The Mod:

Lubricate the lower intermediate steering shaft.

What it does:

The lower intermediate steering shaft has little to no lubricant, so when the shaft moves up and down a clunk can be heard and felt. After lubricating the shaft with 5th Wheel lubricant the clunk is fixed.

Photos:

Here's the spray-on 5th Wheel lubricant:

First, secure the steering wheel. I used some bungee chords strapped to the metal seat adjuster:

Next, disconnect the Negative terminal on the battery (because the steering column may be ground for some of electrical steering components):

Now to work on Intermediate Shaft. Locate the lower pinch bolt and remove it:

With the bolt removed the lower portion of the shaft can be removed:

Now locate the upper pinch bolt and remove it:

Upper portion of shaft removed:

Removed Lower Intermediate Shaft:

Remove the upper boot coupler (the one that is not on the splines):

Slide the boot down:

Spray lubricant into the boot and into the top of the splines:

Work the splines in and out until the lubricant can comes out of the bottom of the boot:

Slide the boot back up and re-attach the clip:

Re-connect the lower portion of the shaft first:

Then the upper portion:

Reconnect the battery and remove the bungee chords and you are done.

Addendum:

When I was doing this I noticed that the plastic sleeve on the upper intermediate shaft had slid out of position. My guess is that my clunky steering was due to the plastic sleeve moving (in the position I found it I could move it up and down and it made a clunking sound as it hit against the grommet.

You can see here that it had slid all of the way out past the grommet in the firewall:

Here's a picture from the side:

I pushed the sleeve up:

Until it was about 1 inch from the grommet and firewall:

Added a clamp to keep it from sliding down again:

If you have any questions or comments about this page click here to send email.

Last modified: December 21, 2009 06:54:55 PM