We are ready to reinstall the steering column on Aaron's '74 Dart Sport. Looking at the splines on the coupling, it appears that one is wider than all the others, and the same goes for the input shaft on the steering gear box. Is it my imagination, or is it really that way? If so, do they have to line up with each other? To make them line up, the whole column would have to flip over 180 degrees, and that's just not right.

Any help is appreciated,
Jerry

_________________
There's a difference between ignorance and stupidity.
Ignorance is not knowing any better.
Stupidity is knowing, yet doing it anyway.

Yes, ther is a double wide slot and matching "key" that keep everything indexed for correct installation. If your is 180 out, then you may need to flip coupler on the crosspin.
I have had some cars that would not align correctly. (incorrect steering wheel positioning, most likely from a bent chassis or mis-matched parts) As a fast way out, you can file a new groove in the double wide "key" in the coupler socket or steering shaft, then the parts can be assembled in any position.
DD

Thanks, Doc.
The strange thing about this is that we simply pulled the steering column and gear box at the beginning of our project. I don't recall ever turning the gear box shaft for any reason. We simply sandblasted and painted it and put it back on the K-frame. As far as the steering column goes, it was also just cleaned up, painted, and put away for a while. How can either of them get turned around out of sync?

Does the steering column have the ability to spin a full 360 revolution inside, an maybe that happened when we worked on it? Right now it's locked from turning, with the key and gear selector removed. Would it be possible to put it back together, turn the key to unlock, and spin the coupler the 180 it needs to line up?

This is a mystery.
Jerry

_________________
There's a difference between ignorance and stupidity.
Ignorance is not knowing any better.
Stupidity is knowing, yet doing it anyway.

Got it!
That's all it took. Turn key to unlock steering column and shaft spins freely to any location you want. If only everything was that easy to fix.

Jerry

_________________
There's a difference between ignorance and stupidity.
Ignorance is not knowing any better.
Stupidity is knowing, yet doing it anyway.

...it's also very important that the master spline on the steering gear is in the 12 o'clock position (up) with the car driving straight ahead. This is the "tight" spot on the steering gear "nut" and sector shaft. You will proabably have to wait until your front end is aligned properly to get everything dialed in exactly, but the steering wheel "up" and the steering gear master spline "up" need to correspond, make sure they are not 180 deg out from each other.

D/W

_________________

If it ain't broke, fix it!

They are pretty close as it is now. Will probably have to tweak them later, as you said.

Jerry

_________________
There's a difference between ignorance and stupidity.
Ignorance is not knowing any better.
Stupidity is knowing, yet doing it anyway.