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DesertRat

DesertRat

Leading edge boomer
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Moses Lake, Washington
Today I tried to install my steering column with a new u-joint coupler I bought from a member. (see photo) It hooked up fine but seems to hold the steering column about 2" further away from the dash and will not work. My car is power steering. I am dead in the water until I solve the issue. Suggestions??:prayer:
 

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Cut the shaft down a tad and your back up and running!
 
5.7 hemi said:
Cut the shaft down a tad and your back up and running!
Click to expand...


That was my first thought.

Put the column in place where it belongs, hold that knuckle up to where it mounts and mark the shaft to where it sits in it. Cut and install.
 
I could tell you that the only thing holding that shaft where it is, is a couple of little nylon pins, and that if you smack the column vertically on a cement floor, the pins will shear allowing you to re-position that shaft to anywhere you need it to be. You will, of course be that same distance closer to being skewered, if involved in a front end collision,at speed. But you didn't hear that from me.
I suppose the upper bearing, theoretically could be damaged during this procedure, but mine survived just fine, and 16 years later, it is still in there.
What you would hear is that if you need to cut the shaft, you might consider cutting the top off, after shearing the pins and extracting the shaft.
Since I sit practically in the trunk(long arms),I never shortened the shaft when swapping from a std steering box to a power steering box.And honestly, I don't much care if I die in an auto collision,as at age 62,and as a believer, I am ready to meet my maker.Be advised that I am in perfect health today, if a little overweight.
 
I had replaced mine last fall (Flaming River).In the instructions it tells you to cut 2 inches off,then install knuckle.Good luck.
 
Thanks men! I found all the parts to my original coupler which is in really good shape. I have blasted the housing and cleaned all parts so I am putting it together and in the car. Lots of good info on this forum about how to do the original setup! Now I will have another unused part for sale at the end of the build-buy everything twice and have a fire sale at the end!
Will post photo of installed column this evening.
:prayer:DR
 
AJ/FormS said:
I could tell you that the only thing holding that shaft where it is, is a couple of little nylon pins, and that if you smack the column vertically on a cement floor, the pins will shear allowing you to re-position that shaft to anywhere you need it to be.
Click to expand...

What Iv`e done and would do again without thinking twice:)
 
I could tell you that the only thing holding that shaft where it is, is a couple of little nylon pins, and that if you smack the column vertically on a cement floor, the pins will shear allowing you to re-position that shaft to anywhere you need it to be. You will, of course be that same distance closer to being skewered, if involved in a front end collision,at speed. But you didn't hear that from me.
Click to expand...


and there is why it is stupid to do such a thing.
 
Thanks to all you guys for the help. Redfish, you da-man, I found your schematic. Here are a couple of what I did to keep the progress moving forward. Tough day though, took me 2 hours to hook up E-brake stuff and I am far to old and big to be laying under a dash needing three arms like a nuclear mutant. Anyway, Thanks to all for the help!:prayer:
DR:blob:
 

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I had my power steering box rebuilt. The steering coupler indexes to the shaft. I centered the pittman arm @ 50% each way and set the toe-in on the discs. I pulled the steering wheel to center the travel equally on both sides and set the wheel correctly. I see the steering wheel also indexes onto it's shaft. I am afraid my wheel will be up on one side after allignment. Will allignment take care of it with adjustment?
DR:???:
 
This is what I did with mine

http://www.forabodiesonly.com/mopar/showthread.php?p=1969904417#post1969904417

I replaced most of the solid section with another telescoping section, and added a vibration damping Borgeson coupler. The advantage to this method is that if I change steering boxes, or couplers I don't have to make any more modifications to the steering shaft, and theres plenty of couplers out there that will bolt straight up to the DD shaft. I also have plenty of length adjustment that doesn't further change what's left of the original collapsable section. The travel of the original section was shortened slightly because the DD shaft I added won't slide into the upper part of the steering shaft, but there's still over 6" of travel in the original collapsing section, plus anything left in the telescoping section I added. That's currently ~2.5" with the Flaming river manual box and the borgeson coupler I have in there now. If the steering column has to collapse over 8" to keep from skewering me, I'm probably toast anyway. Not to mention the u-joint is more likely to deflect sideways than the original joint, meaning the steering shaft is more likely to deflect sideways than it is to be rammed straight back.
 
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