I have the steering column out of the 68 Barracuda while other work is being done on the car.
I came across the article linked below
https://www.forabodiesonly.com/mopar/am ... heaper.66/
The steering shaft turned OK, but the outside of the car the bearings felt and sounded dry, so I tore into it.
Found the upper bearing at Vans
https://vansauto.com/product/62-83-uppe ... n-bearing/
15.00 + 7.50 shipping, for size it is an exact replacement and unlike the oe bearing is a sealed unit.
Got the lower bearing, same style as in the FABO link from AMAZON
was 9.49 shipped,, a great value,
Disassembly and installation was very straight forward.
I did need to remove some slight excess metal in the lower column housing and clear the ID of the
bearing slightly to get the ER-16 bearing to fit, nothing extreme, a couple of zips with a sanding roll on a
a gun and all was fine.
The one addition that I made that was not mentioned in the FABO article, and mine is a auto floor shift column.
The lower OE bearing has a recess in it that allows the inner steering column shaft tube to print into it
and center the inner steering shaft tube to the outer column tube. The ER-16 Bearing does not have that feature.
The ER-16 bearing has an up set, or raised inner hub that nicely matched the diameter of the
inner steering column shaft tube. However it does not hold the inner steering shaft tube centered and
overall the ER-16 bearing is about 1/16 of an inch tool long if one wants the raised retainer on the
ER-16 bearing to fit flush to the outer steering column tube.
EZ fixes:
for the length issue, I trimmed the inner steering column tube length, some of this issue is likely part and assembly stack up,
so measure closely and cut once, mine is a nice solid press to stop fit.
for the centering issue, I had some two part RTV-urethane rubber mix left over from making the slant six port molds, used that
to make a nice semi-flexable spacer to bridge the gap between the inner and outer steering column tubes and center them together.
One could use other methods ranging from wraps of duct tape to rubber bushings, or perhaps yours will center better.
But the fix described worked for me.
With the column back together, I cannot say it turns more easily, as it was not locked up or sticky before,
but I can say it turns silently, there is not the dry bearing sound. And it certainly feels better.
| Attachments: |
|
File comment: bearings new and old sc bearins.jpg [ 32.27 KiB | Viewed 4401 times ] |
|
File comment: urethane bushing added to center inner column tube SC urethane cushion.jpg [ 23.12 KiB | Viewed 4401 times ] |
|
File comment: steering column shaft lower bearing end ss bearing end.jpg [ 19.08 KiB | Viewed 4401 times ] |
|
File comment: Steering column shaft after rebuild steering shaft.jpg [ 17.46 KiB | Viewed 4401 times ] |