With the help of you dentsiders I think I found all the areas where my steering has slop, and have began fixing them. The biggest concern was the rag joint and universal joint. So today I got a few mins and removed the steering shaft. I found the universal joint had even more play then I thought and the rag joint was ripped through in 1 place and 80% through in 2 others. As I stated in my intial thread I was not paying for a complete new shaft nor did I want to fight trying to find one in a parts yard.

So I headed to Tractor Supply and got a few goodies. I bought 1 3/4" dia yoke and 1 7/8" dia yoke both with single 3/16" keyways. I needed 2 3/4s but they told me they didnt know when more were coming in and they had only 1 on the shelf. So I bought a bushing to make up the difference. So here is what I did and Im pretty happy with it, only cost me a max of I think $50 and an hour or so.

Here is the old shafts and new parts


The size difference is more then I thought it would have been but all clears and all is well.


I used a 5/8-3/4 bushing, split it and opened it up to fit the 3/4 OD of the steering column to get me out to my 7/8" yoke. Also I ground in a keyway and made a cutsom key to fit it being I needed more hieght since I had to extend passed the bushing.




Before I started on the shaft side I measured from the rag joint end to the end of the universal joint and made sure I had enough length to put on the new yokes.


On the shaft side where from the factory the universal joint is solid mounted I just cut the joint off as close as possible and then once again I cut a keyway and fit the key and yoke. I then measured for the new joint and set the length. Im within about 3/16" and have plenty of room for adjustments in the yokes themselves being they are 1" deep. Plus with the new universal joint it has needle bearings and a grease fitting


Here is my final assembly, I hope to get everything remounted tomorrow if not Monday and will update with how it feels.



Hope you guys like it, the only other thing I might do is add a flat head screw to the ends of each shaft with a fender washer to just have more safety built in and to ensure the yokes never move or slide.

 

Got everything mounted up today and worked out great. I ended up tapping a 1/4-20 in the end of the shafts off center and running a bolt down to be safe that nothing slides off. Things went smoothly, and I replaced the rag joint and coupler, still a little play. I pick up all my bushings tomorrow and will work on that this week.

Let me know what you guys think of this, seems like it drives smoother already

Robby

 

Great idea! i need to do this as well. i have a lot of slop in the same joint as you.
thanks for the detailed pics.

 

Great job man. Looks like it's pretty sturdy! Any other issues? What did you do about the rag joint?

 

I purchased a new rag joint and coupler from Advance and installed it all the same time. Worked great!! I may in the long run put a universal joint at that end if I go bigger and beefier on the entire truck. But for now this is more then enough I think. If anyone goes this route, I suggest you cut the key way for a half round key or some form of one, that way even if the set screw backs out the key cant come out. Waiting on all my bushings to come in before I adjust the steering box

 

can this be done with out removing the steering column shaft.

 

If you can get in there and cut a key way on the steering shaft for the new yoke I dont see why not. But for me it was not worth the hassel of try to get in such a tight spot. For me the steering column shaft was not that difficult to remove or reinstall.