Hey guys and gals,

I just wanted to let everyone know that the 3rd gen rag joint eliminators are now up on the website and ready to ship. Thanks!

Jason S.

I'll probably order one up shortly for the impending 3rd gen project. Let me know if you get low on stock before I get one ordered.

Order placed. Thanks!

You list it as 1983-1992.... is there something different about the 1982's ???

Mine is a '82 and the pics on the site of the installed unit look similar

I almost hit PAY but then noticed this, any help would be GREAT !

~DaVe

I thought the first 3rd gens were '83s. Did I miss a year or is the '82 a 2nd gen?

I should get low in stock for quite some time Kevin, so no worries there.

Thanks Nick!

Jason S.

82 was the first year of the 3rd gen, but it was the "oddball" year with different transmissions and such. Some parts don't fit, but most do, or can be swapped. I can't say if this will or won't. I think it will, but I'd not want to swear to that and be caught out by some goofy first year only part. Someone else might come along with better info.

Order placed.
Thx JS!

PS. When are you gonna get some good 3rd gen front struts?

Order placed... THANKS

and I will let you know if it fits my 1982 Z28



~DaVe

Let us know Dave and I'll modify the website. I'm not sure Jeff. I'm having trouble comming up with something that I can build and offer under the CMC cap that is worth having. Thanks!

Jason S.

Came in today. Thanks again.

Its a great looking peice. I got mine put on over the weekend, I am plesently suprised and how much of a diffrence it made in the steering feel.

Hey John,

Glad to hear it. That's the same comment everyone who installs one has. They didn't realize how bad it was until they replaced it. Thanks again guys,

Jason S.

I need to order mine. Keep getting too busy at work. I want to 3rd Gen and one 4th Gen units. Some day, real soon.

Got mine. Very nice. Now, I just gotta figure an easy way to cut the factory studs and replace it with everything still in the car.

Hey Jason,
What is the timeframe and price for a 4th gen rag joint eliminator for a 96' LT1 car?
Thanks
Evan

We always have the rag joint eliminators in stock for both 3rd and 4th gens. They usually ship the day after you order with USPS priority mail. The cost is $36 + $5 shipping. Check the website for ordering info. Thanks!

Jason S.

Thanks Jason,
Is the swap pretty easy?
On a scale of 1-10?
Alan told me how to do it in his shop the other day but is it easy to get the old one out of and back into the car?
Thanks
Evan

Hey Evan,

Everyone's scale is different. For me it is definitly a 1, but a 10 would be a motor rebuild or something of that nature.

It shouldn't take more than 1-2 hours to pull the steering shaft, drill out the old rag joint, install the new one and have it back in the car. It comes with very detailed instructions. Hope that helps!

Jason S.

Put in my order tonight.

I was cleaning the box and shaft for paint before reassembly and realized how bad the 22yr old stocker is. I might as well fix the problem now.

Thanks TJ!

Jason S.

Evan - It's no worse than swapping a starter

Well, I guess I have to actually open the package and _read_ the directions. I was looking under the hood at both, thinking "Damn, that's going to suck. Gonna have to get the hack saw and dremmel out first."

Thanks for the quick shipping, Jason. Mine got here today!

Mine will go on some time in the next few days so I'll let everyone know how it goes.

It isn't as bad as it looks Gene ;-)

Keep us posted with your thoughts TJ since I've done so many, that I'm sure my perspective may be off.

Jason S.

I put it together tonight, your directions are spot on. I wish I had the ability to read the directions instead of having to do things twice

If I didn't take the time to paint it, it would've been an hour job since the car was already torn apart. I drilled the rivets out, starting with 1/8" and finishing with 3/8". After that, drive the rivet out with a punch and you're ready to go. Using a grinder probably would've been faster, but I didn't feel like swapping the wire wheel for the grinding disc.

Also, I found out the bottle I thought was red Threadlocker was actually blue Threadlocker, so much for only older people having bad memories. I won't have time to take it apart before Iowa Speedway (April 28th-29th), do you suggest replacing with red after that event or will blue do the job in the long run?

Thanks again.

The blue may be OK, but I would take the time to pull it appart and put red on it. Better to be safe than sorry.

Jason S.

Sounds good. I'll keep an eye on it through the weekend and keep you posted. Thanks again.

Mine is in need also, I just ordered one. Thankyou- this was a needed product. I am also going to compare it to my truck ragjoint to see if one will fit on there also.

Dean

An S10? I suspect that it might well fit.

Keep us posted, and Thanks!

Jason S.

Hey Jason, The truck I have is an '89 Chev full size pickup (C/K 1500-2500-& 3500 styles). The shaft out of the Camaro is identical to the shaft in the truck so this disc will work probably on just aout any late model GM. A check around on vehicle rag joint part #'s would confime applications and broaden your market.

Im watching paint dry right now and am about an hour into it. Thats time spent from when I walked out to the garage to get tools out.Nothing is tough, it just requires patience and the right tools. The patience part is retrieving it out of the engine bay around the brake lines- taking caution not to bend any lines and cause potential leaks- mine was in there tight and I had to gingerly pry a few lines sideways so I could slip it forward and out the bottom inside of the steering box area.

The one tip I can give everyone is the rivets you drill or grind out are step diameter rivets and will only press out in one direction so you need to get the tougher tighter butt end of the rivet (not the head, as in nail head side) without damaging the shaft componants. I did this by just cutting the heads of the rivets off, then simply pulling the rag joint apart and making second cuts at the base or backside of the butt end rivets then taping them through.

Of course as everyone knows- it never is that fast of a job when you take pride in what you do and clean & paint everything - then take the time to watch paint dry. This is realistically about a 3 hour job but about 45 mins in actual disassembly and reassembly combined time. I have also already cut off the large plastic cover since I live in a dry climate and the alum disc is not corrosive like the rag joint- I do not feel I need this protective cover for my application. I have pulled the rubber shaft seal back, extended the shaft back and taped the slide section so paint will not interfer with the colapse, I will grease this section and slip the rubber seal back in place after paint dries to prevent any mositer from entering in there. WIth a V6, I have lots of clearance from the headers so I have lots of room to get my hande in there removing this shaft- Easy job.
Dean
(Thanks Jason- again, it was a needed product)

Dean, just a heads up, paint on collapsable section doesn't interfere with it moving. I painted everything and it still moves as easily as it did before paint.

Oh, and since mine's a V8 race car, I took the time to bend the brake lines behind the steering shaft to get them away from the header heat. It just takes patience to not kink the tubing. I bled the brakes last night and no leaks.

Alright, break is over (food and parts run). Time to go drop the motor in

You're right. The hardest bit was getting the upper part to slip onto the steering shaft again. After a couple of whacks with a flat-faced center punch, and some time with the die grinder, it slipped right on. So much for making things all pretty. After cleaning and painting the shaft up, I scratched it all up with all my trial fittings. The brake lines get in the way, and squeezing the shaft between them and the body of the car resulted in a not-so-pretty steering shaft. It's a race car, right?

Thanks. That's one down, two more to go.

Hey Dean,

Thanks for the tip on the other potential applications as well as the directions. I've modified those. Thanks again,

Jason S.

So I'm assuming it would be easiest to pull the shaft out, break it apart, put both ends back in the car, then bolt the rag joint eliminator in place. Anybody else try it that way?

As for the shaft itself, how easily should it collapse? I've had the shaft out a few times and was never able to get it to compress any without giving up. There was really no point to collapse it anyway.

You need to see the directions. You pull the whole shaft assy out that is between the firewall and steering gearbox. The one on our Firebird took some pursuasion to get the lower piece off the gearbox, and some trimming with a die grinder on the top connection to get it to go back on after replacing the coupler.

You replace the coupler with the whole assy out of the car. Unless your coupler is already torn in two pieces, it is easier to do it out of the car.

Just below the coupler at the top of the shaft, the upper part of the shaft slips into the lower part of the shaft. The slip joint took some effort to loosen up, I guess 20+ years of abuse and gunk took its toll. After compressing and extending once, the shafts moved okay, with a little effort. The joint is usually covered with piece of rubber tubing sort of thing. If this is missing, you may have a lot of dirt and rust accumulated in the joint.

I have the directions and pulled the shaft a few times. But since I didn't put much effort into collapsing the shaft I figured it would be pretty rough putting it back with the eliminator installed. So I'll just have to clean the shaft and get it moving some.

I'm an idiot. (great way to start a post)

I started taking everything apart and it went pretty well, about an hour to grind out the old rivets. Then I bolted everything together before reading that the short bolt shouldn't be tightened right away. I was able to get the cross bolt in and out so I figured it would be good to go. I just forgot I needed to get a socket on the cross bolt to tighten it, an open end didn't seem to fit as well as I was hoping.

As I was struggling against the red locktite I remembered I want to change the steering box eventually and would have to go through this again.


Jason, I have a suggestion. If you include a longer cross bolt with a long spacer, the head of the cross bolt will be above the shorter bolt. You could probably ditch the shorter bolt too so we can run 2 nuts on all the bolts.

FYI, my friend's Chevelle has a similar looking rag joint and a thirdgen steering box supposedly has the same dimensions.

By cross bolt I assume you mean the one that holds everything to the steering box? If so I'll see what I can find, but that bolt looks fairly specialized to me.

Jason S.

Finally got a chance to drive our car with the new rag-joint eliminator last Sunday. It takes a little more effort to turn the wheel. So much more, that I drove back over to our trailer to check the fluid level in the PS system. It was okay.

Drove the car in anger, and the additional effort was unnoticable. My co-driver made no mention of any issues, other than the car started running poorly (see other thread on running on 6). I'll be investigating that this weekend.

Next up? The 95 Z.

I really gotta try to figure out how to install that part on our 92 B4C while retaining the factory plastic cover. I plan on eventually showing the car, so that has GOT to stay.

Jason, yes, that is what I meant. To me it looks like a metric bolt with a larger than normal shoulder on it to engage the slot on the box. I have an extra box and column sitting around, I'll see if I can find a quick alternative.

After driving it around the block some I like it. Definitely feels more connected, but if you have some slop in the steering somewhere it will make it sound worse. I noticed my grant steering wheel adapter clicks back and forth on the splines. I tightened the big nut that holds the wheel on about a month ago and it held for a few hours. It is just enough to be annoying.

Gene, I think the reason Jason says you have to ditch the cover is due to the long double nutted bolts. If you use shorter bolts, with single nuts tack welded on you should be good. Or you could find replacement rivets!

Hey Chris, I've done a lot of searching in my carrer for an "off the shelf bolt" like this one but just a little longer-shorter-fatter with no success. I've learned my lesson

Gene, as Chris mentioned the plastic cover does not clear the double nuts.

Jason S.

I tore mine off to do the change the other night. I figured it is a good time to do it when I have the MC off and I am messing with the brake lines.

The boot for the Bi-pod joint (rearward joint) is tore and it is dry inside. The joint doesn’t seem to be worn too bad. I can feel / hear a little play, but not to much.

I called a couple parts stores. The first one was a national chain that I usually don’t have too good of results with when I’m trying to find unusual parts. The 2nd store I called is the place that can usually get me almost anything, but they can’t get this one. They can get the rag joint and that is it.

So what do you think, fill it with grease, wrap it with electrical tape and run it? I’m also trying to find the shaft from a junker that me and a buddy parted out a while ago, but it is probably gone.

Electrical tape melts.

Good point.
I found used shafts on ebay for $25. If I can't find the one at my buddies place I'll probably just get one off ebay.

I'm starting to pay attention to rules instead of building aimlessly.

Is this mod SM legal? From the SCCA rule book it seems pretty explicit that the column cannot be modified. This is confusing, because I thought Jason ran SM in is old car?

I think it was legal when I was running it, but the SM rules have changed a lot in the past 3 years. I wasn't that worried about it since I was no where near the times the BMW's were turning. There's also the no weenie protest that may apply.

Jason S.

gotcha, never really been to an SCCA autocross so don't how weenie protest applies. I have a couple other things that aren't legal that I was hoping would float. I'll guess I'll worry about that when I become a national level contender