Steering column removal

[MAXcuda]

Hey everyone.  I'm going to swap in my newly rebuilt floor shift column tomorrow and I was wondering if anyone has any tips on driving out the roll pin that holds the knuckle on the steering box?  What's the best way to do it?

[Chryco Psycho]

You need 2 people , use a punch to drive out the roll pin , & a tie rod pickle fork to move the knuckle up off the splines , you need 2 people to re-install it one inside to lift the column & 1 to line up the coupler , it has a master spline so it will go back the right way  

[MAXcuda]

thanks for the tip CP, I didnt have any problem with that, but once I got my column all rebuilt and was ready to put the crush can back on I think I screwed up.  I lined up the master spline on the shaft and the can, put the steering kuckle on the floor and then tried to drive the crush can on the splines with a hammer.  Well my can didnt go on but my shaft did get 3 inches shorter.  So I'm guessing that its a two piece shaft and ive ruined the shaft (I have another one) and I should have taken the crush can down on the splines with the nut?  Is that right?

[Chryco Psycho]

Yes you are correct , beating on the column is never a good idea

[MAXcuda]

Got it all fixed and installed today.  Here's a pic of my freshly rebuilt and painted column sitting on my kitchen counter waiting to go in.  No more looking at that column shift stuff just hanging there while I shift with a slapstick.  And I found out that there are two plastic shear pins that hold the two-piece column together.

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[Chryco Psycho]

Good work
 The plastic shear pins will fail if you hammer on the shaft

[383magnum383]

I have a steering column that I assume is damaged, I can pull the bottom half of the steering shaft out of the column. Is there a way to replace the sheer pins, or is that not necessarily the problem?

[Chryco Psycho]

That is most likely the problem , I believe the pins are moulded into place & you would need to re- inject heated plastic into the holes

[383magnum383]

Thanks CP, now for the next question(s). Is that something that is do-able? Is it a problem if the pins are sheered? What are my options?

It doesn't seem like the shaft would go anywhere once installed so I'm not sure what the purpose of the pins is.

Thanks

[MAXcuda]

The shear pins shouldnt feel any force under normal driving because the shaft has flat sides inside the column to bear the torsional force.  I think the plastic pins are a 70's safety device to allow the shaft to collapse in the event of a crash.  If you can re-extend the shaft to the correct length, which is about 42.25" +/- 0.5" for power, I would think its fine to just spot weld it and dont crash     (I measured that length on a shaft in a column, so I had to kinda sight it, so I would double check that length)  CP?

[Chryco Psycho]

I agree