Baystate Jeepers

Is this amount of steering shaft play acceptable? It chatters every other time when letting the clutch out. Drives okay.

http://vid40.photobucket.com/albums/e21 ... ix3qgg.mp4

The fore and back doesn't bother me nearly as much as side to side I'm seeing down by the steering box!

WoW ! No Its not supposed to be like that. Look at an exploded picture of your steering shaft and coupler (parts) . You can replace the bushings and maybe bearing. It will involve removing the steering wheel and shaft but it will be worth it. FjR68

If you haven't already, pop the overflow tank out and see what's going on where the shaft meets the steering box. I couldn't see it in the video.

I just noticed the sloppiness, although I think I've been hearing it chatter for years I installed a reman Durange steering box right before the spring Rausch trip, and the splined shaft was a real tight fit onto the box and I definitely tightened the nut at the splines. I'll take a closer look tonight, but at the least I think the plastic bearing part on the shaft is toast.

Got it apart and the two shafts that are part of the lower unit are seized together. Don't see any rust so..... how did I do that?! It couldn't flex so it popped the plastic cap ends off. Good news is that the needle bearing still looks good, is relatively tight (a little lose with the shaft on but I assume normal play) and actually still has grease on the inner surface. Might be time for a Borgeson lower shaft upgrade.

If your shaft is the same as mine then there is actually a plastic pin that holds the two sections of the shaft together. Look near the junction of the two shafts, there should be a small white circle that you'll see on each side. This is a plastic pin that connects the shafts. It's designed to hold the shaft rigid but still collapse in the event of a crash. When I changed steering box I had to drill out this pin to allow the shaft to slide since the new gear box was different.

Thanks for the explanation, that makes sense. I noticed the plastic pins but thought that they were supposed to set tension. Didn't realize that the lower shaft is designed to be rigid.

Is my only problem then that the plastic caps popped off the bearing? It seems that there's excessive front to back and side to side play in the lower shaft. The lower u-joint is still tight but there's slop in the shaft that doesn't seem right. I'm going to install a Borgeson heavy duty lower shaft anyway so I can compare the to the stock setup.