Steering Column shear pins sheared - options?

I'd appreciate some urgent advice! After many years I'm finally getting my Challenger finished by a shop due to health and time issues. They've fitted the Power Steering box and the column is about 2 inches too short!

After a lot of looking at before and after photos, I believe that the only cause must be the shear pins. I was very careful when rebuilding the column many years ago but I think I found the 'smoking gun' picture from that time showing where the shear pins should be (I didn't realise at the time that you should actually see the white plastic but from looking online now I think you should).

I thought if the pins were sheared the shaft would slide in and out easily, but again, I guess not (I pulled on it).
It's the original column and I was driving the car before disassembly, so the column must have moved after I removed it, maybe the pins were already sheared.

Anyway - what to do?!
I know the options are basically either just pull the shaft out and assemble as usual (the car will be safe to drive), or remove and disassemble the column and try to use some nylon screws or melt some plastic in there.

Obviously the first option is easier and cheaper, but I'd appreciate all input - is there any downside to this? Could the shaft move within the coupler and want to pull out of it (I think no, gravity is against it) or more possibly want to slide further into the coupler (but the coupler would stop it sliding too far anyway)?

Thanks very much!

Many couplers use a small pin to prevent the assembly from separation. But, it's a small pin, probably there mainly to prevent separation while the column is out of the vehicle. I wouldn't trust it to prevent separation while driving.

If, your shaft is loose enough for it to bottom out in the coupler body, it's loose enough to not cause any problems.

My take, replace the pins with nylon screws

Aluminum pop rivets work well. They are soft enough to shear in the event of a crash.

For what its worth, I don't believe the shaft can pull far enough to separate without some major body damage on the car. At the plastic shear pins, the outer shaft has to move outward at least 4" (closer to 6" if I remember correctly) before the inner and outer parts can separate.

Your only concern would be if it clasped too easily, which probably won't be an issue. Once everything is in place, the bottom sort of floats, there is no up or down pressure. For the column to clasp in a crash, the column crushes the perforated outer shell of the column between the steering wheel and the floor mount so the sheer pins would break and the inner shaft would slide farther into the outer shaft. Before those shafts can slid inside each other, the outer column housing has to crush, or the steering box has to move towards the firewall. In either event, the sheer pins won't make much difference weather they were previously broken or not.

I suspect that while the column was out of the car, it got dropped on the bottom end which is what sheered the pins, otherwise the outer housing of the column would have been crushed.

Back when we ran the stock bodied Mopars on our local dirt track, we would pop the sheer pins on the column and pull the shafts apart another 3" so we could mount the the wheel and the column closer to the driver and still connect to the steering box. This allowed easier steering without having the power steering connected (a closer wheel gave the driver better leverage). I had one car that got crashed bad enough for the column to pull out of the lower connector at the steering box, even with the sheer pins broken and the column stretched out 3 more inches, the column at the sheer pins did not separate. On that car, the front frame rail got pulled away from the trans crossmember almost 6", rust issues were also involved.

Those plastic pins were there to "set" the column length to proper length.
Allowed factory to install columns easier, with out compromising their safety function.

Back in the day there was a kit. Primer and a glue. What you did was make sure the shaft was correct and not 180 off. Mark the length and there normally was witness marks or you can compare the plastic on the shaft to the holes in the outer shaft and mark the length. Then you primed the areas and then applied the adhesive and slid the shafts together to the marked length and let it cure. This kit is not available and if you do find one it most likely will be dried out and junk. What I do is get a quality Loctite primer activator with a tube of quality super glue. That's about all the original kit was. All you are doing is priming and gluing the plastic together.

I wonder the same, is there really any reason to bother putting anything in there?

I used an aluminum bolt or a hot glue gun. My concern is the ujoint pulling apart if there is nothing in the shear pin holes and the tabs on the ujoint cover are junk as usual.

I used some nylon screws I picked up at the local hardware store.

There isn't enough room for it to pull apart when everything is together. You might get a little bit of a rattle with the pins sheared but it isn't a safety issue since the shaft will still collapse in an accident. My Duster had the pins sheared and it worked fine. There wasn't anyway for the shaft to come apart so I just drove it.

There are no ‘pins’ in any column, the holes are there to shoot the liquid nylon in between the two pieces so it won’t rattle, they serve no other function. The nylon is still in there so don’t worry about it moving around

Right. I posted the simple fix above a few posts.

Excellent information so far, thanks very much. It makes sense that there are no actual "pins", just a hole for the nylon to be injected (I heard somewhere there are grooves on the shaft for the nylon to flow around?). So as mentioned, maybe the nylon is still in there and just the entry bit of plastic fell out.

But as mentioned the column is shortened per the photos. It appears about 2 inches too short to reach the proper coupler position.
I decided to take the column back out of the car since it was quick and easy, so it is in my garage. I measured the overall length of the shaft and it's 38 1/4 inches. I read somewhere the normal length is 40 3/4 inches so that would make sense
But the inner shaft does not seem to want to move at all! I had a quick go using a hose clamp on the bottom of the shaft and tapping with a hammer. It was on pretty tight but the clip slipped without the steering shaft lengthening. How tight should this be? It shouldn't be rusted in as I drove the car for years (at the correct length) then removed the column to rebuild it and it has been inside ever since.

Any thoughts as to my next move? I'd rather not disassemble the entire column again but I will if necessary.
Thanks again

You had a power steering box put in. What is previously power, or was it manual? The lengths are different for PS vs. manual steering. I just don't remember which is which.

Yes, but the power column was shorter than the manual column.

Two different column lengths and two different ends from power to non power, power is shorter and splines are smaller on coupler.

The new steering box is a standard dimension PS box (it’s a firm Feel unit replacing the original PS box), and it’s the original (rebuilt) PS column. Coupled with the measured length, it seems conclusive to me that the shaft length has changed.

Take it down to nothing but the shaft, put bottom part in vise, attach a slide hammer to the top nut and pull on it till it’s the right length. Only simple option. I would do this every time I wanted a standard box column, then I’d weld the end. A wreck with the force that would be needed to drive the column into your body, no worry you’ll be dead anyway from that impact.

In theory I could do the first bit without disassembling further because I have access to the top threaded portion and also the bottom of the shaft. Not sure if I might damage anything if I did that, in theory I shouldn't as far as I can think about it. Again, if necessary I'd disassemble but just thinking about it. Then comes the main question, whether to 'set' the length or not. That may be answered by how much force it takes to move the shaft and how tight it is after that..........

What have you got to lose? It’s already wrong. One other thing, have you got the column bracket that attaches under the dash on right?

If your planning on pulling it apart with the steering wheel hold down nut, you need to pull the shaft out of the column. The top bearing is held in the column by a screwed in plate and has a spring clip on the top side. Those things set the height of the steering wheel on the outer column. If you don't want tp take the column apart, you need to pull the shaft to extend it at the shear pins from the bottom of the column.

The force required to pull the two shafts apart isn't very high, once the pins have been sheared, but the fit isn't loose, it won't fall out by holding it vertically, you will have to pull it apart. A good thump on the bottom end will shorten the shaft though. The more often it gets pulled and pushed, the easier it moves.

I would not be concerned about locking the shafts into a specific position after they have been moved. There is not enough space in the vehicle for the shafts to come apart without major body damage. Once in place, the lower connection on the steering box is designed to float in and out, the odds of the inner and outer shafts moving isn't very high unless there is compression in a crash.

I recently had the same issue with my 1970 roadrunner. i took column out to do some work on it. when i went to install the steering wheel shaft was too short. it drove me crazy for days. i kept taking it out of car . it fit into coupler fine but something was not right. i finally realized i somehow collapsed the internal steering shaft. i pulled shaft out a little and put everything back. i now have no issues. i would not worry about the nylon shearing off. you will be fine without it



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Exactly: too many people become "fixated" about those "plastic pins"..

the only time i get concerned about the plastic, is when it totally deteriorates and falls out, creating slight play between the two tubing pieces.

Given that the plastic sits in a groove on the inner shaft with about a 1/16" space between the two shafts, that plastic would have to be in really bad shape to "fall out". If it did, a sloppy fit could result in sloppy steering response. That would be a very long shot chance, unless your pulling the inner and outer shafts apart very regularly.

Plastic pins?
BFD.....

Injection holes

Correcto !!! People think there are 2 pins going thru the shafts. There isn't.
Once the 2 shafts are aligned at factory, plastic is injected between the 2 shafts.
What is visible is just the remnants from that injection process.
If the shafts are moved afterwards, those 2 spots shear-away from the underlining plastic
And, may or may not fall out of holes.
That's why measuring overall length is the ONLY true determination.

My point was....If the plastic breaks, so what? I've had it happen on several columns with no ill effects, no vibrations or slop.

Agree completely,

Thanks so much for all the advice and information, very helpful. I also did a lot of other looking around. To cut to the chase - I've now fixed the issue
So basically I removed the column and did a lot of measuring etc, then just separated the key housing (which is attached to the shaft) and pulled that out as far as I could to take a look. I was able to confirm the measurement from the top of the shaft to the first pin was about 2.5" shorter than expected. So I held the bottom of the shaft in my vice (suitably protected), made a bracket for my slide hammer, and pulled on it. To address an earlier comment, this would cause no damage because the rest of the column is not connected to the shaft. you are literally pulling one end of the shaft from the other. I double confirmed this by separating the top of the housing as mentioned.
I needed some pretty serious pounding to move the shaft. I basically had to bite the bullet! I could see that the shaft had moved as a result but had to go back a couple of times to measure and pull again. Eventually I measured and appeared to be at exactly factory length (a bit of judgement and quite a bit of luck). You can see in the 'after' photo the part of the shaft that had collapsed by looking at the surface rust marks.

With it taking so much force I was not worried about securing it further. If I was I would have used Loctite 660 which was basically the factory 'repair' method.
I took it to the shop finishing my car for me to do a trial fit, confirmed it was spot on, then took it home, finished reassembling, and a couple of days ago took the column in , fitted the coupler, and properly fitted the column.
So I'm happy with the result after a bit of an initial shock, still a mystery how the shaft shortened after I removed it and took a lot of care, but it is what it is. It took longer to research it than to actually fix it, but did not want to take any chances.

By the way, I agree with the discussion about the nylon ring and the 'shear pins' really being injection holes, but the factory does use that exact terminology. Regardless I just don't see the 'pins' doing much of anything, and in all probability had already fallen out on mine long ago. It's the nylon rings providing that (considerable) resistance

So thanks for the advice, I thought I should at least provide a conclusion which might help someone in future!

Refitted!!