Steering universal shaft install

#1

I’m putting a car together pretty much from scratch. I have a “1 piece” steering column that has a splined shaft protruding thru the fire wall. My donor vehicles setup was
a large nut that when loosened provided a slip joint so that things could be taken apart. I’m not using this setup so I’m wondering a few things.

  1. do I have to loosen the steering column to install the universal shaft between the column and the rack?

  2. how tight are the splines supposed to be? I had to persuade the universal with a hammer in order to get it to slide onto the column.

  3. When the wheels are centered, is there a certain position the universal should be in?

Thanks
Ray Prato

#2

Well you have to have room to get the universal on the splines. That can be done by moving the steering column back or the rack forward.

As far as I know the orientation of the universal doesn’t matter. But you should center the rack (make the extension of the inner ball joint the same on both sides) connect the shaft and then center the steering wheel.