Astro van steering shaft

[wraprail]

Just threw this astro steering shaft/u-joints on my 85 c10 to rid myself of the rag joint and tighten things up.
Anybody else use one of these?

[jjzepplin]

Do you know the spline count of the old rag joint? Apparently there are two different ones. If this will fit a 36 spline ,,I'm in. I bought a used box and my old joint did not fit..

[story]

Interesting... I noticed mine was all loose and wobbled all over while I was working on the exhaust recently... Is that a common thing with our trucks?

[DirtyLarry]

Cool idea but, what is wrong with rag joints? I’ve seen many more fangled up mini u-joints like the i-shaft in your picture on G-vans and P-chassis than I have ever seen fangled up rag joints on trucks. And if a rag joint does need replaced it is a quick easy deal. Come to think of it, I don’t remember ever having to change a rag joint on any customer vehicles when I was twisting wrenches through college. It does look cool though.

[CSGAS]

I have had a rag joint come apart on me while parking. Thank God it was while parking! This is why there are Help! rag joints. It usually happens as a result of oil soaking, not wear and tear like belts.

Most rag joint intermediate shafts also do not have a collapsible section, and don't provide as much vibration reduction as the ones integrated into the late shafts.

I do notice that the u-joints on that shaft in the pics seem to be 45° out of phase...was that assembly up by the column welded that way when you found it? It won't vibrate like a high rpm driveshaft would, but it could be creating a "tight-then-loose-then tight..." binding feel every 45° as you turn your wheel.

[bk2life]

kinda hard to tell in this pic, but i used late model camaro

[wraprail]

Originally Posted by CSGAS

I have had a rag joint come apart on me while parking. Thank God it was while parking! This is why there are Help! rag joints. It usually happens as a result of oil soaking, not wear and tear like belts.

Most rag joint intermediate shafts also do not have a collapsible section, and don't provide as much vibration reduction as the ones integrated into the late shafts.

I do notice that the u-joints on that shaft in the pics seem to be 45° out of phase...was that assembly up by the column welded that way when you found it? It won't vibrate like a high rpm driveshaft would, but it could be creating a "tight-then-loose-then tight..." binding feel every 45° as you turn your wheel.

You have a sharp eye... When installed in the astro the shaft is at such crazy angles that the u-joints are slightly out of phase by design. It actually turns around and almost points backwards. Its is only a couple degrees and is not enough to notice.
The weld you speak of is mine. I know it looks bad but is just to hold that outer sleeve in position. Inside that section is 2 DDx3/4 shafts butted up to each other and the sleeve is DDx3/4 ID. I cut up my stock steering shaft for parts. Astro shaft was too short. The steering box end is collapsible and and has the vibration reducer.
It was cheap and i don't care for rag joints. It really does work great and was very easy to put together

As far as splines go, im not sure what year they changed the box splines but they did change. Steering colluim changed also, my 74 C10 had a 1"X48 spline and later is 1" X DD.
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[1981Stepside]

Interesting - I've never heard of the astro van swap. Weather permitting I'm going to do the jeep cherokee steering swap that I found from $quarebody.com this weekend.