Hot Rods A word about rag joints---

A friend of mine in another Ontario city recently finished a build on a model A Tudor sedan. He had used a lot of the information from my chassis building thread on the HAMB,
http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=150434 and we had a few telephone conversations over the couple of years his car was going together. He finished the car this spring, and called me to drive down and "Have a look at it." I drove down to Sonya, Ontario and had a look. The car has potential to be a great rod. I'm not a fan of the "Rat-rod" look, but rusty bodies can eventually be straightened and painted. Its the chassis that makes the car. If your chassis is crap, then no amount of shiny paint and bondo is going to make it a nice car. Everything looked really good---EXCEPT--The steering shaft, between the firewall and the Vega style steering box had two Borgeson type universals in it, and one rag joint. The shafts on either side of the rag joint were misaligned by about 15 to 20 degrees, and there was no support bearing on the intermediate section of shaft. PAY HEED--Rag joints were never intended to be used as a universal joint between two misaligned shafts. They were factory installed as a vibration isolation device, and they were never intended for more than 2 or 3 degrees of shaft misalignment. They can and will fail. I know---I was in a 61 Pontiac convertible one time when the car suddenly took off with a mind of its own, and drove through a corn field. The stock rag joint had ripped in half---Luckily, said car was only travelling at about 20 MPH at the time, and no-one was killed. I have seen steering rag joints used on a number of hotrods over my 64 years. This does not make it right, and it does not make it safe. And even if you're not killed, where do you think the liability will fall when your car swerves and takes out a pedestrian or another driver. The insurance companies and the lawyers will follow the financial liability upstream untill they find out who built that steering system, and then your ass will be grass!!! Be safe guys. Use proper universal joints in your steering shafts, and always use a support bearing on the intermediate shaft if you use more than two universal joints in a system. I'm not the Ralph Nader of hotrod world, but Damn, I don't want you dead either!!!----Brian

 

well said...

 

If I may add...most rag joints have hardware employed to maintain a degree of safety in case of failure. Most GM cars have some steel stampings that capture parts of the fasteners and keep your steering intact but sloppy should the rag portion fail. If you don't have them and must use a rag joint it's smart to go to scrapyard and pirate the pieces. I did a quick search and couldn't find a pic but I believe many of you know the parts I'm speaking of. Good post Brianangus

 

Here's a picture of a Borgeson ''Rag Joint''. All of the rag joints I have seen will still function(loosely), metal-to-metal with a little slop, even if the rag were to be completely removed.

 

Well said and most timely.

 

"Do it Once and Do It Right " these words are prominenty displayed on a bumper sticker sent to me years ago from Kanter Auto Supply in Boonton New Jersey. I swear by these guys when ever I need suspension / steering pieces too ! scrubba

 

Good post. I understand their intent...but I've always looked at rag joints with a little suspicion.... a somewhat weak component in such a critical system. I wouldn't use one myself.

 

This is true in OEM application where the columm shaft and steering box are mounted tightly. However if you stick one of these between two Universal Joints all bets are off. The factory style safety tabs have nothing to hold them together..

 

I must've missed that in the OP. A rag joint should never be anywhere but on the box. Anything else isn't unsafe, it's fuckin stupid.

 

10-4 on all that! Here's an idea that may help too.

El Camino (5th gen) guys switch out their rag joints for the intermediate shaft from 86-92 Jeep Cherokees. They use universal joints and sliding shaft setup to replace the rag joint, which means NO PLAY/SLACK!! May or may not match up to your shafts, but worth looking into. Tons of them in the salvage yards still.