• Welcome Visitor! Please take a few seconds and Register for our forum. Even if you don't want to post, you can still 'Like' and react to posts.

Shorter steering colum


NetBSD

Member
Joined
Sep 4, 2008
Messages
19
Vehicle Year
1989
Transmission
Manual
i dunno how usefull this is for some of you but i got sick of my steering wheel being up in my face in my 89 ranger reg cab so i modified it a little.....


remove the steering colum from the truck and seperate the 2 pieces like shown here
Photo0129.jpg


now the piece that goes thru the firewall is the one we want to cut, i only cut a little bit so i didnt have to modify the shaft at all. heres what it looks like after being cut
Photo0130.jpg


you can see how much i took off in this pic better
Photo0131.jpg



now this is the tricky part, put the 2 pieces back together and you will quickly notice that bolts dont line up for mounting the colum to the dash, so i grabbed the drill and rat tail file and went to work.
Photo0133.jpg

i still need to make a plate to go down to the other nuts welded on the colum, but you get the idea



and a look from the side after it was all reinstalled and i greased everything
Photo0135.jpg




also as a added bonus ill show you how to service the steering colum bearing

Photo0136.jpg


grab a 13/16th socket and use it to knock out the white snap ring and bearing, clean in gas and pack with fresh grease, no more squeeking when im turning :icon_hornsup:
 
Hmm. I think that I am going to let my friend Robert look at this and see what he thinks, as he is always complaining about his steering wheel jabbing him in the gut. (Reg cab ranger + TALL [6'5"] + big gut = really cramped. And NO, he won't get a bigger truck, even though he admits that it feels like, and looks like, he is wearing the Ranger. Maybe it iwill help. How much did you trim from the shaft anyways, OOC?
 
id say i took about 2" to 3" out of it with no issues, when you get the 2 big sections apart you will see 3 grooves in the smaller one and 3 rounded tits in the bigger one, you can trim down till that bottoms out on the grooves, i think 4" or 5" is maximum gain from doing it this way, the main issue would be trimming the steering shaft down maybe 2", its a 2 piece slip shaft so this is easy with hand or power tools.


this mod took me maybe 4 hours teardown all the way to the last pic taken, all i had left was steering wheel and plastic covers.



little side note, make sure you can still fit the plastic covers and the ignition switch clears the dash before doing this, i no longer have the plastic on mine and i dont have a key ignition, i have a simple toggle to turn the power on and push button start. so if anyone wants to check and see if the plastics will fit sfter shortening that would be great
 

Sponsored Ad


Sponsored Ad

TRS Events

Member & Vendor Upgrades

For a small yearly donation, you can support this forum and receive a 'Supporting Member' banner, or become a 'Supporting Vendor' and promote your products here. Click the banner to find out how.

Latest posts

Recently Featured

Want to see your truck here? Share your photos and details in the forum.

Ranger Adventure Video

TRS Merchandise

Follow TRS On Instagram

TRS Sponsors


Sponsored Ad


Sponsored Ad


Amazon Deals

Sponsored Ad

Back
Top