Important Steering Shaft Adjustment for Body Lifts

As some of you know, I was the second person to have my steering shaft break due to tension from installing a body lift several years ago. We've been working on ideas over at toyota120.com's forum and you can read the whole thread here:

http://www.toyota120.com/forum/showthread.php?p=22565

If you don't want to read through that, the important thing is that everyone with a body lift NEEDS TO RE-LOOSEN THE SLIDING YOKE / SLIP JOINT TO RELIEVE TENSION ON THE STEERING SHAFT which is a result of either a) the initial installation; or b) the body lift settling some after running it for awhile.

It's a very simple job, you don't even have to remove the wheel. Here is my post from doing it on my new steering shaft (which, by the way, has to be ordered from Japan if it breaks):

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First of all, I definitely recommend getting to it via the wheel well / fender area behind the rubber splash guard that covers some of the engine bay. You don't even have to remove the tire or jack it up, just pull off the two top-most connectors on that rubber piece and you'll be looking straight at it without having to reach through a hot engine area.

I was sure to mark with tape and a sharpie both the sliding yoke / clamp and the splines on both pieces that it holds together.

As soon as I loosened the first bolt, the slip joint popped a bit and released some tension on the shaft -- I would say that it moved maybe 1/2" or so, after which point I couldn't get it to come out any farther.

Since I was concerned about how much of the splined area was left in the joint, I went ahead and removed both bolts, pried the clamp apart, slid it up, and pulled the lower end out ... then I slid the clamp down and off completely.

The lower end has very little spline available for adjustment, and it didn't seem like it needed any adjustment at that end. The upper shaft had a good portion available to adjust, and after reconnecting everything, I found that a lot of it remained available even after pulling / pushing the slip joint down as far as I could.

So anyway, I think this is good, especially seeing how much spline adjustment is available on the upper shaft were it necessary.

I read the thread and your post and am still a bit confused. Did you simply loosen the locking color, let the tension settle then re-tighten it, or do you completely remove the collar? If so, how do you the proper placing of the collar when you put it back on?

BTW, thanks for bringing this up, of all the threads I've read on BLs on 4Runners this is the first time I've heard of this possible complication!
Good on ya!

Excellent, now I hope I remember this when I put the lift on the Wife's 4Runner

For the installation of the BL, just be sure you loosen up the bolts on the clamp / sliding yoke BEFORE you lift any part of the body -- keep it loose before, during, and then afterwards, retighten those bolts on the clamp after making sure there's no tension there.

Then be sure to check it again periodically as the new hardware settles.



Actually, there's the possibility of a new part which is currently in testing ... Roger Brown is an awesome guy and he's looking into making something to help with the issues that two of us have had so far. So that'll be neat as well!

Just punch out the 2 plastic crush pins and slide the shaft apart an inch or so to lengthen the shaft. That way you don't have to touch the 2 splined ends.

fourwd1 said:

Just punch out the 2 plastic crush pins and slide the shaft apart an inch or so to lengthen the shaft. That way you don't have to touch the 2 splined ends.

Click to expand...

Yep, that's what I recommended.

I only took it apart more than that because we were all wondering just how much spline was available on the upper shaft.

Update:

We recently discovered there is actually NOT a lot of the upper shaft in the yoke after a body lift ... which is not a good thing ... and some guys are still working on possible solutions to prevent steering shaft breakage.

Thanks for the input here, it is very much appreciated.

I haven't gotten around to installing the 1" Body Lift Kit I purchased from 4crawler yet. When I do, I'll make sure that the two of us installing this thing follow your guidelines.

From the sound of things, a steering shaft spacer will be out soon ... so that will hopefully help as well.