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Looking for ideas for keeping the steering rag joint cool.

4x4x289

Sr. Member
Joined
Mar 15, 2004
Messages
964
Looking for ideas.

My tilt steering column lower bearing burst into a basketball size fire ball yesterday. I'm running a stroked 351w, with hooker fenderwell headers, and a GFM tilt steering column. When this happened, holes on the column-to-firewall mounting bracket were already ovaled and the column was moved up as far as possible. The header was already wrapped. The end of the steering column was already wrapped. The steering column bearing is approximately 2 inches away from the headers. The rag joint is approximately 1.5 inches away. Yes I was running my engine somewhat hard, but nothing extreme.

Jet Hot Coating?
Heat shroud?
Heat sync/dampener?
Liquid Cooling Coil?!
Cooling air duct from the rad fan?
All of the above?

Got ideas? What would be most effective?
 

Pedestrian

Bronco Missionary
Joined
Sep 10, 2008
Messages
2,299
Shroud should be the easiest and most effective. Simple piece of sheetmetal works on catalytics and mufflers, should work for this.
 

bax

Contributor
Old Member
Joined
Aug 22, 2005
Messages
14,493
replace the rag joint with a u-joint will tighten the steering and not catch on fire

X2 on this. Get rid of the rag joint. Hell you already caught it on fire once, Are you waiting on a sign?
 

uncle ray

Full Member
Joined
Dec 8, 2006
Messages
165
if it was radiant heat that caused it, a metal shield between the header and rag joint would do the trick. replacing the rag joint with a u joint will prevent any fires, but the grease will just cook out of the joint causing it to fail eventually.

are you SURE it was radiant heat that caused the fire? it would have to be very hot to ignite in the absense of a spark. could there be a bad electrical ground that is trying to ground out through the steering column by chance? it sounds strange, but i had a B&M shifter cable burn up because of a bad ground between the body and frame!
 

broncnaz

Bronco Guru
Joined
May 22, 2003
Messages
24,341
If your headers are wrapped I doubt that its heat related. but still I'd get the headers coated. That will cool things down a bunch and the fenderwell headers look way better coated. I replaced my rag joint with a polyurethane one I got from a mustang parts house been good for the last 6 years or so its also a lot cheaper than a joint. I also run coated fenderwell headers.
 
OP
OP
4x4x289

4x4x289

Sr. Member
Joined
Mar 15, 2004
Messages
964
Ok, with classicbroncos assistance, r&d, and csi, I believe I figured out what happend.

First of all, my lower column started on fire, not the rag joint. I inquired about the rag joint because it worries me more, because it is located nearer to the hooker fenderwell header, and I was surprised to see that it did not yet burn.

My column was manufactured by ididit, for GFM, and it contains a delrin bushing rather than a bearing at the bottom. Ididit tells me that this material should not have burned. Ididit also uses high temp grease. When speaking to the ididit technical assistant, we figured it out that the fire must have came from a different source. Grease/oil it was. I remember now. When I orginally pulled off my steering shaft, my slip joint was seized, so I generously lubed the internals of the slip joint with grease, -actually packed it. As the grease heated up, it expanded and blew out through the center hole of the rag joint fitting, directly onto my steering column bushing, and the grease also dribbled down onto my header, and..... it caught on fire. I'm certain my local fire marshal would endorse this conclusion. :eek:

So, I ordered a new bushing. I will convert the rag joint to a u-joint. Most importantly, I must add a heat shield. The heat shield will also help guard against any leaking oil from hydrolic brake or steering lines. I would also like to get rid of the header tape, eventually. It just soaks up oil. I want Jet Hot.

Everyone, thanks for your help.
 
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