Have a 72 Demon - was originally a 318 floor shift car but was a drag car most all of its life. Yesterday I was having a conversation with my 72 Demon and his headers, steering column, mini-starter, manual steering box, pitman arm, and drag link. Bought this car about a year ago as a roller and been working to make it a street/strip car. Well, you know how those conversations go...pretty soon there was a heated debate about who gets to occupy what space, who gets to go in first, who goes second, etc, etc. Then we had the trials and the redo's on the order of getting installed. Then Mr BFH got involved with the headers and...you get the picture. I'm sure many of you have had this same conversation!
FINALLY, with most parts happy, Mr Drag Link was installed and cycled through the range of steering only to start a new argument when one of the grease fittings got involved with Mr Header. Apparently Mr BFH did not finish his work with Mr Headers. The steering wheel got some resistance trying to solve the argument when a "pop" sound occurred followed by that sound none of us like to hear of a piece of something that lost its argument falling to the ground.
I cannot guarantee that the column is the original although I have no reason to believe it is not. I've read through many of the steering column threads on here and don't see anything quite like I see on this one so I'm asking for expertise as I see many of you have done some serious column restorations.
Here's the column:
You can see the spring wrapped around the column. Just below the spring is some type of bearing retainer that contains ball bearings in it (just like some other threads have mentioned do exist!). If you pull up on the spring, it will slide up the shaft (there is nothing holding it in place). Then you can partially pull up on the little bearing retainer but there is a step in the shaft preventing it from continuing to slide up the shaft. HOWEVER, here is the fallen part (piece of a part?) that I found when the steering was being turned:
I'm not 100% sure where it came from but believe it may be from the column. Does anyone know what this part is? It is a larger diameter steel compared to the small spring wrapped around the column. It's ID looks to be just under 1" - can't tell if it was a complete circular ring or ?? Could it be some type of retainer that holds the spring shown above?
Not sure on next steps - maybe reinstall this loose piece...but I don't see any "lip" where it would be held to hold the spring against the bearing. Disassemble entire column, remove ball bearing/spring and add the set-screw bearing holder shown in other threads?
Thx for the input!!
FINALLY, with most parts happy, Mr Drag Link was installed and cycled through the range of steering only to start a new argument when one of the grease fittings got involved with Mr Header. Apparently Mr BFH did not finish his work with Mr Headers. The steering wheel got some resistance trying to solve the argument when a "pop" sound occurred followed by that sound none of us like to hear of a piece of something that lost its argument falling to the ground.
I cannot guarantee that the column is the original although I have no reason to believe it is not. I've read through many of the steering column threads on here and don't see anything quite like I see on this one so I'm asking for expertise as I see many of you have done some serious column restorations.
Here's the column:
You can see the spring wrapped around the column. Just below the spring is some type of bearing retainer that contains ball bearings in it (just like some other threads have mentioned do exist!). If you pull up on the spring, it will slide up the shaft (there is nothing holding it in place). Then you can partially pull up on the little bearing retainer but there is a step in the shaft preventing it from continuing to slide up the shaft. HOWEVER, here is the fallen part (piece of a part?) that I found when the steering was being turned:
I'm not 100% sure where it came from but believe it may be from the column. Does anyone know what this part is? It is a larger diameter steel compared to the small spring wrapped around the column. It's ID looks to be just under 1" - can't tell if it was a complete circular ring or ?? Could it be some type of retainer that holds the spring shown above?
Not sure on next steps - maybe reinstall this loose piece...but I don't see any "lip" where it would be held to hold the spring against the bearing. Disassemble entire column, remove ball bearing/spring and add the set-screw bearing holder shown in other threads?
Thx for the input!!
