Steering Coupler (Rag Joint) rebuild/swap, 65 Riv (first-gen Riv)

[RockinRiviDad]

My goal was to find a complete steering coupler to replace my ratty old coupler. Prliminary searches found that there are tons of rebuild kits out there. But no complete kits. By “complete” I mean I wanted a coupler that would simply require the removal of the old & installation of the new. Not the case. The rebuild kit does not look difficult to tackle. But I was being lazy & I did NOT want to do the work IF I could find a complete coupler. Looking back, this process was not bad. 

 

I finally found a race shop that had a complete coupler. When I got there to pick it up it turned out “complete” meant “mostly complete”. Apparently, they ALL require some kind of parts swap. In this case, the part needing to be swapped was the coupler/clamp that the steering column shaft slips into. 

 

Pic #1: U can see where the missing coupler is missing on one side. U can see their style grounding strap is different than some guys are used to seeing. Also, its kinda hard to see in this pic but both the rotation limiting stubs & mounting stubs are different sizes.

 

Pic#2: shows the coupler/clamp that slips over the steering box input shaft

 

Pic #3: Old coupler in vise. In order to separate the two halves I used my cut-off wheel to cut the rivets. 

 

Pic #4: The two halves separated. U can kinda see the old grounding wire if u look closely

 

Pic#5: Once cut, the old rivets would not simply fall out. I had to use a punch to drive them out. Didn’t take much effort. 

 

Pic #6: Like I mentioned earlier, the mounting stubs are different sizes. So I simply drilled out the appropriate hole. 

 

Pic #7: Last few steps were to clean & paint the old half & join the two halves together. 

 

This is a pretty simple write-up. I hope this helps others.