moorepower

Well, Pelican says that the manual steering shaft is no longer available. I've seen them on other sites, but they want $200 and up, and that's just insane to me.

Luckily, I've been messing with my power steering shaft (insert your own joke here about messing with my shaft ) and I've managed to stretch it the 7/8" to match the manual shaft. I made a sleeve about 4" long out of 1/2" galvanized pipe bored out to 0.675" ID, cut the shaft in half, put the halves into the sleeve separated by 7/8", drilled holes through the whole thing, tapped the holes, and bolted it up. In hindsight, I should have used black iron pipe and welded the ends for added security. My mig welder doesn't like galvanized metal. Anyway, I don't think it'll be a problem with the bolts threaded all the way through the shaft and sleeve, and a healthy dose of red Loctite always helps .

Something interesting I noticed while putting this together is that the orientation of the two u-jointed ends relative to each other is different between the power and manual shafts. I was able to replicate the proper angle because I had a "used up" manual shaft to go by.

tifosiman

On a manual rack, there is a great deal of stress placed on the intermediate shaft (hence the reason why the u-joints wear out).

No offense intended, but I would NOT roll with the set up that you described above.

moorepower

Tifo, I appreciate your input, but I think that if the ends of the sleeve were welded (and now that you mention it, I think I'll find somebody who knows how to weld to do mine) that the extended area would be almost as strong as the shaft itself, and certainly stronger than even a new u-joint.

tifosiman

Welded good.

Screws and loctite=bad.

moorepower

How about welded and screws and loc-tite.

By the way, I'm using your article from the DIY section for swapping the rack, etc. Very nicely written and much appreciated.

SamGrant951

I just finished my swap after many many weeks of random pitfalls and I tried many places and they were NLA / Sold out. 944online had one left after I called I think...151 shipped to my door IIRC.

moorepower

Thanks for the tip, Sam. I didn't see it on their website, but I just sent them an email. If Pelican found one, it was going to be about $125 shipped, but I would pay $150 max for a new one.

pjburges

You should snoop the junkyards.

If you weld it you should do more than just weld the ends. You should cross drill the sleeve and spot weld those holes to the shaft as well (more welding surface area.) Since you are already using the bolts, what grade/size bolt are you using?

moorepower

I used 1/4-20 grade-8 bolts. They are threaded all the way through the sleeve, the shaft, and the sleeve on the other side. The only way anything is going to move is if a bolt backs all the way out or if it shears in two places. Not very likely even as it is, and nearly impossible once the ends are welded to stabilize everything. Even in the event of an impact or other "trauma", a u-joint will certainly fail long before the shaft.

I should also mention that the sleeve was a press fit onto the shaft ends in the first place, so it's not like it was rattling around on there before the bolts were installed.