47-55.1 *Steering Wheel Centering*

[Zippi]

Originally Posted by joedoh

on the spline, there are two possibilities, on early steering boxes there is room to slide the set screw past the splines and tighten, on later boxes there is a flat that, when pointing straight up, means the box is at dead center.

on the upper side, for columns with a through hole, you can tack weld or even tape a piece inside the column shaft on one side, then the set screw tightens against it. that set screw is super long for that purpose.

Thanks. I really won't know how many spline my steering box has until I get the rag joint off. I assume the ujoint at the column will slip over the part with the big hole and the spline end will fit onto the slip shaft ? Am I thinking correctly?

[joedoh]

Originally Posted by Zippi

Thanks. I really won't know how many spline my steering box has until I get the rag joint off. I assume the ujoint at the column will slip over the part with the big hole and the spline end will fit onto the slip shaft ? Am I thinking correctly?

yep.

and if its an s10 or GM Metric box, its the one I listed. counting splines isnt really necessary but better safe than sorry I guess

[Zippi]

Originally Posted by joedoh

yep.

and if its an s10 or GM Metric box, its the one I listed. counting splines isnt really necessary but better safe than sorry I guess

When you put yours back together I'd like to see a pick of how it goes together at the column if you don't mind.

[joedoh]

Originally Posted by Zippi

When you put yours back together I'd like to see a pick of how it goes together at the column if you don't mind.

sure.

it occurs to me that you have a much longer column sticking out of the firewall, you will probably be ok with the shorter slip shaft borgeson sells, its too short for mine (barely) but I have to cut about 5 " off the longer one. you may need to trim even the shorter one. looks like your column came out of a van or maybe a high cab truck like a topkick, its really long.

[Zippi]

Originally Posted by joedoh

sure.

it occurs to me that you have a much longer column sticking out of the firewall, you will probably be ok with the shorter slip shaft borgeson sells, its too short for mine (barely) but I have to cut about 5 " off the longer one. you may need to trim even the shorter one. looks like your column came out of a van or maybe a high cab truck like a topkick, its really long.

I was told the column came out of a 1884 truck. I looked up those teliscoping shafts and the pic only show the bland end. You did say the other end was splined right? Looking at the pic of the ujoint you posted it looks like the 1"DD to 1" DD is splined in the pic even though I'd does not say it is. I took a measurement on mine and its aboard 20" from where the ujoint at the box would be to the nut at the column. I found the Borgeson 450024 which is 21" to 27" at the same price as the longer one.

[joedoh]

Originally Posted by Zippi

I was told the column came out of a 1884 truck. I looked up those teliscoping shafts and the pic only show the bland end. You did say the other end was splined right? Looking at the pic of the ujoint you posted it looks like the 1"DD to 1" DD is splined in the pic even though I'd does not say it is. I took a measurement on mine and its aboard 20" from where the ujoint at the box would be to the nut at the column. I found the Borgeson 450024 which is 21" to 27" at the same price as the longer one.

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.

[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.

[Driver_WT]

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 great info and the part numbers Joedoh. I am looking at making the same changes for safety and to create a bit more room where the steering shaft goes by the headers (S10 has that big lump in the middle of the steering shaft that is too close to my headers).

Wade