I need to take 2-4 inches off my 49 Chevy style liner steering shaft... Any ideas... ?? I have no experience in this area? Any quick fixes or replacements? No linkage involved... Just the shaft and tube only. Thanks all. Happy Father's Day!
Kinda thought so... Maybe ill save it for later. Thanks. I'm supposing its all easier to do at the steering wheel side of the shaft?
Styliner- Just for future info....In one of my save files, it shows a guy taking a wooden 2x4 & drilling a hole in it the same size as the inner shaft & trimming it down to the match the same shape as double D shafts to mate & inserting it in & grinding the factory shaft to match.
Cut the shaft to length. Grind the ends to be welded half way through. Tack in three places, check for straight. If good weld all the way around trying for penetration but not build up. After cooling grind it flush. Then slide on thick wall tubing about two inches long or a bit more, and weld both ends.
Thanks for the advice guys... Guess I was hoping someone would say "just use one out of a 80s camaro". Lol. Cut and weld it is. I get the grinding to leave space for penetration.... Will do.
Do it once, do it right considering that it connects to your front wheels, safety is paramount. I cut my column off in a drop saw and added a bearing to the end as I required a uni. joint to connect to the steering. On my 35 I shortened the column by cutting in a similar fashion. A pipe cutter would be suitable. Lay the tubing pieces with the piece removed in some L-shaped 2" angle iron, tack weld at 120 degree intervals and it should be straight. Butt weld fully with an oxy or TIG and its done. New tube should be straight if cuts were square. Do similar to solid inner shaft after tapering ends to a point to allow for weld penetration. If necessary place a machined sleeve over join, plug weld in a few places at on ends. I personally wouldn't do inner shaft this way as our laws are different here. It would need to be certified and/or heat treated to engineers standard as we we would be required to most likely machine the shaft. Horses for courses
Could you cheat on the welding a little by cutting shorter and grinding to install a double-D universal on it?
Better yet, cut the shaft to length and re-spline it. Safer, much more sanitary. oh yeah. I cut splines. See my ad in the HAMB O DEX Pat
You don't live that far from me... What do you charge to respline if I drove it up to you?? This sounds pretty good.
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