Trying to disconnect the steering shaft - '04 XC70

[volvolugnut]

OhhKayy…….

Guess what, when you’re tired and hot and frustrated……you make mistakes. Really?

The small bolt in the lower shaft is not a clamp bolt, it’s a through-bolt, it has to come all the way out. Then the shaft pops out with one tap, the rack drops down to the subframe, and the clamp bolt inside the car falls onto the carpet. Duh.

On p80 it picks up a divit In the shaft to ensure position. I bet p2 is the same.

Sorry I missed that earlier

Yep - shaft has a half circle carved out of it, which the pinch bolt passes through. Doesn’t matter how loose or tight it is. Has to come all the way out. I was blind.

Dikidera - cleaned and greased the collar. Not sure how much I put on the outside however, hmm…

This sounds familiar. Maybe the same on 240 Volvo I repaired years ago?
volvolugnut

[BlackBart]

I woke up in the night and had an idea -
Go back inside the car, undo that little keeper bolt, which lets the lower shaft slide down towards the rack. Get that joint connected underneath. Back into the car to reconnect that u-joint, as the upper shaft from the wheel seems to have some up-down sliding movement.

[BlackBart]

3/8 of an inch! My KINGDOM for 3/8 of an inch! I’m pulling and pushing and leeevering with a long needle nose with bent tip.

[BlackBart]

Ya know when you have something almost on, that you’ve been fighting - pulling with all your weight, prying, making a loop out of steel cable and using a crow bar for leverage?

It’s “almost there,” 1/4”, you can’t quit, you can’t lose the progress you’ve made!

So of course I took it all apart. There had to be a physical reason it wouldn’t close, not pure strength. I looked at corrosion on the aluminum end, scoring, burrs, galling - some of it from bashing together raising and lowering the subframe, some from the subframe weight hanging on a small bolt.

So I got out some tiny fine files - round, triangle, flat - and cleaned the opening and shaft up and smoothed all contact edges.
After smoothing up both ends and greasing them up, it just slipped together PLOP. Now with arms jammed up in there I am threading in the pinch bolt 3 degrees at a time with a tiny wrench.

[br0dy519]

That moment happening during my pressure hose replacement for the power steering rack. All engine mounts disconnected, blew up the front hydraulic mount. Engine sitting on jack and block of wood.

None of the mounts were lining up for what felt like hours. I hulk raged and pried the entire engine up with a 7 ft prybar. Everything lined perfectly.

[BlackBart]

DONE!

Bolt is bottomed on slightly mangled threads - I won’t force it in aluminum.

Put some caulk on that little white plastic clip to hold it up there while I got the top of the shaft in place. Bearing collar re-greased and popped into the boot.