My 85 project, and my 88 parts car, both had torn boots on the steering shaft. I had all of my steering linkage out to replace with new components, so I figured this was a good time to pull and clean the steering box and replace the boot on the shaft. Figured I share some of the pics and the general process. A search on TGO and other sites can provide detailed explanations, but really not too hard of a job... Once you have the right tools (key point, more on that below).


Way deep down in there.

The shaft is fairly easy to unbolt from the steering column above and box below. However, I had a tough time compressing it and even more fun trying to wiggle it out of the compartment. The flexible brake lines needed to be bent a wee bit out of the way to provide enough clearance, then the shaft came out. It does need to be compressed. I sprayed with some PB Blaster then worked it back and forth while it was still bolted to the column. My car spent its entire life in Oklahoma, so rust is not an issue. However, I'd think this job would be a real challenge if the shaft was exposed in northern climates.



The cause of all this madness.

Once out, the disassembly begins. The rag joint looked and functioned well, so I left that end alone. To get to the boot, the cover that bolts to the column needs to come off. This entailed prying up four little tabs that were pressed into the original boot. Once those were bent up, the cover slid right off. You can see the tabs I'm referring to in the picture above.

With the cover off, you get to see the greasy innards. The universal joint (or at least what I'm calling it) is composed of two steel cubes, a retaining spring, and a pin. Cubes and spring are easily removed. The pin... not so much.

34 year old grease. Yuck



Getting the pin out of the shaft turned into an ordeal. I tried a C-clamp with socket, then my monster vice. No luck. The only way that pin is coming out is with a press. I found a barely-used 12 ton Harbor Freight press on local craigslist for $70. I had previously owned a 20 ton version but sold it before moving. The 12 ton got the job done, and has a smaller footprint. I'm guessing it will be big enough to handle the auto-related jobs I'll throw at it. If not, can always upgrade and sell this one.

$70 well spent
Once the pin started moving, it was easy to press it out. However, it seemed to take a LOT of force to get it started. Enough so that I was nervous of injury or breaking something. Finally heard a loud bang, which promptly caused my to go inside and change my shorts. Seriously though, be careful if doing this job. Again, my car has no rust on it and that pin seemed frozen in there. With the addition of a little rust? A 12 ton press might not be beefy enough.

 

Lot of work for such a small part

With the pin removed, I could then slide off the large washer, the remains of the old boot, and the boot retaining spring. I also took the opportunity to remove the plastic shroud and give it a good cleaning.

The boot I used is the Omix-Ada 18018.01 Steering Shaft Coupling Boot. Bought it on Amazon for $10. Link is .

Reassembly was pretty straightforward. All the parts were thoroughly cleaned and put back on the shaft in the same order they were removed. I double- and triple-checked the order because I have zero desire to do this again! Once the pin was pressed back on, I slapped a bunch of grease into the housing and over the cubes.


The Omix-Ada boot is a little bit smaller in its outer diameter than the original. When I reassembled, I spread a little bit of black RTV on the washer to help form a seal.

The last step was to press the retaining tabs on the housing back into the boot. That took some head scratching. Evidently earlier GM shafts used separate retaining clip that was just slid in and out. That would have been much easier. I set the entire shaft upright in my vice with my "soft" jaws (two pieces of wood I shaped a couple of years ago for a job with nylon fuel lines). Then some whacking with a hammer and the tabs went back into place. Lastly, the spring clamp over the boot was squeezed back into place.



Wasn't the hardest project, and only cost the $10 for the new boot - if you remove the cost of the press I had to purchase to complete the job. I continue to tell myself that it will really come in handy when I swap over the 88 serpentine belt system and want to move pulleys from one accessory to the next.

Also about the press, I was able to get the pin out because the arbor plates each had a hole punched through each one from the factory. The hole was large enough for the pin to slip through and allowed the shaft to sit evenly on the plate. There is very little shaft extending past the pin and I could not get the plate in alignment enough to allow the press to work. Fortunately for me, I finally took a look at the hole and realized it would work. If you have plates without a hole, might be tough.

Anyway, glad this part of the project is done!

 

Nice write up. I just did this on a second gen column.

I think you could have just removed the lower portion of the shaft so you didn't need to remove the pin

 

I gave that method some serious thought. Got worried that I might damage the inner shaft while pounding it out,and also wasn't certain If there was something that after as a stop to keep the shaft from extending fully. Knew what was needed to press the pin out,so went that way. However,If a press hadn't been available, removing the lower portion of the shaft would be my next choice.

 

The lower shaft is basically just held in by the friction of that mid-boot as shown in your picture, it's not retained with nylon like older GM collapsible shafts. Once you slide it down and out there is the a wave spring in a groove to provide a little resistance.

 

I've read the part in the service manual about separating the upper/lower shafts, I've tried it a few times, never gotten one apart. I'm sure it's possible and has to be easier than I'm trying to make it. LOL

 

Almost exactly a year later, and I had to do some work on the OTHER end of my steering shaft. Figured updating this post was a great way to continue the saga.

Believe it or not, the cause for this repair came down to the fog lamp connector on the passenger side that worked itself loose. About as far away from the steering column as you can get! To get better access to the connector, and because I have my inner wheel wells off on both sides, I was turning the wheels to full left position. And because I was lazy, I was doing it with the engine off, yanking on the wheel. When it got to full lock, I kept trying to turn the wheel - with a good yank, all of a sudden the steering wheel skipped several teeth. Ooops! Knowing I'd caused trouble through my laziness, I disconnected the shaft from the power steering box. Sure enough, the machined teeth on the shaft had been chewed down a bit. Also surprisingly, the bolt that clamped the housing onto the splined shaft of the steering box had worked itself completely out. Yikes! A PO had been kind enough to strip the original bolt and replaced it with a through bolt and nut. I found the nut sitting underneath the car, so at least it hadn't come off while driving. Still, it had to be ready to escape at about any time. Feeling lucky that this happened in my garage, I got to work.

Fortunately, I had an extra steering shaft in the attic from my 88 parts car. Upon inspection, it had a good housing and a proper bolt to hold it to the shaft. Since I was swapping the housing onto the existing intermediate shaft, I figured I would go ahead and replace the rag joint as well. Aside from the bench vise, I used an angle grinder with a cutoff wheel to take care of the rivets, then my air hammer/chisel with a pointed tip to drive the rivets out of the body. Went slow to minimize any chance of damaging either the housing or the shaft.

Replacement housing getting ready to be separated from the shaft.

Used an angle grinder with a cutoff wheel to cut off the ends of the rivets, then an air hammer with a pointed tip to drive out the rivets. This part came off pretty easy.

With the housing off, I next went to attacking the steering shaft that was on the car.

Here is a shot of the steering shaft in place. Note the nut that is attached to the bolt. The threads in this housing were stripped out, similar to what I had done to the splined section.

Went after the other rivets on this one as my plan was to separate the top part away from the rag joint. The heads of these rivets did not come off as easily. I ended up damaging the top plate enough that I went back and was more careful with the top plate on the parts car. Used that one instead.

Dorman #31002. Less than $10 shipped from Amazon

Shaft with the original rag joint and plates removed.

Here is the hardware I used. Limited choices in Grade 8 fasteners at the local Home Depot. The 1" size was perfect, a better size for the longer bolts would be 1 1/4".

All reassembled with the Grade 8 hardware. I had to experiment with the bolts to get the best clearance.

All mounted up. Plenty of clearance still with the longer bolts, so I did not bother to remove the shaft and cut them down.

So, all done and the intermediate shaft has now been completely rebuilt from top to bottom. Was very tight getting a socket down to tighten down the clamping bolt for the housing onto the spline. My 11mm socket came away from the ordeal with a few scuffs. Other than that, good to go!

 

Old thread - I know. How in the hell did you get the upper shaft shaft back onto the shaft from the firewall? I've been struggling with it for an hour now. Its impossible to get a good grip on it, you need moderate force to extend the shaft, and wedging a punch or screwdriver down in there trying to hammer it in is a pain with all of brake lines/engine/other crap in the way.

 

It has been awhile. I had to reread the thread just to remember what I had done. A memory is a terrible thing to waste!

Are you talking about mounting the intermediate shaft back on to the shaft coming from the steering wheel (that is the part protruding from the firewall)? If so, I do not recall having an issue with installation. The hard part was removing it from the steering shaft as the two parts of the intermediate shaft did not slide smoothly back and forth until I had disassembled and cleaned the parts. For installation, I was able to compress and extend the shaft to mount to the column.

 

Yeah that's the part I'm talking about. Compressing it is no problem. Extending it is the issue. I have the intermediate shaft started on the steering wheel, but can't get it to budge past just barely starting. The shaft never extended easily even out of the car, so now with it buried between brake lines, headers, etc, its nearly impossible to get a good grip on it and yank it up. One video I found online from Eric the car guy used an air hammer to put his on....something I don't have.

 

All I can recommend is completely disassembly of the shafts and cleaning / greasing until you get it to move smoothly through the whole range of motion. Sounds like it is stuck somewhere, preventing it from extending fully.

 

I was able to get it on by installing the upper portion first, then fighting the lower portion with the rag joint onto the steering box. The rag joint is much more open so I could actually get a grip on it. Wiggling it a 1/4 inch at a time made it happen.

Thanks for replying!

 

Thanks for the info on getting the part. just finishing mine , had one thing to add. I was concerned about the o.d. and went looking for a washer or? to secure the boot lip. I rooted thru my one drawer of washers etc and found that i had some pinion shins that were almost exactly the correct ID and OD to secure the boot.they were not super thin but i stacked up 4 and it worked great. I only wish i could tell you the source but as a gm tech for a long time i suspect they are from a c10-k10 axle . maybe in the 90s,or a 7.625 10 bolt as these were generally what blew up. if you have the time hit up yours or your mechanic buddys stash . i mangled the lower clam

p but that boot fit so tight i dont think i am going to panic over it