Hey guys, working on the Series 2 XJ6 and I find myself today attempting to remove the lower steering shaft.

I have removed the rack from the car, and have taken the pinch bolt out of the u joint in the cabin.

I removed a hose clamp from the shaft that appears to have been seating a nylon bit that I don't know the purpose of.

I am uncertain of whether I need to remove the black rubber grommet that is allowing the shaft to go through the firewall.

I am also uncertain as to whether the shaft is free right now, but I can tell you that I have beat on it considerably to no success. Maybe someone can give me a smart path forward to proceed.

 

Have you loosened the 2 bolts holding the main column to the dash structure?
There are 2 pinch bolts, you need to remove both from the upper u-joint under the dash. This allows the shaft to slip along the splines, giving enough slack to remove lower column from the car.

I didn't have to beat on mine, it nearly fell out in my hands, but it had spent the previous 20 years out of the weather in someone's garage.
(';')

 

Just a heads up: If you steering rack is already out, and even if it's not, you do not need to remove, or even loosen, any of the screws holding the main steering column to the car/dash. Once the pinch bolt on the lower half of the U-joint at the bottom of the steering column (in the car) is removed, the shaft will slide out. If it is tight, spray some WD40 on the area there and let it sit. Then a yank or 2 by hand from the engine compartment will break it loose

Note- loosening the bolts on the main steering column could cause some shims up top to fall out (between the column and dash) which requires getting further into the dash to retrieve and put back in place. Don't make that mistake

The hose clamp you mention goes over a nylon sleeve that forms a sort of seal for the steering shaft to the firewall. When it comes time to put the lower steering shaft back in, you'll feed it into the firewall through the rubber boot and then have the nylon on the other side to slide in place. Then it goes back into the lower U-joint.

I just did all of this on my XJ6C when going from the long style rack to the short style (required a new lower shaft.....)

I hope that helps....

 

Ah yeah, that is actually what I am up to as well.

I found that an early 2000's Aston Martin has the same short ZF steering rack as the XJS and I sourced a rebuilt one and am in the process of attempting to convert it.
I bought an XJS lower steering shaft from David at EverydayXJ and was getting ready to try and do a fitting to see if the lower steering shaft just mates up properly to the rack.

I sprayed a liberal amount of CRC rust off on the pinch clamp last night before I went to sleep.
You are thinking that at this point it should just fall out into the engine bay?

 

Yup- lean into the engine compartment (or climb in there if there is no motor there) and give a few yanks and it will come out.

Wow, what did a rebuilt ZF rack cost with no core?? $$$$

 

Yeah that is a big no. I am beating on this thing and it isn't budging.

The ZF rack cost $700 with no core, if I remember correctly.
It has been a long time since I originally made the deal with them, but I believe they said that they would accept my original rack in as a core.


Is it possible maybe to remove the rubber grommet at the firewall, whatever the nylon bit is, and then take the pinch clamp off at the other end of the ujoint and remove the lower steering shaft with the ujoint intact through the firewall?
Then i could probably use heat and separate them and clean up the splines to accept the new lower steering shaft.

 

Um, too much beating on the column and you're in danger of shearing off a nylon stud that's the stabilizing part of the collapsing bit in the main column,

If that happens, it's my understanding you need a new column as that bit can't be repaired with anything but a 1/4 inch bolt through the hole, which obviously does away with the "crash worthiness" of the column, but you'll have to completely disassemble the column to get to it.
(';').

 

I honestly didn't figure that there was any telescoping safety feature of this shaft haha.

This is where I am currently at

 

That's interesting. I've been playing with these cars since the early 90's and probably have pulled apart 20 of them at least. I never heard anything about some nylon stud- I'll have to look into that. I've removed the lower shafts a dozen times this way and never had any issue- and reused the columns in almost every case.....

Keep soaking it with WD 40 and it will come out. You can also budge it a bit with a small screwdriver between the top of the shaft and the inside of the J-joint. Don't worry, it will come out...

 

I'll be facing this task for the first time soon. I've been wondering what I'll be up against !

Cheers
DD

 

That is really odd!
It doesn't look so rusty in there that it should be giving you this kind of trouble. I wonder if someone in the past glued it together with thread locker....

My car, 1976 series 2, definitely has collapsible column, I can plainly see the expanded mesh. There is also a dire warning in my copy of the ROM about not breaking the locating stud.
(';')

 

Like XJsc-guy (you can use your name if you're comfortable) I had my rack out and I had to wire my lower shaft to the firewall to keep it from falling on the floor. Mad Hatter, I see a little rust on the knuckle from moisture condensation that might have migrated down into the splines. If it still is not playing nice with the use of penetrating oil, try tapping a cold chisel or something tapered into the expansion slot (90* to the fixing bolt) and spread it apart slightly to release the splines. Now when I say "spread slightly", I mean just that. You probably shouldn't even see any widening of the slot, you're just wanting to break the fit of the shaft in the knuckle. The cause is quite possibly from a PO tightening the fixing bolt way more than necessary and forcing the knuckle to take a tight set around the shaft.

Take the other fixing bolt out of the upper knuckle too, that connection might come apart easier and then you could get the shaft repositioned and rough it up a little more.

Dave

 

I managed to get it out by wedging a screwdriver behind it like you said.

It was stuck on the nylon washer and nothing else i think.

Having equal problems reinstalling. The nylon washer is an absolute ******* and lining up the splines from the engine bay to the interior is near impossible without assistance.

 

Boy Howdy it's fighting you all the way, isn't it!
(';')

 

This is what I have done in the past- don't worry about getting the upper and lower installed together. Get the shaft into the steering column UJ first and leave out the pinch bolt. This allows the shaft to slide into the UJ a bit more than the locked poistion. Now, on the steering rack end you should be able to exercise (compress) the J-joint on the steering shaft just enough to slide over the pinion shaft and then onto the splines.....Then put in your pinch bolts upper and lower....

BTW- are you aware of how to center the ZF rack.? There is a small socket head screw down on the backside of the pinion tower, off to one side. Remove that screw and you can slide a philips screwdriver in until it bottoms. When you move the rack to one side or the other there is a slot inside (on center) that the screwdriver will drop into slightly- that is the center point... You can use that to center your steering wheel....

Good luck

 

I took the u joint between the shafts out of the car and cleaned up the splines and then everything just magically fell into place with ease.

ALSO, I see that they made the splines on the bottom of the upper shaft so that you can recenter your wheel with ease by popping off that u joint and moving it from spline to spline, it would be effortless to do so.

 

Oh Good!!
I'm so glad you have prevailed!
(';')

 

Are you sure? On my car, I think anyway - certainly all those that I can remember, all the splined UJ steering joints have pinch bolts that go into a channel machined across the splines. There may be a spline or two of allowable out-of-lineness but not more. To be safe the splined female part of the UJ must be pushed up far enough on the splined male shaft it fits to so that the pinch bolt goes across the splines across the canalisation in the male shaft. This provides a fail-safe aspect to the assembly in the event of the pinch bolt's nyloc nut loosening in service. The shaft and UJ cannot separate unless the pinch bolt falls out completely.

 

I only got a good look at about 230 degrees of the bottom splines of the upper shaft, but the channel was machined perfectly across those 230 degrees, i presume the other side was likely the same.

I am almost certainly going to have to remove that part and re align the steering wheel before I am all complete here.
If/when I do I will take a picture and eat my words if I am wrong :P

 

Um, I had to remove my steering wheel when I changed racks, as it was off nearly 90 degrees!

To fix it, I had to remove the steering wheel and turn it to the Right 90 degrees, and re-attach it.
This is easy as there is no King Spline. But that also means it's easy to get it one spline off true, just enough to be annoying.
(';')