72HCODE
"My World is Fire and Blood"
so a compromise i made 3 years ago came back to bite me in the butt last night.
Basically i needed to move my car to get something with the engine off so i rolled it out of the garage and steered it and POP my rag joint in the steering system 'gave up the ghost'.
3 years ago i should of changed it as a preventable problem but the original looked good and i was in a rush. Thankfully the rag joint failed at home in the driveway.
Basically Add a rag joint inspection to your maintenance cycle it is after all just a thick piece of rubber keeping your steering in control of your wheels. The rubber is also located under the Master cylinder and dot 3 brake fluid does eat the rubber and re-enforcement layers over time. couple that with high heat and constant stretching left and right, and it should be considered a wear item like tires.
the joint needs to remain intact with out power steering assist. what if you loose power steering while driving that joint must be able to take full steering load to limp you home.
I don't know the 'correct' way to replace a rag joint, funny enough rag joints are not covered in most manuals and are barely mentioned at all in most books.
originally the rubber disc came riveted from the factory, most of the rag joint replacement kits come with 'most' of the hardware you need to retrofit the rag joint, but you will have to remove it from the car the completely to get it on the bench and get the original rivets out. Thankfully mine was replaced in the past so i didn't have to deal with drilling out the rivets.
so this is how i replace a rag joint.
1) remove the driver's side shock tower monte carlo brace from cowl to the shock tower. this will give you better access from the top if you need it to get to some bolts on the rag joint.
2) go into the car, and remove the lower Steering wheel cover.
3) Lift the carpet back and remove the 3 large bolts in the floor board that hold the lower part of the steering wheel column in place, this is a good time to think about replacing your steering wheel Firewall Seal with a new one if yours is falling apart.
4) loosen the 4 main nuts that hold the steering column, around the lower dash panel and around the fuse box. take out 3 of the nuts, leave 1 in loose.
5) jack up the car, get underneath the steering box.
now if you have an original rag joint you need to take the unit out completely, loosing the bolt that holds the rag joint to the splines on the steering box, you then remove the 2 nuts that hold the upper part to the steering column, go back inside the car loosen the 1 nut holding the column then pull the column back from the rag joint, then you may need a puller to get it off the steering box splines.
since mine was already drilled out, i loosened the steering column side nuts, loosened the steering box nuts and got the original rubber disc out by sliding the steering column back after taking the one nut out. i laid the column on the front seat, you don't have to pull it completely out.
now depending on the condition of the hardware you need to examine the new rag joint and the hardware that comes with it.
if you can save the bolts that go into the steering column side its nice for originality they have Xs on the tops if not the kit comes with regular hex head bolts to replace them.
the rest of the hardware is regular pins and you can replace them from the kit they match the original stuff pretty well. the kit comes with some pins for different years so match what came out of your car to whats in the kit.
4 important Parts that you must reuse are not included in the kit, these are special shaped washers that lock into the edge of the rubber rag joint disc. and the hardware goes through these washers to have solid support.
with all the exposure to brake fluid and water and dirt these 4 washers can be pretty messed up, with hardware locked into them with rust. i recommend either sand blasting them and freeing all the parts,
or i decided to chemically remove all the rust using a Rust remover evapo-rust i've done this to hardware before because it preserves the surface much better sand blasting turns all metal into the surface of the moon, with the evapo-rust only the rust is taken away the rest of the metal is left alone giving a more natural surface.
at this point i had to stop for the night, because i left the hardware soaking in evapo-rust overnight, this morning i went to go check and awesomely all the rust was gone and the parts are ready for some sealer paint. plus all the fused together hardware came right part with no effort.
i will post pics and walk you through putting the steering back together tonight.
all told it took me about an hour to get the rubber part of the joint out.
check your joints make sure they aren't about to die on you.
(Part 1)
Basically i needed to move my car to get something with the engine off so i rolled it out of the garage and steered it and POP my rag joint in the steering system 'gave up the ghost'.
3 years ago i should of changed it as a preventable problem but the original looked good and i was in a rush. Thankfully the rag joint failed at home in the driveway.
Basically Add a rag joint inspection to your maintenance cycle it is after all just a thick piece of rubber keeping your steering in control of your wheels. The rubber is also located under the Master cylinder and dot 3 brake fluid does eat the rubber and re-enforcement layers over time. couple that with high heat and constant stretching left and right, and it should be considered a wear item like tires.
the joint needs to remain intact with out power steering assist. what if you loose power steering while driving that joint must be able to take full steering load to limp you home.
I don't know the 'correct' way to replace a rag joint, funny enough rag joints are not covered in most manuals and are barely mentioned at all in most books.
originally the rubber disc came riveted from the factory, most of the rag joint replacement kits come with 'most' of the hardware you need to retrofit the rag joint, but you will have to remove it from the car the completely to get it on the bench and get the original rivets out. Thankfully mine was replaced in the past so i didn't have to deal with drilling out the rivets.
so this is how i replace a rag joint.
1) remove the driver's side shock tower monte carlo brace from cowl to the shock tower. this will give you better access from the top if you need it to get to some bolts on the rag joint.
2) go into the car, and remove the lower Steering wheel cover.
3) Lift the carpet back and remove the 3 large bolts in the floor board that hold the lower part of the steering wheel column in place, this is a good time to think about replacing your steering wheel Firewall Seal with a new one if yours is falling apart.
4) loosen the 4 main nuts that hold the steering column, around the lower dash panel and around the fuse box. take out 3 of the nuts, leave 1 in loose.
5) jack up the car, get underneath the steering box.
now if you have an original rag joint you need to take the unit out completely, loosing the bolt that holds the rag joint to the splines on the steering box, you then remove the 2 nuts that hold the upper part to the steering column, go back inside the car loosen the 1 nut holding the column then pull the column back from the rag joint, then you may need a puller to get it off the steering box splines.
since mine was already drilled out, i loosened the steering column side nuts, loosened the steering box nuts and got the original rubber disc out by sliding the steering column back after taking the one nut out. i laid the column on the front seat, you don't have to pull it completely out.
now depending on the condition of the hardware you need to examine the new rag joint and the hardware that comes with it.
if you can save the bolts that go into the steering column side its nice for originality they have Xs on the tops if not the kit comes with regular hex head bolts to replace them.
the rest of the hardware is regular pins and you can replace them from the kit they match the original stuff pretty well. the kit comes with some pins for different years so match what came out of your car to whats in the kit.
4 important Parts that you must reuse are not included in the kit, these are special shaped washers that lock into the edge of the rubber rag joint disc. and the hardware goes through these washers to have solid support.
with all the exposure to brake fluid and water and dirt these 4 washers can be pretty messed up, with hardware locked into them with rust. i recommend either sand blasting them and freeing all the parts,
or i decided to chemically remove all the rust using a Rust remover evapo-rust i've done this to hardware before because it preserves the surface much better sand blasting turns all metal into the surface of the moon, with the evapo-rust only the rust is taken away the rest of the metal is left alone giving a more natural surface.
at this point i had to stop for the night, because i left the hardware soaking in evapo-rust overnight, this morning i went to go check and awesomely all the rust was gone and the parts are ready for some sealer paint. plus all the fused together hardware came right part with no effort.
i will post pics and walk you through putting the steering back together tonight.
all told it took me about an hour to get the rubber part of the joint out.
check your joints make sure they aren't about to die on you.
(Part 1)