Steering Gear

So when I pulled the body off the frame one little piece just refused to allow me to actually remove the body from the frame - the steering gear, actually it was a few pieces, but overall it was the steering gear.  I was able to get the steering gear off the shaft, but I really hated the shaft hanging from the firewall, so I went to work and by 'went to work' I mean I broke something. The steering yoke busted. The steering yoke connects the steering column, by way of the steering shaft, to the steering gear. The shaft was completely rust-fused to the steering yoke. A little heat from a torch. A knock here. A knock there and the steering yoke lies dead on the ground.

I wasn't too worried about busting the steering yoke, because it was surely going to be soo long until I needed to worry about how to fix it. The time has come for me to worry about getting the steering to work again. The suspension is done. The brakes are bled. The tires are bought (!) - next blog. It's time to make it steer again.

The yoke was broken clean along a seam - easy. I'll use JB Weld - no luck. A local shop would weld it together perhaps - no luck. On to the salvage yard - jackpot! $15 later and we're set.

The yoke was already dying on the cold, concrete, ground when this photo was taken - there was so little time

U-joint removed - I only wish I knew what I was doing... 

Ah, the u-joint after I got done with it - nothing a 4.5in angle grinder won't solve 

Next up - figure out how in the world to install u-joints. Thankfully NAPA has old part numbers and for once my '84 LandCruiser has parts that are readily available.

U-joints installed - oh what a pain. 

So I install the new yoke to the new, greasable u-joints, but now I can't get the shaft to attach to the u-joint because I already have the shaft attached to the steering gear and because the shaft was designed to be the correct length - I couldn't jimmy the thing on. I had to remove the u-joint from the yoke and reassemble the whole thing. Oh and after reassembling it I realized the steering gear has a cover, damn. No picture of that, but I had to take the thing apart again to get the cover on, damn.