' steering column rag joint craig jewett i'm hoping the experienced guys out there can steer me in the right direction on a couple of questions i have the rag joint is original as far as i can tell the repair kit i received from corvette central has two threaded pins as well as two bolts with washers and nuts the material of the new rag joint looks different too are the original pins on the rag joint riveted i can't figure out how it comes apart the original is actually in very good condition and i don't plan on hacking it up to replace the two pins with parts that can be seen a mile away as non original also i found that the exposed ends of two pins each had a soft black plastic cover over them are these original and where can new ones be obtained they don't appear in any catalogs i have also what should the correct casting number on a pitman arm from a ' power steering setup be thanks in advance
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Re: '67 steering column rag joint
re ' steering column rag joint carl rose dear mr jewett i can answer some of your questions on the rag joint the pins are originally rivetted into the rubber material they have two black rubber insulators one on each side that are available from li corvette for about pair the bolts holding the coupling together are fine thread heax head with nuts that are slightly longer than a standard nut and have no bevelling on the edges i believe these were originally black phosphate the special point bolts holding the coupler to the column i also think were originally black phosphate there is a number cast into the upper half of the coupler but i cannot remember offhand what it is i think the entire coupler is unpainted steel interestingly the coupler i originally removed from my car replaced with gm part years ago had what appeared to be a ground strap between one of the bolts and somewhere else i do no know if this is original or not but i still have it somewhere i also do not think the rag joint changed with the steering column change but i am not sure about this hope this helps carl -
Re: '67 steering column rag joint
re ' steering column rag joint jack layton the ground strap of which you speak is the ground for the horn it is the original type the present gm replacement uses a screen impregnated into the rubber i discovered this while seeking the solution to why the horn would not blow turns out the ground strap to rivet lacked continuity the new style fixed the problemComment
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Re: '67 steering column rag joint
re ' steering column rag joint craig jewett thank you carl and jack for your helpful responses i think that i will just clean up the rag joint and re install it the ground strap is present and the horns work fine this whole rag joint thing has come about from my latest task of replacing the steering gearbox with an exchange unit from cc both my original as well as the exchange gearboxes have cast iron covers is this correct according to the cc catalog ' to ' s used an aluminum cover i think the catalog is incorrect also what should the casting number on a ' pitman arm for power steering be i'd be willing to bet that joe from ca knows the answers to these questions joe lucia are you out there please respondComment
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Re: '67 steering column rag joint
re ' steering column rag joint carl rose hi again mr jewett thanks mr layton for clearing up the ground strap issue i will have to dig out that old piece and clean it up all of the steering gearboxes i have ever seen have steel covers before you trade in your original box i would recommend noting the numbers on the cover if you need e mai me and i will go look at the numbers on mine as i recall i was thinking of exchanging my box but could not find another with the same casting numbers ultimately i had mine rebuilt and honestly before the rebuild it had a rough spot in the center position afterwards very smooth but i could not tell a difference when driving many of us have discarded or exchanged original pieces and kicked ourselves for it later sorry can't help on the pitman arm mine is manual steering if you need that number e mail me and i'll crawl underneath carlComment
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Re: '67 steering column rag joint
re ' steering column rag joint joe lucia if the cc catalog says that used aluminum steering box side covers then the cc catalog is incorrect corvette steering boxes used cast iron covers actually to be perfectly accurate very late corvettes did use aluminum covers my original owner ' built on september did have an aluminum cover however otherwise all corvettes had cast iron steering box covers as far as pitman arm forging numbers go power steering equipped corvettes used a pitman arm with the forging number i have seen some arms which had other numbers on them and i don't know the history of this nevertheless most if not all original arms have the number i mentioned non power steering arms carry the forging numberIn Appreciation of John HinckleyComment
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Re: '67 steering column rag joint
re ' steering column rag joint craig jewett hi carl i have checked the numbers on the steering gear that i have pulled out and they are as follows cover numbers with a small raised casting pad to the left of these numbers with on it bolt head markings nat the replacement steering gear is as follows cover numbers bolt head markings rsc according the ' judging manual it would appear that the steering gear i've removed from the car is not an original the replacement's numbers do match the number on my pitman arm is this is the non power steering pitman arm i will have to find a correct one with the part number does anyone out there want to tradeComment
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Re: '67 steering column rag joint
re ' steering column rag joint craig jewett hi joe thanks for straightening me out re pitman arm numbers well now it looks like i won't get the car back together this w e for that test drive i have a non power steering pitman arm i'll need to scrounge a correct one now i am curious as to how the steering system would be affected having been using the wrong pitman arm does anyone have any experience with this phenomenon thanks again for your help joeComment
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Re: '67 steering column rag joint
re ' steering column rag joint joe lucia the power steering and non power steering pitman arms are very similar however there is a slight difference in offset and angle i've heard that they can be interchanged but i've also heard that steering bind or interference can result i belive the latter gm didn't make two different arms because one design would work just as good on a component like steering i'd take no chances power steering arms are very easy to find expect to pay about it's the non power steering arms that are a lot more difficult to come up with so save yours the non power steering relay rod is worth a fortuneIn Appreciation of John HinckleyComment
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