Repairing the Car – Steering Joint

Some of you might remember that I mentioned a few posts back that the factory steering pot coupler had its top knocked off and was leaking grease. The top would not go back on so I either had to get a new pot coupler or go for something nicer like a Flaming River u-joint adaper . The adapter arrived as part of a larger order from Summit Racing on Christmas Eve. Then today, the day after Christmas, two of my Uncles (Dave and Dick) came over to my place to help me install this into the car.

We followed the instructions that came with the Flaming River piece and also I used the factory chassis manual that I won off Ebay to figure out how to take the steering column off. After some unbolting the steering column came off pretty easily and we were able to get the old coupler off. Then Dave decided that we should take the steering shaft back to his friend’s shop, where we could use his nice power tools. We needed to cut an inch and a half off the end, and also to do some drilling for the pin.

We then brought the new steering shaft complete with flaming river u-joint back to my house and put the column back together. It all seems to work and the steering wheel spins just fine. The true test will be coming up when I take the car to the track – hopefully on New Year’s Day.