I installed my new GM rag joint....not that hard a job...about 3 hours. I ended up taking all 3 bolts off the gear box to move it far enough to get the old one off and new one on...

New Part




I also moved the master cyclinder out of the way to let my big hands in there better...



Romoving old joint...








Old vs New....my old joint was TRASHED !




New one went back in pretty easy...

Now for my question...
The pinch bolt that goes on the steering column coupler will only go in in one posion - yes ? Thats what found because there is a slot on the shaft so it only goes in one position...unless I'm trippin...!

So I get it in but my steering wheel is off counter-clockwise about 20 degrees...

Could this be 38 years of alignment shops tweeking it around instead of replacing te rag joint ?

Will and alignment shop be able to straighten my steering wheel back out ? I really can't move the coupler to a different spline position because the pinch bolt only goes in one postion...

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The splines determine the orientation of the wheel
The groove in the shaft allows the pinch bolt in a full 360° orientation.

See Jim Shea's paper here

http://jimshea.corvettefaq.com/?p=796

 

Great pictures!
I believe that your power gear has 30 splines (or theoretically there would have been 30 splines in a full circle if you didn't have a flat.) Usually there could have been 2 possible splines that the flex coupling flange could have installed on (and still install the pinch bolt).

360 degrees / 30 splines = 12 degrees.

You might be able to shift the coupling flange by one spline (12 degrees) and get your steering wheel almost to center (and still install the pinch bolt.) Then you could adjust the tie rods a minor amount to center the steering wheel exactly.

Otherwise, you will have to determine if you can shift the steering wheel by one spline or make the entire adjustment with the tie rods.

Jim

 

Thanks for the quick response guys !

I'll take another good hard look at it next weekend...it just seemed to me that the pinch bolts would only slide through in one position...
I indexed the coupler on the steering column one spline and not only would the bolt not go through - I could see the shaft blocking the hole. I moved it back and the bolt went rght in...

Is there enough adjustment in the alignment to correct about 20 degrees of steering wheel offset?

 

Well, my 'logical' response is "Yes...it must absorb that much movement", if you have it installed correctly. As long as the two halves of the 'ragjoint' are installed on the box and column shafts correctly, and the steering box is in the center of its travel with the flat on the splines at 12 o'clock position, all that is left (to absorb that amount of offset) is the tie-rod adjusters. The steering wheel can be shifted in 60 degree increments (6 screw holes in 360 degrees), but that is too large an increment to be of any help. Put the front end on jacks with the steering wheel set to straight-ahead, loosen the lock bolts on the tie-rod adjusters, turn [either] one until that wheel is approximately straight and count the number of turns to the nearest one-eighth turn, then turn the adjuster for the other wheel exactly that same number of turns to set it in the same alignment. Drive it on flat road to see of the steering wheel is perfectly straight [or not]. You can then fine-tune it or take it to an alignment shop to get it set correctly.

P.S. If you take it to an alignment shop, make certain that they put a bit of "toe-in" on the front wheels...about 1/8"...so that they will track true when driving. Perfectly straight front wheels (or some with a bit of toe-out) will wander around on the road.

 

Thanks ! I'll double check everything I did and if I'm correct (I think I am...) the rest is in the tie-rods...
Good tip on the toe-in...thanks