Early steering column parts diagram or shaft separation advice?

[VicCrownVic]

I have an an early steering column for Tom, from (I think) an '81 LTC, that I've been able to disassemble down to the steering wheel mount and steering shaft.
I'm thinking that I will not be able to separate the shaft from the steering wheel mount due to lack of proper tools, but does anyone have a diagram that might show this thing disassembled further?




For anyone curious about the process up to this point:

There is a pivot pin on each side of the mount that pulls out.


My puller was completely improvised with little thought. I used a 2 inch 8-32 screw and nut and was able to get an 11/32 socket on the nut and, with the help of a couple sockets for spacers (all I had on hand without having to go outside), it made for an easy pull. I also used some electrical tape to try to prevent marking the part but that didn't work as well as I had hoped.


I've since re-assembled everything. The pivot pins screw onto the end of the screw I used to pull them, then I lightly tapped them back in. They go in relatively easy if the splines are lined up right. If the splines are not lined up right, pull it back, adjust the orientation, and try again.

[kishy]

Hey, that looks familiar

'81 Mark VI

[VicCrownVic]

Hey, that looks familiar

'81 Mark VI

Yes, that one. At least I got the year and make right, just off on the model.

[VicCrownVic]

Based on pictures of newer the newer steering shaft (first thing I found online), I think I would have to remove the upper shaft and bearings from this part:


Then I can remove the wrist pin connecting the upper and lower portion of the shaft:




I think that's the answer.
If I can get just the upper splined portion of that shaft off I could fit that in a small flat rate USPS box and save Tom a bit on shipping.

[gadget73]

It has to have bearings in there, and since it looks like the shaft side of it is fatter, it would come out towards the steering gear. Someone put it together, it will definitely come apart somehow. Possibly a retaining ring up on the steering wheel side of the bearing?

If that pivot housing isn't the same as the later ones, he'll need that in order to put things back together. WOuldn't remotely surprise me if the only thing that isn't the same is that short upper shaft though.

[VicCrownVic]

Luckily I'm at my parents' place where I have my '89 MGM which is not going anywhere anytime soon so I'll have a chance to compare and test fit (hopefully tomorrow) so I can confirm the differences if there are any.

I'll dig around tonight and see what tools dad has for separating the parts.

[VicCrownVic]

Success!
Gadget was right, there is a retaining clip. When I looked before (obviously not very closely) I didn't notice that clip and thought it was just part of the spring that sits on top of it. The spring, which would be under the steering wheel, simply pulls off. The clip resides in a groove in the shaft, and once it is removed the housing along with the bearing slides off pretty easy. I did use a puller but I turned the puller bolt without any tools so I'm not sure that the puller was actually needed.
Once the housing was off the two shafts can be oriented 90 degrees from each other exposing the bolt that holds the u-join assembly together. I used a hex key/allen wrench to loosen that bolt. The two halves of the u-joint assembly clamp around what appear to be ball bearings pressed into each shaft end.

Tomorrow I'll see what it takes to swap the parts with my '89, which hopefully will be just the upper shaft that the steering wheel mounts to.

[His Royal Ghostliness]

Why is it that Panther (passenger car) steering column parts look beefier than those in a F-series column where it's common for the drive to use the steering wheel as a grab handle? That bearing for example is quite a bit more massive than the puny yet seriously overpriced junk the trucks got... I've for a while now had the idea of swapping in a Panther column into a F-series to get rid of a bunch of stupid design "solutions" at once, looking at this now makes me actually consider looking for one one those early Panther columns (steering wheel is splined on the F-bitch too, probably the same splines as this column even).

[VicCrownVic]

I was able to compare parts to my '89 MGM today.

The first difference I noticed is that the newer housing for the upper shaft and bearings has longer pivot pins. Other than that, they are the same and can be interchanged, you just can't use the longer pins on the old housing but could use the short pins on the new housing.


The second difference that I noticed is that the u-joint between the two shaft potions was changed quite a bit. There is no way to mount the older upper shaft to the newer lower shaft (maybe with some machine work on the inside of the older upper). So in order to do this swap the only parts needed are both the long lower shaft and the short upper shaft that the steering wheel mounts to along with the u-joint assembly to join the two shaft portions. The shaft from the '81 is the one with the white plastic, the '89 is the one with the black plastic.

[gadget73]

Happen to have a pic showing the differences with the U joint area? Just curious what changed there. I can't really see it with the shafts assembled.

Kind of surprised they did anything there honestly. I would have figured just making a new upper stub piece to use the flatted wheel vs the splined wheel would be the difference.

[VicCrownVic]

That's what I was hoping for since it would have been much easier to ship just that upper stub piece.

Here's another view of the disassembled early joint. Just two little plates with divots on each of the four sides and a bolt through the center to clamp them together onto the pressed in ball bearings in the ends of each shaft portion.


I wasn't able to get the the newer one apart but it basically has a plastic cup that sits on top of the lower shaft which is held to the lower shaft with a wrist pin. There is enough room inside the cup for it to rock on the top of that shaft. Then the upper stub shaft is held to the plastic cup by another wrist pin perpendicular to the lower pin.







A view of the bottoms of both of the upper stub pieces.

[His Royal Ghostliness]

I bet someone realized that having the whole steering depend on one single bolt (the one clamping the two plate halves of the early design together) with no backup/failsafe was a bad idea.

[gadget73]

Ah, so it uses that hunk of plastic instead of the block with the dimples as the center bit of the joint. I see.

With both parts you could have a new one made that has the early wheel interface and the later joint design. You'd have all the measurements needed. A mill and a lathe would get it done.


Even if that bolt fell out, the steering would still work. The two ears of the lower shaft would catch in the channel from the upper. It would be very loose but you'd have something. The bigger risk is where the block and bolt would go. Chances are more than fair they'd land right where it would jam it all up.

[His Royal Ghostliness]

Right, but if that falls apart at higher speed then you're in for a rollover pretty much. Of course it won't just split on its own all of sudden, there will be plenty of forewarning if it's getting loose, but you know how some people are, completely oblivious to stuff that could very well hurt them badly.

With the plastic ball each shaft self-centers in it, even if the pins are not there at all the steering will still be pretty darn tight cause of how the thing is sandwiched between the two shafts.

If I ever get around to doing this column swap, I'd say it's pretty darn likely I'll try to jam a jam-nut in there - looks like the bolt is certainly long enough to accommodate a shallow one on the other side of the plate half it threads into. Actually on 2nd thought it appears there's no space for a jam nut in there - some fierce thread-locker ought to do the trick then (but quite that green shit that supposedly requires machining to remove).

[Grand Marquis GT]

Vic really hooked it up, here.

In case anyone is wondering, this is the missing link to install my factory Ford Sport steering wheel into my GMGT.