Rag joint delete
 

I was going through the race car and found the rag joint was trash. Dry rotted and broken. No wonder the steering was clunky. Has anyone deleted the rag joint on a 67 GTO? Do they make a joint that adapts to the stock steering shaft?

They make a U joint type that welds to the stock shaft and is splined for the box,

Would the u joint require a heim joint, or something of that nature close to the rag joint end of the steering shaft? For stability

Not if you are only replacing the rag joint going to the steering box.

I would've guessed with that long span it would. Good to know.

i have replaced my 1964 rag joint with this splined coupling, years ago. I think it was an afco piece. pretty easy install. has seen street miles and quite a few passes no issues, except... one spring first time out, first pass, I had take the column out of the car to retorque heads or something, and i only finger tightened the column u bolt/strap and i had not, apparently, tighten the coupling set screw on the steering box splines., car gave no indications as what was to happen next... I did a burn out, staged, and launched (mid 9 second car), when the car launched the g forces and I pulled back on the column enough to disengage the splines and render the steering wheel useless, luckily I figured out, as it spun in my hands, i was $%&$#@! before shifting second gear and clicked it off, slowly coasted toward the left lane jersey barriers, as i was unsure what was going to happen to the front wheels if i jacked on the brakes at speed. it was an eerie feeling i will never forget, finally i got close enough, (5-600 feet out?) and what i felt was slow enough, that i jammed on the brakes vs roll the car down the guard rail. It stopped fine, I popped the hood, slid column back far enough to slide it over the steering box and putted back to pits and made sure it wouldn't happen again. lesson learned its double nutted and always triple checked. I got lucky and i know it. Please double check your stuff. the beauty of the rag joint is it still has studs to steer with if the bolts are missing. but it sure does take up alot of room that #1 primary tube can use

Borgeson makes all kinds of splined U joints as well as a collapsible shaft.

Detroit Speed offers a U-joint to eliminate the rag joint. I did just that on our 69 Bird.

Tim john---