[KThaxton]

Anybody know the true purpose of the cross straps shown below?
Are they just simply an glorified nut to make assembly easier or are they designed this way for another reason?
The reason I ask is, whenever I tighten them down, they distort the rag joint and they basically pull the steering shaft and the column together to the point that they almost touch each other.
I am wondering if I can just replace the straps with regular nuts and washers?

 

[DDGRC84]

methinks you might be tightening them down too much... seems that they are there to distriubute the force across the entire rag joint, thus eliminating silotary stress points, reducing the possibility of point failure.

 

[KThaxton]

I've thought of that, but the FSM says to tighten them to 200 inch lbs. They are distorted at 150" lbs.

 

[macario]

DDGRC84 is right, consider it like a weird looking washer made to distribute the stress. The distortion of the rag joint when tightened to spec is normal. It is kind of a poor design but it works.

Mac

 

[KThaxton]

DDGRC84 is right, consider it like a weird looking washer made to distribute the stress. The distortion of the rag joint when tightened to spec is normal. It is kind of a poor design but it works.

Mac

The thing that is weird, is it didn't used to do this, and my other RC doesn't do this.
I have a suspition that this may have contributed to my old style Borgeson to wear out. The rag joint basically "sucked" the steering shaft towards it and it left less spline contact on the slip joint. This splined slip joint had quite a bit of play in it. Fortunatly, I just got the new style Borgeson shaft and it won't matter (to the slip joint anyway) it it gets sucked up, but I still want to figure it out.

 

[macario]

Interesting that yours did not do it before. My rag joint is still distorted with the new Borg shaft just like it was with the stock slip joint and I still have all the spline I need to have joined to the shaft according to Borg manufacturers instructions.

Every other rag joint I have ever pulled off always shows at least a little distortion on it.

It could have something to do with the fact that most vehicles of the period we are talkining about don't have really close tolerances in the way they all fit together so some have more play than others in certain areas.

Mac

DDGRC84 is right, consider it like a weird looking washer made to distribute the stress. The distortion of the rag joint when tightened to spec is normal. It is kind of a poor design but it works.

Mac

The thing that is weird, is it didn't used to do this, and my other RC doesn't do this.
I have a suspition that this may have contributed to my old style Borgeson to wear out. The rag joint basically "sucked" the steering shaft towards it and it left less spline contact on the slip joint. This splined slip joint had quite a bit of play in it. Fortunatly, I just got the new style Borgeson shaft and it won't matter (to the slip joint anyway) it it gets sucked up, but I still want to figure it out.

 

[Chump]

I would think that as long as the straps deflect in both directions an equal amount that this would be a part of the "flexible" design concept. If it were me and I had any doubts about it, i would replace the rag and i believe that Mopar has a strap and bolt kit to replace the old hardware.

 

[DDGRC84]

yeah, could certainly be that the rag is nearly worn out and isn't as rigid as it should be.

Jake

 

[macario]

The rag doesn't have to be worn out. The ones I have put in there get distorted also and I always replace with new. I think its just the nature of some of these beasts to do that to a rag joint.

Mac

 

[KThaxton]

New rag, same result. I just did some bending of the straps, they were slightly arced. I put it together and it is better, not perfect, but I won't be satisfied unitl I drive it and have it stay where its at. I will look into getting new staps though, thanks Chump.
Unfortunatly, I can't move my RC right now to test it out, after I finished the rag joint, I proceeded to change my cap and rotor on my MSD distributor. I tested the mechanical advance, and it was hard to move. Tore the whole distributor apart (which is cool that it can be done) and found my upper bearing is rusted, and so was the advance mechanism!
TIme to make a gutter on my firewall.
P.S. It IS okay for me to highjack my own thread!

 

[Guest]

The way I understand it. The rag joint is there to keep the steering shaft from binding in case of a temporary (or permanent) misalignment between body and frame. The cross straps keep the shafts from moving too far front to back, and slamming into each other under severe conditions. They give the joint some rigidity. With age and/or a lot of wheeling those straps become distorted. I wouldn't leave them out, I'd replace them with new.

When you get that gutter made, would you post some pics. (For those of us too lazy to figure it out for ourselves)

 

[SuperBurban]

those straps allso act as a safety link if the rag joint fails, without them, if your rag joint rips, you will have no steering

 

[KThaxton]

When you get that gutter made, would you post some pics. (For those of us too lazy to figure it out for ourselves)

I intend to. I've been thinking about doing this for a while, but kept putting it off cause I'm lazy. Then I got to looking at it and thought DUH!, It'll so simple, no bending, just a flat piece of steel about 15"x3" and some silicone. I'll post pictures when I'm done.
Thanks for the explanations Danny and superburban, it makes sense, I'll get new straps.

 

[KThaxton]

Well, the rag joint is still looking like it ought to. Must have just been that slight bend that was in the straps.
It's just weird cause the arc that they did have was so slight, it almost wasn't noticable. Live and learn.