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Steering shaft/intermediate steering shaft, tips and write up

xjtrailrider

NAXJA Forum User
NAXJA Member
Location
Roanoke VA
My 94 started making a terrible noise in the steering and the steering had a lot of play in it. One quick look under the hood and i saw the problem! The intermediate shaft had separated from the rubber vibration isolator in between the parts of the shaft. Of course with it being a dealer only part there was no way to get one today since its Sunday.

I had a couple of the oddball 96XJ shafts but to my disappointment the shafts were of a different length.

After some measuring I found that the upper half of the shafts were the same length so I had a plan to fix me up a free shaft!

First; Loosen/remove both pinch bolts from the intermediate steering shaft, they are 13mm.

Second; You need to support the steering box before you take the three bolts out. I used a ratchet strap hooked to the two hard lines to the pump and then to the radiator support.

Third; Remove the three bolts and slide the steering box forward, the intermediate shaft will come off the steering column then you can carefully pry it off the steering box.

Okay, here is where I had to get creative! The shaft in the 94 was 7/8" longer than the 96 shaft that I had. All of the length was taken up by the lower half of the shaft(the shafts telescope) so I had to remove the lower half of the 94 shaft from the bad upper half then install it into the 96 upper half that was good. This is easily done by clamping the upper half of the shaft into a vise and then tapping off the lower half with a hammer. It will slide out, not easily but it will!

I then installed the 94 lower half into the 96 upper half by tapping it into place until I got the shaft fully seated. the shafts are meant to collapse in a head on collision. They do not collapse while in the vehicle otherwise. You have to loosen/move the steering box forward to get the shaft out.

This pic shows the two halves of both shafts separated and the differences in the shaft lengths.

The longer shaft is the 94 shaft.
1230121318_zps1c0be7e0.jpg


The white bands are teflon that allow the shafts to collapse. But like I said earlier, they do not slide out easily.

The upper shafts are the same length or very close, within 1/8"
1230121316_zpsd4d3626e.jpg


To install the old lower shaft into the newer upper half(clamped in vise) just insert a pry bar into the joint and tap it into place using light blows to the pry bar, not the joint itself.

1230121323_zps9498a41f.jpg


So now my steering is tight and noise free again. The whole job took me an hour at most and since I had the donor 96 shaft, it cost me $0.

The 97+ XJ's shaft is easily collapsible and can be removed without moving the steering box forward. I understand that all of the 97+ shafts are the same length.

The difference between the 87-94 shaft and the 95/96 shafts is that Jeep changed over from the GM steering column to the Chrysler steering column in 95 when they were required to add a drivers side air bag.

With that said, 87-94 intermediate steering shafts are interchangeable. 95/96 are the same, 97+ are all the same.

I hope this information helps someone out.
 
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So is the worn out part in the u-joint looking part of the assembly?

No, on the upper half of the intermediate shaft there is a molded in rubber isolator between the two parts of that. The bushing on mine had come loose and was making a creaking sound(rubber spinning in metal) and allowed a lot of play in the steering. There is a fail safe built into the isolator so that even if the molded in bushing fails, you will still have steering. It will just be loose and have play in it.
 
I did some research into this subject once, from what I recall the part number changed every couple of years through 87-94 also.

Are the bushings similar? Since that's the part that fails, maybe somebody looking for a hobby could make a batch
 
I did some research into this subject once, from what I recall the part number changed every couple of years through 87-94 also.

Are the bushings similar? Since that's the part that fails, maybe somebody looking for a hobby could make a batch

Yes, the upper half of the shaft is the same, its the lower half that is either longer/shorter etc.

The rubber isolator bushing is molded in. I don't know if or how it could be done but anything is possible. If the bushing goes bad I guess the two parts of the shaft could be welded together but you would loose the vibration isolation of the rubber bushing. On a trail rig it would be fine. There is nothing unsafe about welding it, just the noise/vibs.
 
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