Borgeson Steering shaft upgrade

[Stanley]

So in my "Dove in Head First" thread I mentioned that I got a Borgeson steering shaft upgrade while i had everything apart. I have read a few time in other places that you need to grind a flat spot on your gear box shaft and that the original flat spot is not used.? Why and why? Got the old one pulled off last night and was looking at how I was gonna fa-naggle this thing in there, but grinding a new spot on top of that - ge wizz...

[Tractorman]

1 hour ago, Stanley said:

So in my "Dove in Head First" thread I mentioned that I got a Borgeson steering shaft upgrade while i had everything apart. I have read a few time in other places that you need to grind a flat spot on your gear box shaft and that the original flat spot is not used.? Why and why? Got the old one pulled off last night and was looking at how I was gonna fa-naggle this thing in there, but grinding a new spot on top of that - ge wizz...

 

A few years ago I installed a Borgeson steering shaft and a Borgeson steering box and no modifications were necessary.  From what I recall, if a Borgeson box was installed on an OEM shaft, then a flat spot needed to be ground on the adapter that came with the Borgeson steering box (no grinding on the steering box input shaft).

 

Do you have an OEM steering box with the flat spot on the shaft?  If so, I think you can just install the Borgeson steering shaft.

 

Note:  Check the operation of the slip yoke on the Borgeson shaft before installation.  It must slide easily!  If it does not  you will have hard to diagnose steering problems and set screws will come loose.  Believe me,  this is true - it took me 25,000 miles of driving to figure it out.

 

- John

[Stanley]

Yea its all original, steering box and shaft. On my slip yoke there is a collar with a set screw, presumably to keep it from moving...

[Dieselfuture]

[Haggar]

Here is where I ground the flat on my adapter for the Borgeson

[Stanley]

This is what I have, slipped right onto the gear box..

[Stanley]

Little update, actually got time to start installing this evening. This is what I have... Is this safe? Since the whole grinding a flat spot deal I'm timid lol. 

It has a groove to set in so idk why it wouldn't work.

 

Same on the top, I used the OEM simple and also made a second dimple for the other set screw...

 

Please Advise. 

 

 

 

 

[Tractorman]

1 hour ago, Stanley said:

It has a groove to set in so idk why it wouldn't work.

 

Same on the top, I used the OEM simple and also made a second dimple for the other set screw...

 

Please Advise. 

 

I believe you should be good.  Just make sure there is no contact with the steering box housing - in the photo everything looks okay.

 

On ‎2‎/‎13‎/‎2019 at 12:53 PM, Stanley said:

Yea its all original, steering box and shaft. On my slip yoke there is a collar with a set screw, presumably to keep it from moving...

 

I probably didn't make myself clear about this.  Borgeson's instructions aren't very clear about collar you mention.  For safety reasons, all steering shafts must be built with a means to collapse in the event of a front end collisions.  That is the main purpose of the long slip joint.  I believe (because is not clear in the instructions) that the collar is there to stop the upper shaft from sliding down and disconnecting from the upper connection point in the event that the upper set screw backed off.  By design the upper connection point is not fail safe.  I set the collar on my steering shaft with very slight pressure against the rubber boot.  I only snugged the set screw, only because I think it should give in the case of a front end collision.  This is what I did - obviously you can decide where to position the collar and how tight the set screw should be.

 

What else is of concern is that (at least on my truck and one other truck) the slip joint was so tight that no axial movement was allowed.  Since the steering wheel is mounted in the cab and the steering box is mounted on the frame, there will be axial movement, although small - probably less that 1/4 ".  With the sticky slip joint, the energy from the axial movement was transferred to the upper connection point and caused the set screw to continually work loose.  It also transferred a random lumpy feel to the steering wheel that was quite annoying. 

 

I am rewriting this for clarification and because you didn't say whether or not you tested the slip joint for ease of operation before installation.

 

I have read of two instances regarding the Borgeson shaft becoming loose at the top connection and the shaft actually separating from the steering wheel shaft while the vehicles were being driven.  In both instances nobody was hurt.  The one instance involved slow in-town driving and the vehicle was braked safely to a stop.  The other instance involved mountain driving at higher speeds and fortunately the truck steered itself into the ditch on the uphill side of the road instead of over the several hundred foot drop off.

 

So, I urge you to check for easy sliding operation of the slip joint.

 

- John

 

[Stanley]

It does slip back and forth in the middle, I played with it before installing. I haven't secured the joint to the steering box cause I wanted a second opinion on it. I also haven't secured the middle stopper yet. 

I'm glad you mentioned axial movement

now I'll remember to give it some room to move a tiny bit for the flex just in case. 

The extra dimple on the top was just for piece of mind

The bottom should be good with that groove there, it only has one set screw anyway. I just second guessed myself cause of the talk about grinding a flat spot on the steering box shaft...

[Dieselfuture]

17 hours ago, Stanley said:

I just second guessed myself cause of the talk about grinding a flat spot on the steering box shaft...

I better not ever get that one as a returned gearbox from blue top 

[Stanley]

Returned from bluetop? 

I've never done it (grinded), there was just a lot of chats and how to-s sayin such... I think I'm safe with my indent...

 

I'll be getting me a new gearbox from them in the near future... 

I haven't done much research yet but I believe red/blue is the same just a company that spilt? One better than the other? 

[Tractorman]

1 hour ago, Dieselfuture said:

better not ever get that one as a returned gearbox from blue top 

 

No worries.  The required grinding is when a Borgeson steering box is being used with an OEM steering shaft.  The grinding is done only on the adapter for the steering box shaft - not on the actual steering box shaft.

 

So all is well.

 

- John

[Haggar]

Tractorman is exactly right.

 

The steering box I am using was not originally fitted to the 2nd gen dodge.  (pretty sure it was a GM)   The spline input on the original dodge, had a flat in the splines.  To make the non-original steering sector work, you have to reproduce the flat, in the adapter so it can be used on our trucks.  In this snip from the FSM you can see the flat that is on the input splines of stock steering sectors.  In this way I was able to use a Steering box with a larger input shaft spline, but connect it to my factory steering column.

 

Stanley, You got a new replacement steering column so you may not have to do any other mating.  Mine came purely from fitting a GM steering sector to a mopar steering column. 

 

HTH 

 

Hag