shortening steering column Q?

[Senator350]

easy enough. took me about an hour to get the collumn out, grind the weld where the PO joined the intermediate shaft... shortened a little over an inch...

welded them together again. any reason i shouldn't have?

i never saw anyone tell of joining the shafts after shortening to desired length.

[Longhorn Man]

ummmmm, can you show us a photo of what you are cutting and welding? There should be no reason co cut or weld anything for this mod.

[Senator350]

the PO used the column from a different truck, and made it the length he wanted. when he got it to the desired length, he welded right where this arrow points:



so... i ground his weld off, and shortened more, and rewelded in the same spot.

[glock35ipsc]

Um, yeah.... that's not suppose to be welded!!!!!!!! It is suppose to collapse into itself. It's a safety feature designed to keep the steering column shaft from becoming part of your sternum in a front end accident.

If I were you, I would get another intermediate shaft, and collapse it by drilling out the 4 plastic pins then giving it a good whack on the shop floor.

** Edit - Or, at the very least, pull it back out and grind the weld off and clean it up to the point where it WILL slide in and out, then reinstall it.

[Senator350]

i just put a quick 1/4" bead. barely more than a tack.

it'll actually grind off while still installed. i made sure of this before i put it back in truck... easier for me to grind it installed than weld it installed

i KNEW in the back of my mind that the reason nobody talked about fastening the shafts was because it isn't needed.


thank you, kind sirs