Fitting steering shaft and UJ's...advice needed

[flyingdutchie]

I am fitting the steering shaft back in with the UJ's. Is there something you can do wrong in fitting these UJ's". The shaft is slotted on both sides, and this means you can only fit the UJ's in one way I presume? Otherwise you cannot put the bolts through.... I have jacked the car up at the drivers side so I cannot turn the steering wheel freely, but when I do, i do feel a heavy point in the steering. Advice needed.....

[notaping]

The slots in the shaft allow for a bit of movement so even though the bolt goes in - the shaft can protrude too far into the joint. In this case it binds against the knuckle of the joint when you turn the wheel. Check the top joint especially since it has quite a sharp turn. Check the end of the shaft is flush with the inside face of the joint.

[flyingdutchie]

Thanks!

[DuncanM]

I did this recently, my advice would be to not have too much of the link shaft in the UJ, because they can contact the inner joint when turning.

Same with the steering column.

[pmessling]

You may need to create clearance on the UJs. Due to the angle that they are used they can touch themselves.

It's mainly the corners, so just file then off.

[ukkid35]

On my rack the pinion pinch bolt indent is too long

Although this allows the UJ to slide up and down a lot, it also means that the UJ doesn't tighten on the round section, but rather on the indent section

In order to minimise play the pinch bolt has to be over tightened, permanently deforming the the UJ, so that it's almost impossible to remove from the pinion

Pic is from a Lotus, but illustrates the long indent for the pinch bolt