collapsed steering shaft
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Instructor
Joined: Jul 2006
Posts: 237
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From: walker louisiana
collapsed steering shaft
i went about this all wrong,after the fact> reinstalling the rag joint i collappsed the lower steering shaft...i dint want to brake something/something else ....so....how do i get it to release/come back out??? thanks
Instructor
Joined: May 2006
Posts: 221
Likes: 1
From: Albuquerque New Mexico
I purchase a T&T steering column that the shaft was collapse. I tried pulling and hanging on it. I didn’t want the pry or hit it. No luck. I finally found a post by BlackRat explaining how to do it that worked for me.
By BlackRat.
Today I finally got my column back in and attached to the sterring box properly. For those of you who have not seen my previous posts I have attached some pics of the problems I was having. As you know some if not all of our C3's have collapsable columns. What happens is when you are in a hard front end collision the bottom shaft will collapse on itself by sheering off the hard plastic injected pins. Once this happens it is a real PITA to get back out. this can also occur by dropping the column on its end.
I have read other methods that people have used including pulling on the end, hitting the end with a hammer (Not recommended) and using a pry bar to pull the column back out to the proper length. Although these methods may have worked for others i had no luck with 2 of the 3 and did not want to try the hammer method.
Here is what I did and it was easy and provided little stress on the column bearings and the column housing.
with the column removed from the car I reinstalled the top coupling of the rag joint to the lower shaft and tightened the pinch bolt as tight as I could get it. I then placed it on a flat surface where I could rest the firewall bracket against a solid surface so that I could put pulling pressure on the lower shaft without the column moving. I then wrapped one end of a come along around the coupling and lower shaft. I attached the top hook to a hard fixed point. I placed a peice of masking tape on the shaft up against the lower shaft bearing so that I could tell how much if at all the shaft pulled out. Lastly I slowly cranked on the come along handle with a smooth constant preassure. The shaft easily pulled out to the proper length within a few seconds and produced very little stress on any of the enternal parts and the housing. After all this I reinstalled the column and hooked the shaft to the steering box with ease.
I highly recommend this method and hope this helps out others with this problem.
By BlackRat.
Today I finally got my column back in and attached to the sterring box properly. For those of you who have not seen my previous posts I have attached some pics of the problems I was having. As you know some if not all of our C3's have collapsable columns. What happens is when you are in a hard front end collision the bottom shaft will collapse on itself by sheering off the hard plastic injected pins. Once this happens it is a real PITA to get back out. this can also occur by dropping the column on its end.
I have read other methods that people have used including pulling on the end, hitting the end with a hammer (Not recommended) and using a pry bar to pull the column back out to the proper length. Although these methods may have worked for others i had no luck with 2 of the 3 and did not want to try the hammer method.
Here is what I did and it was easy and provided little stress on the column bearings and the column housing.
with the column removed from the car I reinstalled the top coupling of the rag joint to the lower shaft and tightened the pinch bolt as tight as I could get it. I then placed it on a flat surface where I could rest the firewall bracket against a solid surface so that I could put pulling pressure on the lower shaft without the column moving. I then wrapped one end of a come along around the coupling and lower shaft. I attached the top hook to a hard fixed point. I placed a peice of masking tape on the shaft up against the lower shaft bearing so that I could tell how much if at all the shaft pulled out. Lastly I slowly cranked on the come along handle with a smooth constant preassure. The shaft easily pulled out to the proper length within a few seconds and produced very little stress on any of the enternal parts and the housing. After all this I reinstalled the column and hooked the shaft to the steering box with ease.
I highly recommend this method and hope this helps out others with this problem.
