I have seen a lot of people, me being one of them, complain that their steering column u-joints are worn. I have found the joints to not be the actual problem, at least in my case. My problem was actually in the shaft the goes through the steering guibo (the rubber dampner between the u-joints). This shaft goes through the guibo into a bushing. Its made to prevent side to side movment. In my case. The bushing was worn, so when it giggled the joint or steering column shaft it made a clunk noise, which like a lot of people I assumed to be the joints. The problem can be solved completely by removing the guibo, and for non-airbag cars, putting a spacer in-between. You can buy a specially made one for $100, or just make your own out of washers or some tubing. If you are going to convert to a e36 rack you might not even need one. For airbag cars, or at least cars originally equipped with an airbag, a spacer isn’t needed. The steering shaft can simply be extended out by loosening the nut on it down by the pedals.
There is a shaft that goes through the guibo. If you don’t have an airbag car you can just leave it like it is and make a spacer the same size as the guibo. You wont be able to measure the height of the guibo to get the spacer size your need. You should measure the total length of the u-joint linkage before you cut the guibo out, then space it out to be the same length after its removed.
It’s a little different for airbag cars. You can just bolt them together and adjust the length of the column as mentioned earlier. Something needs to be done with the guibo shaft in this case. As you can see in picture below I cut mine completely off. While this works, I relized that there is a better, or should I say safer way to do it. After the guibo is removed, you can put the top section back on the shaft (where there is a little flat spot in the splines is where the open crack of the top section should be) See how much of the steering shaft is sticking out, then cut that much of it off. Watch out for the fuel lines and stuff. Then take the other side of the joint and drill some of the bushing out. This will let you still have steering control if one of the bolts being used to hold it toegother falls out or something. While this is in no way nessary and that will probably never happen, you don’t want to loose all control of the steering at any time. To bolt them together I used bolts that were slightly larger then the holes, because I couldn’t find any that fit them well. I drilled out the holes a tad, and it went together great.
This should not only eliminate some clunk, but it will also make the steering feel better as well. Do all of this at your own risk
There is a shaft that goes through the guibo. If you don’t have an airbag car you can just leave it like it is and make a spacer the same size as the guibo. You wont be able to measure the height of the guibo to get the spacer size your need. You should measure the total length of the u-joint linkage before you cut the guibo out, then space it out to be the same length after its removed.
It’s a little different for airbag cars. You can just bolt them together and adjust the length of the column as mentioned earlier. Something needs to be done with the guibo shaft in this case. As you can see in picture below I cut mine completely off. While this works, I relized that there is a better, or should I say safer way to do it. After the guibo is removed, you can put the top section back on the shaft (where there is a little flat spot in the splines is where the open crack of the top section should be) See how much of the steering shaft is sticking out, then cut that much of it off. Watch out for the fuel lines and stuff. Then take the other side of the joint and drill some of the bushing out. This will let you still have steering control if one of the bolts being used to hold it toegother falls out or something. While this is in no way nessary and that will probably never happen, you don’t want to loose all control of the steering at any time. To bolt them together I used bolts that were slightly larger then the holes, because I couldn’t find any that fit them well. I drilled out the holes a tad, and it went together great.
This should not only eliminate some clunk, but it will also make the steering feel better as well. Do all of this at your own risk
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