I thought I would post some pics of my home built steering shaft made from a 1998 Dakota shaft with a 1991 W250 rag joint on it (stock one).





This mod tightened up the steering to just like new.
Yes, I know the welding looks like hell . .flux core wire . . .

 

Good Idea but that weld it the only thing that will keep you from killing your self or worse others. I try not to ever down any one's work on here but I would get a lot better weld on it befor I drove it.

 

^ x2.

Steering is no place to have sub par welds on a vehicle. As said above, not trying to put you down, but for your safety and others on the road, get it re welded. Grind it down, clean it up and bring it to a good TIG welder. I TIG welded mine and I've got maybe 5k miles with NO problems. Heck, send it to me and I'll TIG it for free .

 

Ilikebicycles,

what is the Alemite for; does it somehow grease the U-joint ??


Thanks.

 

Actually i plan on drilling & pinning that shaft for safety sake . . .
never had a weld break, but i don't want that to be the first either . . .

 

Nope. The spicer part used isn't dodge specific - thus it ended up having some sort of keyway in it. I'm guessing that the zerk fitting is there to lube the keyway... I think the original design was to have some slip available.

The u joint has it's own zerk fitting for grease.

 

It looks like part of a PTO-shaft out of a dump-truck.

 

Where did you get that set up. I tried to do some searching and the only thing that I could find is the top section without the part that goes onto the steering box.

Thanks

 

Built it myself about a year ago. Here's some spicer part numbers from the old thread I posted about it:


Slip yoke: 10-3-13x
End yoke: 10-4-611sx
U joint: 1-0170

 

Is this a perfect fit for the splines on our gear-box ??

I guess a bolt/nut slides in the same channel previously used by the stock roll-pin, then the bolt draws things tight, right ??

Thanks.

 

Perfect fit for the splines. I brought the old rag joint down to the driveline shop and the guy there measured and counted the splines. Bought a grade 8 bolt at the hardware store that slides into the channel where the roll pin used to go and tightened it up. Works great!

 

How does the cost of these components compare with the ready-made aftermarket shafts, such as the Borgeson ??

 

I paid about $70 for all the parts. I think you could also get away with a shorter slip yoke - I remember it being real close when we measured it at the driveline shop, but since I was an hour away from home I decided to spend a bit more and get the long one so I wouldn't have to drive back. IIRC the shorter one was maybe $10 less?

I don't know much about the borgeson shaft, but I thought I read somewhere that it's U joints aren't greasable. With the heavy duty components and greasable U joints on my shaft, it should last as long as the engine. If this stuff was originally for a dump truck PTO, it should hold up to steering a 3/4T truck.