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I'm so frustrated right now. Read Jim Shea's coupling article and I have the AIM installation instructions but I think I still screwed up. First of all, attaching the flange to rag joint and tightening bolts has left my rubber distorted. Is this normal? Second, I installed the rag joint to steering box shaft until it bottomed out. Next, I pushed the steering column into the flange as far as it would go. I can tell by looking at the shaft wear marks that this is where it was before. The problem is that it doesn't look like the steering column shaft is in the flange far enough to really hold it. The green line on my pic is where the shaft stops. I'm doing this by myself so maybe I need a second person to push the steering column in while I line things up at the joint. The column is completely unbolted and I have a box holding the steering up. I'm thinking that something has happened to the steering column shaft in the past. If I'm reading Jim's info correctly for a 77, the steering shaft should be 5 inches long. Mine is 3 3/4. Any one else ever run into this issue?
Last edited by bleverman; Oct 3, 2020 at 01:41 PM.
Yes-i sent mine 70 tilt and tell out to be rebuilt but when I received it back it was to short, they welded it to short so kinda pissed off they took it back and still working on it.yours is to short did you rebuild yours.all I know from the bottom of the seal you should have at least 4 and 1/2 in.get some help.some one inside the car and you under the hood.
If I'm reading Jim's info correctly for a 77, the steering shaft should be 5 inches long. Mine is 3 3/4. Any one else ever run into this issue?
Not sure if your '77 has a collapsible column. If it does, there might be extra length inside the column.
You can separate the rag joint into its two halves and properly mate the back half with the steering column shaft. At that point there will be a gap between the two halves of the rag joint and the bolts might not be long enough. You can temporarily install some longer bolts and pull the two halves together, then swap back to the original bolts.
I had to do this when I installed my Borgeson steering conversion which requires the column be shortened by collapsing it but I went a little too far and had to use the method I just described to pull it back out.
I see you have one of the new solid rubber rags sold today. I will be curious to see how that holds up since the real deal ones are long gone and $$ now. The ones I saw were not as rigid or grounded as the GM/Saginaw ones.
It appears your column is collapsed. It might have happened if you removed the box or old rag. You might not have even known it happened. The rag has to sit flat as in your picture. If the column has collapsed into itself, as it should in a frontal impact, you have to drive it back out. There is/was a injected plastic piece inside that shears without much effort.
I did it on my 72 years ago trying to slide the column flange upward to remove the box. I had no clue I broke the piece until I went to install the box and new GM rag. The rag was distorted into an "S" bend as I call it.
I clamped the flange on tight and used a 5' brass rod I had and drove it back out. You have to be very careful doing this since a hammer slip and fiberglass don't go well together.
You might be able to rig up a come-a- long or other device to pull it out too, the hammer and some hard shots did it for me or play it safe and pull the column out of the car to repair it.
Ugh. I'll have to do some research and figure out how to properly get it where it needs to be. Looks like the column was pulled out by PO when they did an interior color change. So either they did something to the column or I did when I took the rag joint out. I have the column totally out now so hopefully I can get it corrected.
Jim had said that as long as the pinch-bolt is on the flat recess and the rag-joint isn't distorted it shouldn't be any problem. Yours looks to fit that description but I can't tell if the bolt would be on the flat.
M
bleverman, your '77 WILL have a collapsible shaft, and yours is obviously collapsed somewhat. I can see the flat on the upper shaft that must go into the rag joint and align with the clamp bolt. You need to "de-collapse" the inner shaft. One way is to clamp it with a Vise Grip and try to tap the VG with a hammer to slide the shaft forward enough to go into the rag joint far enough so that the clamp bolt will align with the machined flat area. If you can't do that, the the other way is to remove the whole column, measure the overall length, and then pull the inner shaft forward about 1.5 inches or whatever is needed to go completely into the rag joint. While your rag joint is apart, I recommend buying a Borgeson #000941 Replacement Rag Joint Rubber. These have the OEM style fibrous reinforcement that your plain rubber joint does not.
Thank you Aussiejohn. Now I need to find the shaft measurements for a 77. I did send Jim Shea a pm. I have it completely disassembled now and the length in my pic is 31 3/4. Before I disassembled it, the shaft measured 3 3/4 from bottom tube to end of shaft. Obviously shorter than it should be. I did try several things to get it out before I just took the whole darn thing out an took it apart. Now that I'm thinking about it, I really don't need an exact measurement of the shaft. I already know it's an inch off. I'll try and pull it apart and somehow insert something in the holes. Maybe nylon screws? I'll have to research.
Last edited by bleverman; Oct 5, 2020 at 10:43 PM.
Steering Coupler HELP
