DickWells
10-15-2009, 16:44
The last week before we left home for Texas, I dug out the aftermarket upper intermediate steering shaft that I had taken out when we got home in June, because it was more lose at 8 K miles than the original had been at 96 K! Now, the replacement was all steel and is made of a solid steel inner rod with flats ground on two opposing sides and a groove down one side with a stop pin pressed into it to prevent the inner and outer pieces from being separated when out of the vehicle. The flat side has a machined area about 3/16 deep with cast in steel shoes about 1/2" long that are supposed to ride the matching flat of the outter shaft to keep things tight. Yeah, right! There's not nearly enough spring/tension in the plastic to keep it tight. So. I rummaged around and found a bunch of old scrap ball bearings (about .150 dia.) and some short, stiff springs to match. Cut the springs to about .300 long and drilled 8 staggered holes in the full flat side about.280 deep, and pushed a spring and ball into each as I re-assembled the shaft. Also, I drilled a hole of the same diameter under each of those two shoes on the other side and pushed a shorter stiff spring under each of those steel shoes as I pushed the inner shaft back into the outer. Greased everything, of course, and put it back into the truck. Somewhat harder to extend and compress, but smooth.
I may be nuts, but just going by the feel of the wheel in my hands, I don't think the thing felt nearly as solid when I put it in new in March?
I chased down another annoyance while I was under the front end. I had a little rattle when driving over fairly high freqency bumps at low speed. Couldn't find anything loose or worn, anywhere. Finally got a pry bar over the lower "A" arms and sway bar, against the swing arms. Aha! There's like almost an eighth inch of play in the inner end where it goes into the differential. Never bothers on even dirt roads, unless you hit some really sharp ripples or chunks at low speed. I then remembered that I had replaced a seal and bearing in my S10 Blazer for the same condition, and found that the new bearing had the same amount of play as the old one. No, the seal hadn't leaked. Seems the big truck is made the same.
That's my long-winded story. The truck's handling very well, and I'm still loving it.
Anyone else done something simmilar to their U I steering shaft?
Take care.
Dick Wells:)
I may be nuts, but just going by the feel of the wheel in my hands, I don't think the thing felt nearly as solid when I put it in new in March?
I chased down another annoyance while I was under the front end. I had a little rattle when driving over fairly high freqency bumps at low speed. Couldn't find anything loose or worn, anywhere. Finally got a pry bar over the lower "A" arms and sway bar, against the swing arms. Aha! There's like almost an eighth inch of play in the inner end where it goes into the differential. Never bothers on even dirt roads, unless you hit some really sharp ripples or chunks at low speed. I then remembered that I had replaced a seal and bearing in my S10 Blazer for the same condition, and found that the new bearing had the same amount of play as the old one. No, the seal hadn't leaked. Seems the big truck is made the same.
That's my long-winded story. The truck's handling very well, and I'm still loving it.
Anyone else done something simmilar to their U I steering shaft?
Take care.
Dick Wells:)