Steering flex shaft is "Unobtainium" 9485812 9485808

[RayF]

I have about finished fabbing a shaft that will bolt right in. (Thanks, foggydog, but I won't need your part. Kind of you to offer.)

I took my old shaft, good as far as to the 4-way cross of the U-joint, and cleaned it up by coarse wirebrushing, then repainted things black.

Then I harvested the splined coupling end and two bearing cups off a good used 850 lower steering shaft (too short and upper shaft end doesn't match up to the higher-up U-jointed section of the intermediate steering column on my V70),

I used two diamond bits in my Dremel tool to grind away the staked dimples of aluminum, six on each cap. Then I pushed the cups out - - tried hammering on an anvil, was getting nowhere. Used a 10mm socket as pusher, and I happen to have a big old gear-and-lever arbor press, and it took a pretty good tug on that to start the cups moving. You need something, a big fat nut or a socket, for the lower cup to pop out into.

It won't come out all the way, and I had to push both cups both directions a couple of times to sort of free things up. Then taking the sticking-out part in my vise grips I got it free; other cup is then down inside and will come off the cross and the pinch bolt-spline piece will come off.

Those cups are what you would call a press fit, hard going all the way.

The two ends of my original 4-way cross were not in good shape where the old cups were falling apart. They had been chewed down some by long running without roller bearings. So the good cups I harvested were sloppy on them.

I went to a bearings specialty shop and they found for me a small needle bearing that had slightly fatter rollers than the Volvo one, cost $4.63. I ground one end off it, dumped out some rollers and miked them at .061" vs originals' .053". I had to chuck them in a little Dremel 3-jaw chuck and lock it tight with Visegrips , using Dremel just as a holder while I ground the little pins off the ends of a few of them and made them short enough to fit in my new cups. Vibration of grinder makes them loosen up and slide back into the drill chuck, so grind, tighten, repeat.

Then I pried a few of the original rollers out, and on one cup I put two new fatter ones in, separated by about 1/3 the diameter, and it then fitted snug on the 4-way cross, and rolled smooth. The other end needed 3 fatter ones. Put a little fresh grease in each cup, cleaned up and installed the seals, then fitted the 4-way cross into the new spline, clocked correctly to match up with rack shaft at bottom AND with intermediate shaft above, and pressed the cups home.

Aluminum pretty messed up where I ground staked patches away. Cups are a VERY snug press fit. I decided to trust mine to stay in place with 3M DP420 epoxy, an industrial grade, tough and excellent bonding to metal.

In morning when epoxy is firmly dry I will start reassembly.

[SOURDOUGHJIM]

I ran into the same issues with parts for the Volvo A35C articulated haulers. Caliper pistons and radiator hoses come to mind. NLA. Regarding the radiator hose, our Volvo CE distributor was able to get the drawing for this hose from Volvo. Perhaps the Volvo automotive gurus at IPD may be able to get the info for the 9485812 from Volvo and be able to reproduce the joint assembly at some point. Most won't fabricate this product without the engineering data due to liability.

[RayF]

Refurbished shaft back on car, all works great, no play.

I put the shaft back on. I had cleaned the interior splines of the pinch block with a small file, and the splines on the rack shaft with a high speed coarse bristle wire brush on an air die grinder, also then scraped out the grooves with a pick and on back side with the tip of a drywall screw where there was less room. Then slathered inside of clamp with never-seize. But I should also have forced the pinch part wider open I guess: It started on but stopped only a little ways on.

I finally figured a way to thread my long Snap-on pry bar down through a maze of brake lines and park the tip just on the top edge of the pinch block, and tapping the bar with a hammer, it went grudgingly on. All bolted home.

I have needed to replace the heater core, and with hoses to it disconnected from motor it was the ideal time. Biggest snag, not I think mentioned in whatever you-tube videos I checked out, was a rubber drain tube from the AC housing. It needs to be pulled up from where it goes down thru the center hump, and laid over aside, so the core can be extracted.

[FireFox31]

Do you have any pictures of the part and the process? Might help supplement your text directions for anyone trying this.