65 Rag Joint Orientation- Standard Column

[James W.]

Re: 65 Rag Joint Orientation- Standard Column

Lawrence,

Here are some pictures of unrestored '65 jag joints. The one picture looking from the front to the firewall is one I took at a past NCRS Regional meet during flight judging, this was an original owner, 18,000 mile car. The other picture is from my '65 which is also unrestored with 50,000 miles. Hope these help.

James

[Harry S.]

Re: 65 Rag Joint Orientation- Standard Column

James, on the 18k mile car it looks like the bottom half of the rag joint is painted and not the top half. This is what I would expect to see as the bottom half was installed on the chassis line and the upper half was installed when the steering column was installed.

This is why the upper bolt could have a different head mark than the lower bolt.

Thoughts.

[Gary B.]

Re: 65 Rag Joint Orientation- Standard Column

James, on the 18k mile car it looks like the bottom half of the rag joint is painted and not the top half. This is what I would expect to see as the bottom half was installed on the chassis line and the upper half was installed when the steering column was installed.

This is why the upper bolt could have a different head mark than the lower bolt.

Thoughts.

Harry,

There is a lot of discussion in the archives about the installation of the steering coupler onto the steering box. See below. Postings by Jim Shea, John Hinckley, Jim Reinarts, and Joe Lucia suggest to me that the entire coupler was attached to the steering boxes at Saginaw, and only the upper pinch bolt was supplied separately to St. Louis in order to attach the upper end of the coupler to the steering shaft.

Gary

Jim Shea quotes follow, then quotes by others:




















entire standard coupler was attached to the steering gear before the steering box was painted? Can you speak to the amount of paint coverage on the standard coupler when the steering box unit was painted at Saginaw?


Jim Reinarts posted a photo of a drawing showing the call out for painting everything at Saginaw.


Tony Stein commented:

[Harry S.]

Re: 65 Rag Joint Orientation- Standard Column

Gary, yep. I've heard it both way for years. Just thought I start a conversation.

[Lawrence S.]

Re: 65 Rag Joint Orientation- Standard Column

Guys,
Thanks for the pictures and the commentary. It seems as if the JG and the AIM are at odds with one another and the 18,000 mile car is more inline with the AIM. I installed my coupler per the 18K mile car initially but my coupler had the rivet attached to the lower section instead of the upper section So I flipped it around and it now looks like the JG image. Perhaps my IMG_2585.jpgIMG_2586.jpgIMG_2584.jpgcoupler was incorrectly riveted.
My question is should I install per the JG or the 18K mile car? Seems the JG is in error? Or am I missing something here? I want to flight judge my car so would like to put it back correct.
Here are images from the JG, AIM which I am using for reference.
Lawrence

[Gary B.]

Re: 65 Rag Joint Orientation- Standard Column

Lawrence,

Exactly in what way are the AIM and JG at odds?

Gary

[Lawrence S.]

Re: 65 Rag Joint Orientation- Standard Column

The AIM has the coupler with the "slits" on the steering gear and the JG has the coupler with the slits on the steering column the way I see it.

[Lawrence S.]

Re: 65 Rag Joint Orientation- Standard Column

I am just going to install the coupler the way it was in my first post because that is the closest to the 18K mile car. I know the rivet will be wrong but I will live with it. Should have left well enough alone.

[Gary B.]

Re: 65 Rag Joint Orientation- Standard Column

The AIM has the coupler with the "slits" on the steering gear and the JG has the coupler with the slits on the steering column the way I see it.

Lawrence,

Both flanges have slits or slots that compress when the pinch bolts are tightened. If you don’t see one of those two slits in an image it’s because the steering shaft and gear are rotated such the the slit is rotated out of view. The way I see the images is that the AIM, JG, 18,000K car and 50K car all show the coupler installed the same way.

You can install your coupler anyway you want, but if you install it like it is in your first image it will be opposite of everything else shown in this thread.

Gary

[Lawrence S.]

[Stephen L.]

Re: 65 Rag Joint Orientation- Standard Column

FWIW... The 2 nuts holding the rag joint together are on the steering box side of the joint.