Steering Shaft

[wildcard]

I have a problem with my shaft sticking out too far inside the cab. I'm not sure if the column is original since it had a later model steering wheel on it. The rag joint is sorta pulled back toward the firewall making it wavy. (Hard to tell in the pic.) And the shaft is sticking too far past the steering wheel nut to get the horn button on. The steering wheel came out of a 69 I think. How can I get the shaft farther down toward the steering box?

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[forrestbump]

Difficult to tell for certain without completely dissembling your steering column to verify exactly why.

Some suspects are worn lower and upper bearings that are not seated in their races properly, rusted out front cab mounts causing misalignment of cab on chassis are just a couple that come to mind.

Another thing to verify is the year of the steering shaft as '71's and '72's use a longer shaft than '67 to '70's.

[wildcard]

The truck is a 71 for what it's worth. I can push the steering wheel down to where the rag joint is flat but as soon as I release it, it pushes itself back up.

[wildcard]

I don't know if you can tell but it's about the same amount of push as the gap where the steering wheel meets the column tube.

[forrestbump]

It looks like you're using a '70 and back steering wheel. I bring that up because a '71 and '72 steering shaft is too long for a '70 and back three spoke steering wheel. For a '71 / '72 shaft to accept a three spoke steering wheel, the shaft will have to be shortened. Search Robroy's "Project Updates" as you'll see what he did to install the three spoke steering wheel on a '71/'72 steering shaft.

The steering wheel issue is separate from the gap that you're referring to and I go back to my prior post about possible causes for that.

Not knowing what's been done to your truck doesn't help, so what I would do is disassemble the steering column and examine all components from the rag joint up to the steering wheel.

[fordman]

loosen the two bolts under the dash. grab the column and pull it up to the steering wheel. that will take up the gap between the column and wheel. retigthen the bolts. under the hood is a collar on the column. or there should be. lossen it and pull it up tight to the lower bearing. that will give the shaft no way to slip back down. and cause the gap between the column and wheel.

on top of the shaft that nub sticks out . so it has to be ground off down to the threads so the horn ring can be put back on.

now i know this repair of moving the column up may stretch the rag joint more. and i have some thoughts. but i want to be sure on what you have. is that a 3 speed column and a manul or bendix power steering box? i think you have a old manual steerign 3 speed column and a manual steering box.

it looks like the rag joint is on wrong. the lower butterfly should be botled to the rag joint and lined up withthe hole sin the lower flange on the column shaft. then the column shaft holes should have the bolts and washers in it. here are some pictures i just took.

[fordman]

one more thing. you may want to change the rag joint around before doing the rest of the work to the column. i should have said that in the first place. but i attacked the easy problems first. so that is my fault.

[wildcard]

OK, I see what you guys are saying. I just thought since it stuck out too far on one end and not far enough on the other, maybe it could be loosened somehow and the entire shaft slid downwards. I'll see what I can do this weekend. If the fish aren't biting.