[Zippi]

Originally Posted by joedoh

it goes

steering column, the end is a 1" DD

borgeson 015252 Steel Double D U-Joint 1" DD x 1" DD, one end to the steering column, the other end to the

borgeson 450024 telescoping shaft 1" DD to 3/4" DD 24 inches long, which goes to the

borgeson 014931 Steel Double U-Joint 3/4" DD x 30 spline which the spline will directly fit the steering box once you take the rag joint off and throw it away.

rag joints are just misalignment fixers that also act as vibration reducers, they can take maybe 2 degrees of misalignment of the shaft to the box before they pull themselves apart. the knuckle that is on your current shaft is that GM knuckle, it cant take a lot of misalignment either without shredding itself.

the way those parts were originally used was to have the steering column output DD pointing almost straight at the steering box input, so there was no stress on the rag joint or the knuckle. but the way its installed now is the steering column and the steering box dont point at each other, they dont even point in the same planes any more where the shaft is just slightly offset, the steering column points more down installed in an AD. The steering box cant be rotated up or down easily.

so if you get those three parts, you unbolt the through bolt at the column and remove the knuckle and there will be a 1"DD under it, you undo the ppinch bolt and remove the rag joint and there will be a 30 spline under it, and you throw everything in between away. then trim the telescoping shaft to a little more than the length needed and install the upper 1"DD to 1"DD u joint on the column, install the lower 3/4"DD to 30 spline on the steering box, compress the telescoping shaft a little then install the top part to the 1"DD open on the upper u joint, and the bottom part to the 3/4"DD open on the lower u joint, making sure the shafts dont stick into the inside of the u joint (it can bind it) and tighten all your set screws. test the system, and if its good, tighten the lock nuts on the set screws.

Thanks for the info. It takes a little bit for this ole man to see the light. I will be ordering all 3 Borgeson parts mentioned above some time shortly after all the holidays are over and I can recover from the pinch on my wallet. Looking forward to the upgrade and a better feel on the steering wheel.