easiest way to change a rag joint

[kreb]

i believe the excess play in my steering is a worn rag joint. everything is good with the steering and the is no wander or drift. the wheel is just loose and turns a lot. the gear box is fine and has been adjusted.

what is the easiest way to do the rag joint? it looks as though it is riveted on. i don't have a welder to weld the rivets on of they would be removed. there are bolts that came with the kit? but i read that it is not the best way to do it. what are your thoughts?

benjamin

[Nobby]

I used a kit from Borgson.

http://www.borgeson.com/home2.htm

Its fairly simple and works fine with the following considerations.

The riveted on bolts hold the rag joint to the flange on the steering box side, the supplied replacement bolts work fine. These are designed to stick out the other side and locate in the slots on the column side. This is so that you can still steer if the rag joint fails. So just grind the old ones off by grinding the rivet head off and bolt on the new. Do not grind the other side as you may damage the flat surface of the flange with the grinder. It doesnt matter as much on the outside where the new nut goes if you scratch it a little by mistake. Now the supplied ones are shorter than factory but they do however still stick out far enough in the slots. The same applies to the HELP rack kits.

Now the two bolts supplied for the rag joint to the column flange are bogus. The holes are two different sizes on the flange to ensure correct postion of the wheel (one 5/16" one 3/8" i think). Anyway the bolts supplied are two same size standard bolts. Both of the smaller. This does not matter tho as you can reuse the ones that came off. Same again applies to HELP rack examples.
Did mine and seems fine.

One extra note it pays to ensure that the box to the column alignment is fairly close, you can shim out the box if necessary, and the holes in the chassis allow for some up down adjustment. I say this because I have heard of cases of rag joints failing in 6 months because of misalignment.

hope this helps.

Oh yeah just to point out. I just did my rag joint and fitted a new steering box, most of the slop went. however I do have a little comeing from the upper U-joint. So it did'nt get as tight as I had hoped, I was half expecting this tho. My next purchase may well be the heavy duty column shaft from BJ's which will also get rid off the ragjoint.

[ November 19, 2003, 05:19 PM: Message edited by: Nobby ]

[andy d]

when did they go to rivetting in the rag joint? my last steering box was on my 83 and that used bolts. is this a cryco thing?

[talntar]

Originally posted by andy d:
when did they go to rivetting in the rag joint? my last steering box was on my 83 and that used bolts. is this a cryco thing?someone else already did it.my 85 had to be ground to replace with the one from the help rack