Road Runner Nest

Just in case anybody has their steering column out, I need the overall measurement of the shaft. It is power steering. I think mine might have been collapsed, and I need a measurement to check it. Thanks.

dont mean to sound dumb but what do you mean by collapsed?

It doesnt matter if it is collapsed. The nylon pins are broke. You can install it that way. Once it is attached it will not move. Whatever you do dont put anything in the place of the nylon pins that will not shear, if you get in a head on crash you will get impaled by the column.

Then how do I get my correct measurement on the shaft down at the coupler, if it has been collapsed or not where it should be? Something is not right.

did your colunm used to fit or is it a diff one?

Yes ,it's the original one. I don't know what they did to it other than maybe collapse it, but I need a measurement to make sure.

ill check tomorrow.i just rebuilt mine also and changed it from a power to manual shaft. so the power one will be easy to measure

Mount the column with the coupler installed then pull the lower shaft so it fits to the steering box. There is no need to measure. If it is the original column you should not have a problem. The lower shaft will slide to the correct length. I dont have any columns around to measure. If I correctly remember the length of the shaft for power steering is around 41 inches. Maybe someone has a measurement handy.

I just installed mine yesterday, how can u tell if the nylon pins are broken? how do you replace them or where do you buy them?

Those plastic thing are called capsules, you can tell if they are broken just by looking at them. Rick Ehrenburg of Mopar Action sells them at his ebay store. Or are you talking about the plastic pin that keeps the shafts in place until it collapses from a impact? I don't know about that, thats what I'm looking for.

dangina wrote:I just installed mine yesterday, how can u tell if the nylon pins are broken? how do you replace them or where do you buy them?

You can tell if they are broken if the shaft collapses or if you can see the holes where they were. I have repaired and installed a few columns with the pins busted out over the years. If the pins were broke I never replaced them, I just install the column. It's not going to have any adverse effects on anything. There is no way it will cause the column to malfunction. They dont have anything to do with the lower shaft spinning in the sleeve. It cant spin because of the shape of both.

Let me ask a question please. If it doesn't mater, why are we supposed to put the shaft so far down in the coupler to a certain distance?

To place the internal coupler shoes in roughly the middle of available travel within the coupler, not bottomed out or riding against the upper stop pin. Fact is after 40+ years very few of those nylon pins used to locate the two shaft parts at the full length of the steering shaft remain intact today. You can attempt to repair the pins or proceeded with it as is, insuring it is extended as far as it will go. I have found on a few installations, after securing the coupler roll pin, if the column doesn’t fit over the mounting studs, pulling back on the column, wheel attached, the shaft can be pulled back to length. Once extended fully, sliding the column forward a half inch or so to locate the coupler shoes correctly.

With the plastic pins removed, how easy should it be able to slid the inner shaft back and forth? I finished drilling out the plastic and can't hardly slide the shafts.

i had a similar issue and what i did seemed to work out ok is mount the column under the dash in the location it should be adjust the plate at the firewall and bolt it down go out to engine bay take coupler cover loose and slide it up the shaft out of the way put an 18mm open end wrench around the shaft up against the coupler body get a dead blow hammer and knock (mine didnt move with just tapping it took knocking) the coupler down to the steering box put the roll pin in put the coupler cover back on and then this is where your story gets a whole lot better than mine - crank the hemi up