Borgeson steering shaft

[Sycostang67]

I replaced my steering shaft a couple years ago with a Dorman part.  The truck was my daily at the time and I needed it back on the road right away.  While I have little faith in Dorman would upgrading to Borgeson shaft improve my steering feel any?  I already have a Red head box and HD 3rd gen T-style steering.  I still have a little play left in the steering which I'm wondering if it's caused by the cheap shaft twisting.  

[Stanley]

I have one, I believe it helped a bit, also piece of mind. Anything to help the steering on these rigs... I'd suggest it. 

[Silverwolf2691]

Just keep it lubed where it telescopes. That's the biggest complaint I heard when I had mine, the shaft rusted solid. The other complaint was it is just 2 set screws holding it on each shaft, hot a compression lock like factory. People didn't trust it. I think it helped my 1500 along with everything else I did. That truck handled like it was on rails, and was nearly as responsive as a rack and pinion steering setup..

 

I think if you don't use their box, you have to grind away part of the input shaft on the box as well.

 

Check the bottom of the steering column (engine side), grab the shaft and shake it, If it moves the bearing in the bottom if the steering column is bad. Rock solid ram bushing is the fix for that.    

[Sycostang67]

I read the install instructions about grinding the shaft flat on one side, it seems like most people are able to do it without removing the box.  I'd rather not remove the gear box again, 4 times on one truck is too many.  I'll check that bearing as well next time I get under the hood.  

[Silverwolf2691]

Just remember to have everything straight before grinding that flat..

[Tractorman]

7 hours ago, Silverwolf2691 said:

Just keep it lubed where it telescopes.

 

Even keeping it lubed did not help me.  I have had the Borgeson steering shaft for about 150,000 miles now.  The first thirty thousand miles almost drove me nuts.  It took 30,000 miles of driving to figure out that the slip yoke was binding - but not all of the time.  When it did bind, you could hear a click and feel something in the steering wheel.  When the symptoms occurred, the truck steered poorly.  Also, set screws would come loose on the upper end of the upper steering shaft.  I kept thinking other things were wrong with the steering.

 

Finally, I disassembled the slip yoke.  Each time thereafter when I disassembled the slip yoke, I would see a couple of places where the grease was completely wiped clean. I also noted that there was more friction than I thought there should to operate the slip yoke.  The photo below shows a tension spring used in the slip yoke assembly.  I even reduced the arc in the tension spring, but I still thought there was too much tension.  I finally just removed the tension spring.  From that time forward the steering completely changed.  No noises, steering operation very smooth, and no more loose set screws ever, for the last 120,000 miles.

 

After going through all of this, I am now fine with the Borgeson steering shaft.  But, one needs to be diligent about checking the tightness of the set screws.  The set screws will not loosen unless there is an underlying problem.  In my case, the underlying problem was the random heavy axial load placed on both pieces of the steering shaft due to the high resistance in the slip yoke.  Once I removed the resistance, all was well.

 

- John

 

 

 

12-16-2021 Borgeson Steering Shaft.docx

[Silverwolf2691]

By slip yoke are you referring to the outer telescoping part? Thats the only thing I seem to remember being big enough to house something like that..

 

Never would have thought that that was inside.. huh.. learned something new this morning. 

[Tractorman]

7 hours ago, Silverwolf2691 said:

By slip yoke are you referring to the outer telescoping part?

 

Yes.  Calling it a telescoping part is better terminology.  A slip yoke or a telescoping part serve the same purpose - in this case to allow for axial movement of two joined steering shafts.  Normally one would not think of movement between the cab and the truck frame, but there is because the cab is not rigidly fixed to the frame.  This minor movement will cause varying degrees of axial movement at the telescoping point of the intersecting steering shafts.

 

I think that others who use the Borgeson steering shaft may have or have had this same problem to a varying degree.  It can be difficult to diagnose.  You and one other that I have heard from have observed this particular problem.  However, I have read of a few others that have had set screws that keep coming loose.  I think that the friction in the telescoping part was likely the cause.  It does make sense to me.  The set screw would remain tight when rotational force is applied because there is a key or splines that absorb the rotational load.  But when an axial force is applied (even a small one) it is the set screw that absorbs the load, thus working its way loose.  Also, any axial force would negatively impact steering wheel operation.

 

In my opinion, using multiple set screws to hold various steering shaft parts together is not a failsafe design for a steering mechanism.  Most other designs incorporate a flexible joint fixed by hardware that can't allow for an unintentional disconnect of the any part of the steering shaft.

 

- John

Edited December 17, 2021 by Tractorman
added the word "splines" in "key or splines"

[Stanley]

Used blue loctite in my sets and still nothing yet... Also didn't have to touch anything on my box, just bolt and go... too easy.

[Mopar1973Man]

438k miles later still not needed any of this stuff.

 

On 12/15/2021 at 5:02 PM, Sycostang67 said:

I replaced my steering shaft a couple years ago with a Dorman part.  The truck was my daily at the time and I needed it back on the road right away.  While I have little faith in Dorman would upgrading to Borgeson shaft improve my steering feel any?  I already have a Red head box and HD 3rd gen T-style steering.  I still have a little play left in the steering which I'm wondering if it's caused by the cheap shaft twisting.  

 

The biggest thing why people need these pricey upgrades is typically because of oversized tires and lift kits. Once you mess with the geometry of the front axle its really tough to make it right again and keep all the mods like lift/leveling kits, oversized tires with large offsets. All these have impact on leverage of bearings, ball joints and steering parts. One of the few problems I still got to deal with on Thor being its got a 2 inch leveling kit and huge squatting problem now. Again previous owner screwed the geometry of the steering axle and thrust angles with just a leveling kit. 

 

2002 Dodge Ram 2500 - Beast

• 245/75 R16 tires (On stock 2nd steel wheels)
• Blue Top Steering Gear "Quick Ratio" (Only can be used on 31 inch tires or smaller)
• Stock Tie Rods (Old Y steering)
• No lift or leveling kit. 
• OE style Track Bar (NAPA)

 

2006 Dodge Ram 3500 - Thor

• 2 Inch leveling kit
• OE Track bar (thrust angle is incorrect since the track bar is not adjustable.
• Caster is incorrect being the 2 lift kit twist the axle to a more positive caster.
• Stock 17 inch wheel installed and ditched the 18 inch wheels.
• Stock 265/70 R17 tires installed gain quite a bit of power back and gained about 3 MPG. Ditched the 33 inch tires.

 

Just tidbit to think on. Going from stock 31 inch (265/75 R16) to 37 inch tire your only going to gain 3 inches of clearance from the center of the rear diff. Remember every 2 inches of tire your only going to gain 1 inch of lift since the wheels are bolted at the center. So you only get half of the tires. 

Edited December 18, 2021 by Mopar1973Man

[Sycostang67]

When I replaced the shaft, the splines were all chewed off on the box end, the flat spot was the only thing making contact.  I think I noticed this with the 2nd reman gear box I installed.  I don't like Dorman parts as I see way too many of them come back as warranties and I have replaced a couple exhaust manifolds that were cracked and made by them.   If anything I would like the Borgeson just for the sake of getting the Dorman part off my truck.  

[Mopar1973Man]

Funny, I've got lots of Dorman parts on my truck. No issues. 

[Sycostang67]

Some of there stuff is quite handy, but I shy away from the manifolds, electrical items and anything with too many moving parts.  I see a lot of there stuff return as warranty items.