to reinstall.
C

lhearold said:

So you removed the column shifter collar and put on the floor shift collar, right? When you did you lost about 1-3/4 inch in length since the column shift collar placed the shaft further down inside the column. If you have the power to manual adapter use it. Its a ***** to pull the collapsable part further out. Usually what happens is that it is hard to move then all of a sudden comes out real fast and oops, its apart and now how in the hell do you get it together agin. Been there, done that.....

Click to expand...

See, that's what I wasn't sure about. The collars are the same height on the outside, didn't occur to me to look inside the floor shift collar itself to see if the mounting surface was farther up. Huh.

Still gonna take it in to work and check to see if it collapsed but I'm hoping it didn't.

Sounds like I will need to use that adapter after all. Solves the problem quite well actually!

clhyer said:

When you had it in position, did the inside column brackets line up with the bolts that it hangs from under the dash? The metal triangular firewall cover (floor plate), did you remove it when you were working on it? If so, you may have reattached it to far down the shaft. Loosen it from the round collar that it attaches to so that both pieces can slide along the shaft and try to reinstall.
C

Click to expand...

Nope, all went in as it was supposed to. That was my first thought actually so I tried to slide the breakaway biscuits back and forth to see if it would help but they did not move enough to make a significant difference.

There's actually a 'stop' at the bottom of the column which rests up against the floor plate. That was correct when I installed it. I took pics before I did the conversion and it looked the same when I put it back in.

I'm confident it's an issue with the shaft and from what it sounds like probably the new collar.

rmchrgr said:

I do recall seeing the little plastic buttons about halfway up the shaft which are designed to collapse it. I don't however remember dropping the thing directly on the ground or anything like that.
- Greg

Click to expand...

Did you take the shafts apart?

So I took it back apart and the shaft is not collapsed. The plastic buttons were still intact, the two halves were not separated. Guess it was like lhearold said, the floor shift collar just places the shaft higher up in the column.

And as stated before, the problem is solved with an adapter which I already have on hand.

Thanks for the input gang.

Decided to resurrect this thread because I did actually collapse the steering shaft!

I went to go put everything back in after checking it the last time and the thing was still short! I couldn't believe it, I was stumped as to what could have been wrong.

I took it all back apart again to triple check that those plastic shear pins were in place and it turns out one of them had indeed fallen out. I was able to pull the two halves of the shaft to make them longer. Doh!

Though I don't remember doing anything to it, it looks like the shear pins had a couple nicks in them, like I was trying to drive them out with a punch. Seriously, I do not remember doing anything like that but I suppose its possible and likely given the circumstances. Oh well.

So I now have this junk steering shaft. I do in fact have another from a '73-up column though which is definitely not collapsed. I don't see anything inherently different other than on the bottom there's a little welded bump that holds the lower bearing/collar thing in place. I plan to use it instead of my collapsed one unless someone can tell me that it will unequivocally will not work.

Thanks for any suggestions.

- Greg

Drill out whats left of the plastic shear pin and replace it with a small (6-32) brass nut and bolt. The two shafts cant come apart once the column is in the car, there isn't enough room.

You might consider drilling both sides and using small aluminum pop rivet pins - they should shear easily under a collision situation.

I agree with daliant, once installed, the shaft will not separate. Remember, the column is mounted both to the dash frame and the floor, and the column shaft is attached to the steering gear box, which is mounted solidly to the frame rail. There really isn't any slack to be found.

Guys, I don't think its necessary to do any repairs/drilling/riveting to the original shaft since I have another on hand. Only issue is it's for a '73-up. I don't see how it wouldn't work though since everything is the same except for the little ridge that holds the later style, spring loaded lower bearing in place.

I was just hoping to confirm that someone out there had successfully used a '73-up shaft in a '71 column.

http://www.forabodiesonly.com/mopar...527&highlight=lower,+steering+column,+bearing

if the shaft did not come apart. just pull it back to were if suppose to be and you will be ok. when your sliding it back. it should be little tight. it will not move when it is in the car.