Question on '70 column, lower bushing?

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tomd

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Hi all,

I'm pulling the suspension and steering on my '70 Swinger to replace pretty much everything as it appears original and its sloppy. The car was power steering but I'm planning on putting in a 18-1 manual box so I already went out and grabbed that and a Flaming River PS to MS adapter shaft.

When I pulled the PS box out and coupler off, the steering shaft does not appear to have a support bushing or bearing supporting it as I can move it from one side of the shift tube to the other. Now, I'm kinda new at the car side of Dodge, (been on the Cummins truck side of things for a while) but this doesn't seem correct and there may be something missing. I know that the trucks have a bearing at the bottom but do the cars?

Tom

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that's correct.a lot of them had no bearings.you just center it when installing and tighten the floor mount.much eaiser with 2 people though.
 
^^^^Do this^^^^ I put that bearing on my 1970 Dart, It's the best thing I could have done for that column.

Jeff
 
I agree with the how to article, but only if he is going to put in a floor shift, otherwise it won't work.
 
The only time that bearing is necessary is with a split shaft,like in 4x4 trucks or maybe something with a lot of shaft outside the column.
 
Hi,
I looked through older posts for this and I found a lot of posts using a sleeve bearing on a manual steering column however, I couldn't find any with the auto shift column sleeve.

I want to keep this car as a column shift if possible so my question is, do the '70's have a bushing in them to center the shaft in the shift sleeve or does it free float with only the top bearing centering it?

I can see them being free float with the original coupler and PS box as the distance between the worm shaft and steering shaft end is short however, since I'm converting to manual with a FR adapter shaft with a universal joint, I can see where the shaft will be able to flop around within the sleeve as it turns because of the additional distance and force needed with the manual box.

I was thinking of turning up a delrin bushing and cutting 2 snap ring grooves on the shaft to retain it but wasn't sure if that would cause sufficient drag on the shift tube that would affect the ability of the shift detent to keep the car in the shift selection while driving. Obviously I would size the bushing to fit both the shift tube and shaft loose enough to hopefully not induce this issue. (I have run into just this issue on first gen Cummins pickups where the bottom bearing does not turn freely and when you steer the truck left going down the road, it changes gear selections from D to N)
 
I forgot to mention I do have a floor mounted shifter. But can't you take the column completely apart and slide that bearing on from the steering wheel end?

Jeff
 
tomd said:
Hi,
I looked through older posts for this and I found a lot of posts using a sleeve bearing on a manual steering column however, I couldn't find any with the auto shift column sleeve.

I want to keep this car as a column shift if possible so my question is, do the '70's have a bushing in them to center the shaft in the shift sleeve or does it free float with only the top bearing centering it?

I can see them being free float with the original coupler and PS box as the distance between the worm shaft and steering shaft end is short however, since I'm converting to manual with a FR adapter shaft with a universal joint, I can see where the shaft will be able to flop around within the sleeve as it turns because of the additional distance and force needed with the manual box.

I was thinking of turning up a delrin bushing and cutting 2 snap ring grooves on the shaft to retain it but wasn't sure if that would cause sufficient drag on the shift tube that would affect the ability of the shift detent to keep the car in the shift selection while driving. Obviously I would size the bushing to fit both the shift tube and shaft loose enough to hopefully not induce this issue. (I have run into just this issue on first gen Cummins pickups where the bottom bearing does not turn freely and when you steer the truck left going down the road, it changes gear selections from D to N)
Click to expand...


my 70 duster is manual steering from the factory and has no bearing at the bottom of the column,just that plastic thing that does nothing.
 
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