Steering Column Woes and Questions - Connector, Lower Bearing, and Coupler

Steve69Fish said

That coupler, however has caused me to invent an entire series of new curse words. I've now tried multiple size pickle forks which just resulted in stuck forks that took a small sledge to free. 2 foot wrecking bar just demonstrated how surprisingly much that bar could flex. Claw hammer. Sledges. Blackmail. Voodoo. Nothing. Not a bit of motion. I'm stumped.

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I have never encountered one I couldn't get off. Manual steering does seem to be more difficult. Forces applied generate more distortion and/or burrs in these ? I don't know.
I have needed to put the front end on stands so I could rotate the coupling and attack it from different positions.
Only 3 bolts and a ball stud holding the gearbox in there. That would require jack stands.
Then at reinstall, proper torque of its footprint to K member so those bolts don't work loose, and clocking centering check before reattaching the column and wheel. Good luck with it.