Fluidplay

Has anyone converted a power steering intermediate shaft to manual?
I thought it could be possible by cutting the shaft in halves, siding a pipe sleeve over the ends and welding together.
This would be done in a jig to keep alignment and U-joint clocking as there appears to be a 5-10 degree twist from end to end.
Reason I ask is I have a manual shaft with some play in one U-joint, but have a perfect PS shaft. It's just too short obviously.
What do you think??? Possible?

fortysixandtwo

No reason it will not work. Just make sure your welds are strong.

931guru

Yep, you're betting your life on those welds. I wouldn't want to lose control of steering at 120+

Van

I did this friday... I took pictures... Now, where did I leave that camera?

Fluidplay

Van - would love to see those pics...how did you hold the U-joint clocking from end to end?

931guru - that's definetly the BIG question. I suppose you could side the sleeve over the shaft far enough to drill a small 1/8" hole through the sleeve halfway through the shaft at both ends, install a pin and tack that in.

Van

Here are the pics:

I have a lathe, so making this coupling wasn't too hard. I machined slots down the side so I'd have more "welding surface area". I actually assembled everything, put the tapered pin into centering hole on the rack, made sure my steering wheel was straight, then tack welded the coupler in place. After removing it from the car, I wrapped wet towels around each u-joint to ensure they didn't get over heated from the welding.

gt37vgt

That isn't breakin..
a bit of black pipe and some angle grinder work could get there but if you want to show off OK .
as they look to be at right angles you could pack up any 2 parallel parts of the ini joints and clamp it to the bench .

PorscheDoc

Van, you do good work.

Van

Thanks Doc - my life depends on this one!

MM951

x2. Van is the only other person allowed to lay a wrench on my car

xsboost90

i did one recently for the v8 car. I like your setup Van. We drilled two holes in each end of the pipe and did a plug weld, then welded the ends. Same result though. Just make sure the weld penetrates very well.

fbgh2o

That's impressive, Van. If I lived closer to you I would probably still have the 951... Some to help me fix all the stuff that I was too chicken to do

Fluidplay

That is very nice Van, I like the idea of the slots increasing weld contact. Unfortunately I don't have the turbo off to tack it in the correct position. I'll need to fab a jig to hold at the correct length and position to weld up.

Thanks for posting the pics.

Van

You'll see in the pictures that I painted a white line along the length of the shaft before I cut it - that was my plan "B".

Fergus, if you lived closer, I might have gotten you into a 996 sooner!!

xschop

Hey Van was that 1018 or Chromoly? I'm modding a PS shaft for a V8 swapper for 3/4" X-member drop. How is it holding up? Thanks, Rob