Removing dowel steering shaft

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gtxdude

gtxdude

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First off Happy New Year everyone! Have my steering box out of my 65 Dart, sending it to Steer & Gear for rebuild. I'm replacing my gaskets and seals on steering column and need to remove the dowel on bottom of shaft. I've tried lubing it and hammering but that didn't work, worried about mushrooming the end of dowel. I'm getting ready to heat it up, is that the best way to remove? thanks

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gtxdude said:
First off Happy New Year everyone! Have my steering box out of my 65 Dart, sending it to Steer & Gear for rebuild. I'm replacing my gaskets and seals on steering column and need to remove the dowel on bottom of shaft. I've tried lubing it and hammering but that didn't work, worried about mushrooming the end of dowel. I'm getting ready to heat it up, is that the best way to remove? thanks
Click to expand...
You need a roll pin punch to remove it. A roll pin punch has a convex hump in the middle that seats in the pin.
Different than a flat punch. It shouldn't be that hard to remove with proper punch.
 
That's not a roll pin, it holds the coupler shoes in place. I pressed mine out when I lengthened my power steering shaft to fit a manual box. A large vise might work also.
 
Or get a small 1/4" drive socket just larger than the pin/shaft and put it on one side of the shaft and then put it in a vise and press it until it seats even with the shaft, then use a punch or thin bolt like Ben Drinkin said to push it out the rest of the way...

You may need to heat it up... You may try heating the larger shaft that the pin is in, then use some ice to cool the smaller shaft... The heat will expand the hole and the ice will contract the pin for a little better clearance to help loosen it up...
 
You need a press. You might drive it out with a big hammer and you might drive a new one in too. The hard part will be getting it centered. I don't know what the tolerance is/was but if you measure it before moving you'll find it is centered.
If that pin doesn't show excessive wear, you can just leave it. Drag the shaft out the bottom to replace bearings. That is how the factory built the column.
I have replaced only 2 of these pins for excessive wear. I pulled the shaft and took it alone to the workbench. The first time I did have a press. Setting up to press it in to centered wasn't so difficult. The second time I didn't have a press. Can't say how many times I knocked the pin this way and that before getting it very close to centered. Can say a press is the way to go.
 
Lee Robinson said:
You need a roll pin punch to remove it. A roll pin punch has a convex hump in the middle that seats in the pin.
Different than a flat punch. It shouldn't be that hard to remove with proper punch.
Click to expand...
But the pin is a steel pin and not a roll pin.
 
I never did get that pin out. I ended up pulling the column and stripping the shaft out and rebuilding from there.
 
toolmanmike said:
I never did get that pin out. I ended up pulling the column and stripping the shaft out and rebuilding from there.
Click to expand...

I think that's what I'm going to do also. I disassembled most of it yesterday, wasn't quite sure how the upper bearing came out with that rubber seal around it. Looks like lit just slides off then remove lower clip and slide shaft out.
 
Should be a tiny snap ring above the upper bearing. That snap ring generates a burr on the shaft that doesn't want to pass through the bearing race. I work the shaft up just a hair and use a tiny file and sand paper to rub away that burr along with any other scars or rust. Then the shaft will slide down and out of that bearing with little effort. Hope this helps
 
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