I haven't found in my cheap haynes manual any mention of this part. If you stand on the driver's side, looking under the hood, it's kind of a shaft there between two u-joints. it's cracked right down the middle. This is my winter vehicle that sees alot of highway speeds. I definitely want to fix this. What part is it? I didn't take a good look at how it comes apart yet, I'm fighting with brake lines right now. Pouring though, going to go buy a couple of tarps. Thanks for the help.

 

I think I know exactly what your talking about.

(Note: my shop manual says its a 15MM bolt, your might actually be 15MM)

For the top part of the shaft, just remove that bolt. The shaft slides downward pretty easily. I believe there is another bolt at the other end of the shaft that you remove to take the whole shaft out.
By the way: the shaft is called the steering shaft, so your correct. Let us know how it goes.

 

Thanks. Yeah that's the shaft. Looks like yours is still original, assuming you haven't replaced it. I think it must be a dealer item, cap and autozone both say they can't find info. Have to wait until monday to call the dealer.

Hey, know of an online dealer parts website I can browse? Or a parts manual pdf file?

 

Try makeitmopar.com.
They don't offer part #'s, however (but, if you know the part number, it will bring up the part). On this website, it calls it the lower coupling (look in the "steering column" section). The part appears to be around $150 [:@].

 

yeah, that's the culprit, thanks bro, I owe ya one. I'll call autozone again and ask for a lower steering coupler, they probably have it.

 

do you know how much to torque those lower coupling screws to, and what loc-tite that is? It's blue, but I'm not thinking the colors are standard with all mfrs, do you know?

Add Edit: For anybody that cares, they didn't have it at Autozone or CAP, I had to go the dealer up the street from work or online dealer.

 

For the torque, looks like 35 ft. lbs. for those bolts.

 

Thanks again. Where'd you get the info, dodge service manual I'm guessing? Do you know if that's dry or wet. From what I've been tought, when you use a lubricant(loc-tite or anti-sieze) it's easier to turn, so the torque you need to apply to get the correct tension, goes down.

As I got that message, I am trying to do the math for recommended torque generally for that screw. I'll attach a link here so you can check out and/or print or save the pretty nice chart I found.

Thanks yet again for your help Dodgerules

 

Oh, and I just noticed, thanks even more for serving in the military. Alot of us out here are really 100% behind you, and the treacherous, yet oh so very important job you guys are doing over there, wherever over there is for you, not just say it because you can't not say it like people of certain ideals I won't mention. God bless you, and thank you.

 

Oh, and I forgot to attach that link :-P here it is:

http://www.engineeredpartsinc.com/torque.htm