I am working on the steering box for my 65 project. I was going to rebuild it, but I have a freshly rebuilt box that is the later style from 69. From what I have read, the only difference is the shaft. The earlier boxes have a shaft with 360 degree splines. The 69 box has a flat machined into the shaft on one side. My rag joint seems to fit well on the later shaft so I am thinking of using the later box. Is there any reason why I should not do that?

Thanks,

Doc

 

Here is an excerpt from my interchange manual, for what it's worth. It implies that the boxes were different for telescopic/ non telescopic steering. I'm thinking this is wrong.

You mention that the early shaft had no flat on one side? That can't be as the bolt in the rag joint needs to pass by that flat.




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Thanks for the information. My old box does not have a flat on the shaft. The pinch bolt fits into a groove. Other than the shaft flat, everything looks the same on both boxes. I assume that the only issue is with the rag joint, and mine seems to fit just fine.

Thanks,

Doc

 

The interchange book is wrong - there was only one steering gear; the only confusion is that the rag joint is different between regular and telescopic, and the rag joint came to St. Louis as part of the steering gear, so the part number of the steering gear ASSEMBLY for telescopic was different (only because of the rag joint); the steering gear was the same.

As the OP noted, the early gears had a full circular groove for clearance for the rag joint clamp bolt, and later gears had a flat.