upper steering shaft...

[TommyK215]

is the upper steering shaft supposed to be this difficult to "tap" into the lower ? I'm having to smack the crap outta it....
ALSO... anyone having to cut about a 1/2" off the lower steering shaft so as not to have it interfere with the two pivot knuckles?

as always...this newbie thanks you!

Tom

[egchewy79]

Polish the inner rod with some emery cloth or sandpaper. Should slide in fairly easily.

[F500guy]

Check the ends of both, make sure there are no burrs or distortions then take a file/emery cloth to inside both ends of them. Should slide with a snug but not BFH tight. I don't remember needing to trim, the large shaft (1" DD) should not have an upper limit, should be able to pull it up towards the dash with lots of clearance. Maybe a picture would help with what clearance problem.

[cv2065]

Don't beat on the shaft. It will get stuck and you won't be able to get it out. Ask me how I know. :) It's designed to collapse in an accident, so if is that hard to insert, then its disabling that function. As others have said, run your hand across it and you'll most likely find some burred areas. Emory cloth will do the trick.

I'm not sure what you mean by interfering with the universal joints, but you shouldn't have to cut anything off the shaft. If it's too tight, try putting the flanged bearing on the inside of the footbox.

[FLPBFoot]

As egchewy said. It took me well over an hour for using emory cloth on the inner shaft. I also used it with a square dowel on the outer shaft inside. Also, a bit of light machine oil is your friend! My first build went together pretty easily but on this new build, the parts were MUCH tighter. I have it now so they slide together easily now.

[Jeff Kleiner]

X3 or whatever. The male shaft always needs to be polished up to move freely. Also during manufacturing the double D female is cut to length using a chop saw so the end is not clean and needs to be dressed with a file to create bit of a chamfer to the inside. I always assemble them with a light coating of white grease.

Jeff

[dbo_texas]

yep - sand/polish the solid piece ends and a little grease to help them slide. I had a little bit of rust built up on mine and once I knocked that down and put a light coat of machine oil on it they went together just fine, no hammers required.

I didn't have to trim mine but did have to adjust how far into the knuckle it was positioned. Just took a little massaging but eventually everything fit.

[SuperFlyBriBri]

is the upper steering shaft supposed to be this difficult to "tap" into the lower ? I'm having to smack the crap outta it....
ALSO... anyone having to cut about a 1/2" off the lower steering shaft so as not to have it interfere with the two pivot knuckles?

as always...this newbie thanks you!

Tom

Hey. I did not have that issue with the upper steering shaft but I did have the issue with the pivot knuckles.

From what I was told, in my case that had to do with Power Steering Rack.

As mentioned in another post, I had to move the Flange Bearing to the inside of the footbox which is opposite of what is shown in the manual.

By doing that, I did not have to cut any of the steering shafts.

[Mat1asBEV&ICE]

FYI, the two parts described slid together easily for me. Left it alone for a couple of months. Went to take it apart and... nope. The surface rust (no direct water, just humidity in air) that had formed made them stick together. I had to use a dead blow hammer and strike it several times to pull it out. I did just a little more touching up before putting them together and as Jeff said I then added a small amount of lithium grease.

[bil1024]

For me they gave me the wrong upper shaft, make sure they match the pic in the manual. FFR had to send me the correct shaft.