my 1986 f350 crew cab started drifting all over the road.my neighbor checked her out and found the rubber disc towards the bottom of my steering shaft is all loose.i went to napa and a few other places and found that the rubber disc cant be replaced,its pressed together with pins. i went to the dealer and ordered a complete shaft,part number E8TZ-3B676-A. we went to install it and found that the shaft is maybe a couple inches too short. i called the dealer back and they say the correct shaft is discontinued and i would have to change the column to get this shaft to work. does anyone know where i can get a correct shaft either used or new before i crash this thing? its a 1986 ford f350, 2wd ,460,auto, carb engine with tilt wheel ,crew cab and 8 foot bed......thanks???

 

junk yard


(im typing this part so my post is long enuf.)

 

You could unbolt the connectionpart of the shaft under the hood on both ends, and have a good welder make the correct length shaft by joining the good rubber end with the previous shaft.

If you're handy with your own welding skills or know a buddy who is, cut both shafts with matching 45 degree angles at equal lengths on the rubber end of each shaft. grind a 45 degree taper on the outer edge of the cut to give the welding rod some depth to sink into, and re-weld it. I've done this before using a decent arc welder with a 6011 rod on a medium heat setting and have had no problems. The truck I did it to saw a power steering conversion from an earlier model(1969 F100 4x4 converted to 1979 power-steering). The truck saw a fair bit of rugged off-road use afterwards with no issues.

The reason for the 45 degree cut to the shaft is to not give it a direct weld to break, but rather spread the weld across as much distance as possible at an angle. Likely the weld(if done properly) will be as strong if not stronger than the rest of the shaft. I straight cut could lead to some problems, as it provides an nice easy straight slice that could snap under severe load.

 

it is called a rag joint and is replacable it is 80.00 try one of the sponsers or lmc. or even napa or kragen

 

gashog

the disc that napa and all the rest sell are in the help section and its about 2x as large as the disc in my truck. the joint is also not bolted together,it uses these big rivets or pressed pins to hold the joint together.maybe i can have someone grind them out and replace them with nuts and bolts? but then i would have to find the correct size disc which no-one seems to have

 

well what I had to do to fix mine was I got a new used shaft but the joint up by the steering column was messed up so I beat the two haves apart and used my old upper shaft and the newer lower shaft. There are two clips that go onto the upper shaft that then go into the lower shaft. The two parts do come apart easier but should be far enough together when installed that it isn't a problem. Just what I had to do and not sure it will work in your case, hope this made some sense atleast.

FORDS_FORLIFE