Viperdew

I am thinking of doing this on my 2001.5 as well. If anyone has done this on the 2nd Gen 2001.5 2500 how much difference was there? Also, if for some reason you want to put it back stock can this be done?

BigBlue

I'm also interested. For some reason I have this desire to get sports car like handling out of a lifted 7200lb truck and this seems to be my next option.

Dr.Kayak

Here’s my experience with this Mod:

Did I need it? – I could feel a “clunk” in the wheel when I hit bumps. You could feel it bad on expansion joints. First I found lateral slop in the slip joint on my intermediate steering shaft. Replaced my second OE shaft with a Borgeson. This did not improve my clunk. If anything it got worse. I contribute the worsening of the issue to the Borgeson being stiffer and transferring more energy to the steering column.

Bushing install – I neglected to check for slop in the steering column before I removed the spring. After the spring was removed and with the intermediate steering shaft disconnected I could grab the end of the steering column and it had a lot of slop. I could get it to make a clunk noise by moving it back and forth. After the install of the bushing I have no lateral movement of the inter shaft of the steering column at all. You can grab the shaft and pull it back and froth hard enough to rock the truck and there is no slop.

Results – My steering is more solid. More like it was when new. For the price and effort I am happy. The origional clunk is gone. I fixed one more source of slop in the steering. But… it was not a magic fix for my truck. I still have an annoying squeak in the top of the steering column just under the steering wheel and I can still feel something I shouldn’t thru the steering wheel when I hit bumps. Loose Ball joints? I still have mostly original part on the front end with 90k miles. So, I know I have other issues.

Can the OE bearings be reinstalled? I believe so. I bet you would have to pull the steering column to reinstall the OE parts. If I ever develop slop in the new bushing it would be much easier to get David to send me a new bushing than put the OE parts back in.

The new bushing has been in for a month and it is still solid. It has not backed out any. I see no need for a set screw to hold it in… so far.

Pictures of the install done without removing the steering column:

http://www.directcon.net/drkayak/Ram/Steering/

walexa

Hate to be the bearer of bad news........but my bushing fell out. I'm not exactly sure when it happened.....I'll explain.

When I removed my borgeson to install the bushing, it would not telescope like it was supposed to...........so I beat the inner shaft out, hit it with the angle grinder and the file..........and got it to slide good with minimal side to side slack. I called it good and decided to try it out at least until I could get another shaft..........so, when I put it all back together, there was a tiny amount of steering slack side to side, but the clunk was gone. The steering slack seemed to get progressively worse pretty quick and I thought the shaft was just developing slop.......WRONG!!! It was that my bushing somehow worked itself out. Before I inspected the bushing, I took the truck in to the local tire shop and they checked the wheel bearings and ball joints.....everything was in great shape.....at this point, I assumed it had to be the steering shaft. 2 nights ago it got to bothering me so bad that I decided I had to have a look and I was astonished to see the bushing out and resting just above the upper u-joint on the steering shaft. I got it started back in the hole, tapped it all the way back up in there, and then tried to pin it in by bending one side of the column tube using a hammer and long rod. I think it would be a great idea to use a collar with a set screw to keep that thing in there.........I am going to try to find one today from the local bearing supply store.

Waylan

Dr.Kayak

Waylan,

My first bushing fell out as well. The first one David sent went in too easily and fell out the first day. I used silicon around the outer edge to hold it in until David could send me a bigger one. The new bushing is 5/1,000 bigger on the OD. It took 3 hits with a hammer to seat it and has not backed out at all.

My first bushing that fell out had some lateral slop side-to-side you could grab the shaft and see the bushing move slightly. The new bigger one does not move at all. I believe you are not getting full benefit of the mod if your bushing is loosing enough to fall out. I would get David to send you a bigger one.

hamilton71801

Ok I told ya'll I would post my results so here goes. I did not remove the column since I'm kinda small and did not have any issues getting to it. I used a cut off tool and my air compressor to remove the clip and spring and then cleaned it up and put on the new bushing using some moly grease that I already had. From Welexa post I learned about it maybe falling out so I put a couple of zip ties on the shaft so it could not wiggle it's way out. From start to finish, I would say it took me about 45 minutes and I could have done it faster if I would of had all the tools needed already out. Anyway, I was hoping that it would cure my squeak but it did not. It did fix my rattle in the column and eliminated the feedback I was feeling from bumps. The steering is tight now and it drives much better. All in all I would say that on a scale of 1-10 (10 being the hardest), this was a level 3 job. Very easy.

paparcl

After you got the spring off was it hard to get the rest of the parts out?
Is there only one washer holding everything in place? Thanks for any info on this.

hamilton71801

No it was very simple. I used a long screwdriver to pry out the rest of the parts. Once you get the spring retainer cut, the spring will slide off (you may have to put some English on it) and then everything else is inside the housing that you pry out. I managed to do the whole project without saying one cuss word or throwing any tools. So that ought to tell you how easy it was.

paparcl

I am going to order one and hope it goes on just as easy, thanks for the information.

Dusty Ratcliff

just wondering how this mod was working for those of you with a few miles on it now???? thanks alot, Dusty

hamilton71801

Okey Dokey so far. Steering was very firm at first but is starting to loosen up a little now.

mishkaya

Dusty Ratcliff
I've been happy with mine, about 3k miles on it now. Sure was a nice improvement.
mishkaya

BARTMAN

I have about 2k miles on mine since I initially installed it. Lesson learned:
I removed my entire column to do the mod. Very easy to do; I've got it down now to about 10 minutes. I didn't clean up the shaft nearly enough when I installed the bushing, and the result was steering with way too much resistance, even after 150 miles. So I again removed the column, removed the retaining ring and bushing (very carefully), and used a green scotch brite cloth to polish the shaft, lubed it very well, and reinstalled the bushing and retainer ring. I now has little to no resistance, but what I now feel is all the slop from the steering box. Is the clunking gone from the end of shaft?...mostly, yes. There is still something that has play and gives feedback through the steering wheel, but now I want to replace the steering box!

Diesel-Dan

Huh....never hear of this one......i might have the guys next door in the machine shop whip me one up to try......

Dusty Ratcliff

I found some of the Delrin rod stock here......http://www.mcmaster.com/, probably gonna order some & get my dad to turn it down on his lathe, let ya know what I think of it when it's all done, Dusty