two part question
I’m running the borgeson power steering box and would like to get rid of the rag joint.
Have any of you replaced your rag joint with a borgeson or flaming river u joint?
2nd part, no one seems to have a ujoint that will fit the end of a tilt column. Can i buy an aftermarket lower shaft to replace the tilt one so it will end with a size that fits one of the available u joints?
Borgeson sells a rag joint that goes with their 68 and up Ford kit.
I believe it is designed for a regular column. So it won’t fit the tilt column
The rag joint isolates engine vibration from the steering wheel. You want one of those.
I should have a used original rag joint for a tilt column here.
Randy Goodling
CCOA #95
The rag joints are different and won’t work with the Borgeson box.
I used the Borgeson lower half and factory upper half from my tilt column to make up the rag joint. As rag joints go it works fine.
I’d just like to take up the slop and use a ujoint.
Flaming river makes a “vibration resistant” ujoint that might be a good way to go and comes with the right size to fit on the Borgeson box, but end of the tilt column is an issue.
http://www.flamingriver.com/index.php/products/c0005/s0010/FR1893
A rag joint is actually a better choice if there is much angle involved. U-Joints change velocity unless they are in pairs and properly phased.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmV4qwLfOMY
I don’t have tilt, and I also don’t have a Borgenson box. Instead I swapped in a Toyota integral steering box. This was done back in the early 90s. At the time I had to slightly mod the original rag joint to make it all work. That set-up was on the car until three years ago and 30,000 miles. Not a single issue was encountered.
But, Flaming River is local to me, and I wanted a universal joint instead. I ended up having to have them make a custom u-joint for the application due to my needing to shorten the original column when installing the Toyota box.
While I agree with Bill’s mention of using the u-joints in pairs. I feel it is more important to do so on a driveshaft where constant rotation at high RPMs are a concern. In my case, the u-joint is a straight shot and there is no binding or vibration felt through the column.
In a straight shot there shouldn’t be a problem. Only if you are having to make a bend. The reason that I mentioned it is that a hot rod that I have been helping with required a pretty goofy looking extension to reach around the exhaust and to the steering rack and we had to add an additional u joint to make it work right. Before we fixed it it had a weird feel, as you turned the wheel the effort changed a bunch. It almost felt like it was binding up in spots. I learn new things every day.
Yeah, I’ve seen set ups in Street Rods that had to route around a bunch of things in order to hit a R&P. I’ve seen as many as three joints in one run. So yes, there could be binding issues if not done correctly.
Thanks Mark! That Toyota box looks very similar to the Borgeson. Glad to hear no vibration comes through. Did you find the steering to be noticeably tighter when you swapped for the ujoint?
Yes it was tighter especially since my rag joint was actually off the Toyota to fit that box, and I modified it. My skills have come a long way since then.
So all I need now is to find out the dimensions of the lower shaft and I can try to find one with the correct end for a ujoint. I’d rather not pull my column to find out.
Anyone here have a 68/69 tilt column taken apart?
I’m sure you can get the dimensions from the Borgeson website. Here’s the part number of the rag joint for their 68 up Ford kit. 990016
You can interchange the lower shafts between tilt and fixed columns. I believe that 1968-70, and then 1971-73 all have the same tube shape and size.
Changing lower shafts is an inexpensive way to get around the tilt only rag joints.
Fixed column lower shafts are plentiful.
Scott,
Thank you! That’s the info I needed. Now I can order up parts and do the swap without having the car down for long.
No problem, glad to help. Good luck with it.