'84 Intermediate Steering Linkage

[geeky_bill]

Hello everyone. I will attempt to explain this as best I can. Unfortunately I don't have a digital camera to take a picture.

I just bought this '84, and there is a problem with the intermediate steering shaft, between the steering wheel and rack & pinion gear. OK, here goes: On the end that attaches to the R & P gear, it goes housing-to-ujoint-to-housing. Pressed inside of this housing (opposite the R & P end of the ujoint) is the shaft that ultimately connects to the steering wheel. This shaft has a spiral-type press-pin that goes through holes on either side of the housing(that connects to the R & P gear ujoint.)

The problem is that the holes in the housing are much larger than the spiral-type press-pin, therefore there is a LOT of play in the steering. These holes in the housing are round and clean, not oversized from wear, they were made that way. Is there some kind of bushing or grommet that is supposed to be in these holes to take up the space between the I.D. of the hole and the O.D. of the spiral pin?

Well, hopefully this makes sense to somebody!:confused :confused

If anybody has an exploded view of this assembly, that would save me a trip to the dealership!

 

[BigRed]

Hmm I think I had this problem! When I (Fixed) my steering column I was aiming for the Key Ignition but when everything was apart it turned out being the linkage TO the ignition was dragging on the brackets holding the column up this was due to 2 bearings that had collasped in the lower steering column which go between the brackets and the column itself ( by the way I had play to but I was a new corvette owner...thought it was normal) anyway I replaced the bearings the Ignition worked and the column was a LOT tighter but not quite tight enough

Then while I was in there I took a look a GM's version of Telescopic steering and Tilt systems I found the Spring to the tilt and the "Moon Key" in the telescopic was A) off its mount and B) Broken in hlaf I reset and replaced and now my columns great!

Aside from the Rack and Pinon system Im replacing due to another issue totally

Hope this helps!!

 

[geeky_bill]

Wow, talk about steering blues! Amazing as it may sound, I think you and I have different problems!

Everything on mine works fine down to where the two sections of the intermediate shaft come together. I have learned that this shaft is in two sections so that it will collapse in a hard frontal impact, avoiding having the steering wheel permantly embedded in the driver's chest. The two sections are a "shaft"(the half that goes up to the steering wheel) and a "housing" (the half that goes down to the R & P gear). The "shaft" half is inserted into the "housing" half with a rubber bushing between them. (Think of the bushing as a rubber tube that is slipped over the "shaft" half before it is inserted into the "housing" half.) Then the "housing" half is crimped to prevent the "shaft" half from turning independently of the "housing" half (not adequately crimped, obviously), sort of like they do with power steering steel-to-rubber lines. Then there is a roll pin pressed in through holes in the "housing" half and the "shaft" half. The idea is that in a hard impact, the roll pin will shear and the bushing will allow the "housing" half to slide over the "shaft" half, therefore not pushing the steering wheel into the driver.

The problem is that the holes in the "housing" half for the roll pin are about 3 times the diameter of the roll pin itself, so when the rubber bushing starts to slip (radially), the steering doesn't "grab" until the roll pin comes into contact with the inside of the hole in the "housing" half.

What I am going to attemp to fix this is to have a brass bushing made to fit over the roll pin, and inside the hole in the "housing" half. It will really be nothing more than a thick brass washer that will fit over the roll pin and take up the space between the roll pin and the larger hole in the "housing" half. The tricky part is that the roll pin is not centered in the larger hole in the "housing" half, so the brass bushing will be a washer with the hole offset from center. Once the brass washer is in place, I will "dimple" it in place just like the u-joints on the intermediate shaft are.

Well, if your not confused now, you need another beer!

Wish me luck!

...Bill

 

[GiDvEtTe84]

Yup. I have the same problem as Bill. I was thinking of tack welding the two parts together. This would eliminate the play in the wheel, but the purpose of the rubber would be eliminated as well. Let us know what you find out.

 

[geeky_bill]

Hiya Gid!

Do you know what happen to the CFI Vault? I can't get the site to come up....:confused

I'm hoping to get 'er up n runnin this weekend. :W:
(if the wife don't beat me for workin on it all day! :bash )

...Bill

 

[GiDvEtTe84]

Hiya Gid!

Do you know what happen to the CFI Vault? I can't get the site to come up....:confused

I'm hoping to get 'er up n runnin this weekend. :W:
(if the wife don't beat me for workin on it all day! :bash )

...Bill

Hey bill,
The vault is down due to Ken's moving. He has to get another ISP, so his server is not accessible. You can still reach the forum through Mike W's server. Go to http://www.enteract.com/~mikew/cgi-bin/Ultimate.cgi Hope this helps. :s

 

[geeky_bill]

Thanks for the link Gid.

Well, I got the steering shaft back. He ended up using aluminum for the bushings (probably just what he had laying around). I haven't driven it yet but it looks like it's gonna work great.

I'm still having some electrical problems, I think I'm gonna have to replace the ECM. When I plug it in, the wire from the fuse labeled "GAUGES" shorts to ground. I'm not sure where to look for one for a decent price.

...Bill