U-joint on steering shaft: float or bolt down?

There are splines that are DESIGNED to slide and ones that are not. The ones on the coupler are NOT designed to slide.

WARNING. IM BEING A BIT OF A DICK WITH THE FOLLOWING.


As for a pin breaking and causing the coupler to come loose....

Green arrow, the shaft is flat

Blue arrow, the pin the sliders are held on with

Red arrow, the roll pin that keeps the splined shaft from coming out of the steering input shaft

To loose steering one or more of the following would have to happen.

1. The roll pin (red) would have to come out AND the coupler would have to move up 1 plus inches.
2. The pin (blue) would have to shear and the column would need to collaps 3 plus inches.

The following would alloy the driver to maintain control if there was some pin failure

1. If the pin (blue) sheared but the column did not collapse 3 plus inches the flats (green) on the shaft and the flats of the sliders would not allow the steering shaft to turn and not turn the coupler
2. The pin (blue) is trapped by the coupler, it can not just fall out.
3. The roll pin (red) could be missing and as long as the steering shaft did not move 1 plus inches the splines would still be engaged.

My theories about the misfortune that ended in a ditch.

1. The coupler was not assembled correctly
2. The coupler seal was missing / bad and it filled with water and over many years rusted the insides to nothing
3. The roll pin was missing / rusted to nothing and the steering shaft had been collapsed in the past and was not pulled back far enough
4. The driver lost control ended in a ditch and after finding broken steering parts blamed that rather then taking responsibility for his actions

Dickish rant over.