My steering wheel didn't have a problem before doing the 2" bodylift. After doing the bodylift, its starting to make this light clunk clunk clunk sound sometimes, feels like the steering shaft vibrating.

When I did the lift, I thought I had removed the steering shaft bolts already... took a 2 hour break, went to eat... and when I came back I jacked up the body to put the blocks on. When it was time to put the steering shaft extention on, it turned out that I didn't remove the bolts... Just loosened them.

I removed the bolts and loosened the top steering shaft bolt to lower it a little bit so that I could get the extention on. After, I lowered upper shaft so it would be snug and tightened the shaft bolt. The boot on top of the steering shaft, or what looks like a boot is damaged.

I have been trying to mess with the lower shaft mount and upper shaft mount to see if I could eliminate the vibration. Did I mess up the steering shaft by not removing the bolts and raising the body up? Is there anything else that I should check as well?

 

Likely there is some residual tension in the steering shaft. Follow the instructions below to release tension in the shaft then tighten it back up:
http://www.4crawler.com/4x4/ForSale/...ingAdjustments

On the clunking, have someone crank the wheel back and forth while you poke around under the hood and find out what is hitting the shaft when it turns. On my '85, the inner fender panel is just a little too close to the raised shaft and hits once or twice every steering wheel rotation. Easy to fix by bending the lip of the inner fender away from the shaft about 1/4".

 

Thanks for the heads up Roger... I looked around the inside of the fender and it didn't seem like it was causing the problem. I checked inside the car under the steering wheel... Looks like the shaft is not centered with the hole... I loosened the top nut and pushed it out alittle... Now it is not as close as it was before. I think this may be the issue, as I would always hear the clunking after every bump or under acceleration.

Is this the same thing you are referring to? If so, how did you bend it? That sucker looks pretty tough. The pics are from after releasing the nut, so it's actually not as close as it was before.

 

No, that is the passthru plate in the firewall most likely. Yes, you may need to plower that, possibly remove the plate and enlarge the holes if need be. But if it does not make noise, you are set.

 

Roger

I used a flathead screwdriver and managed to put a few little dings on the inside portion of the gold ring and lowered the upper portion of the top shaft under the steering wheel by just a mm and tightened everything back up. I also made a slight halfmoon cut on the plastic cover piece that covers it up. Took it for a quick drive and the clunking is gone!

Thanks bro.

Darrin

 

Sounds like a fix. You always expect a few of those sorts of adjustments after the lift. I didn't have to touch my pass-thru plate with a 3" lift on my '85, but a buddy did in an '89 pickup with a 2" lift. I think it all depends on how that part was installed at the factory. If it was off-center to start with, the lift may make the shaft hit, but if it was centered or the shaft was above center, then it'll be fine.

 

To keep everything in the same place:

My 94 Did the same thing when I installed my 3" BL. I had to widen the firewall cut out about 1"-2" towards the ground to stop the clunk. Now I just have to fix the clunk in the dash caused by the column clunking on the tube that surrounds the column.