I recently ordered the UltraPower 425264 from Rock Auto for a '99 1500. AFAIK UltraPower is RA's own house brand, and in many cases I suspect the parts are re-badged Dorman because the part numbers are identical. Furthermore, RA and Dorman have a rocky history, with RA announcing a number of years ago they would no longer carry Dorman. Then at some point Dorman reappeared at RA, and I'm not sure where in the timeline UltraPower debuted.

To illustrate an interesting apparent disdain for Dorman, RA will often not show it by application when looking for a part. Here, the Dorman part is not shown BY APPLICATION:


But lo and behold if you search by PART NUMBER they clearly list the Dorman and can sell it to you.


Also remember that RA hates dashes, spaces or periods so those are deleted from any RA listing, ie if you want a Dorman 425-264, it will show on RA's site as 425264.

All this is to say I suspect the UltraPower is Dorman (or from the same Chicom factory), but I can't prove it.

I ordered the UltraPower because at ~$70 it was conspicuously less expensive than the Dorman at ~$130. So, maybe they are not the same part, BUT the margins on these Chinese parts are huge so they could still be the same.

The bottom line -- not surprisingly -- is that the part is junk. More specifically, the part physically won't fit because of poor manufacturing tolerances.

The position of the pinch bolt at the firewall end is too close to the shaft such that the bolt cannot be fully inserted. It fit fine at the steering box splines but would not work at the firewall side.

YES, I realize there is a radiused groove in the steering column shaft which engages the bolt, ensuring that even if the pinch bolt is loose the shaft cannot separate unless the bolt is completely removed. I had this groove aligned perfectly but the pinch bolt will not drop in. At one point I was able to (cross)thread it in, but once it encountered the ACTUAL threads on the opposite side of the pinch sleeve it could NOT engage them because it was slightly cocked and/or under so much load.

If this bolt hole had simply been moved ~.010" to the OUTSIDE DIAMETER of the pinch sleeve I bet it would have made it.

Here, finger points in the direction the pinch bolt needs to be moved over. I truly think ~.010" would have done it:

Here's the box:


Also, NO, you cannot confuse the ends. The steering box end is splined while the firewall end is not. Thus, you can't install the shaft "upside down."

 

Ain't auto parts marketing fun!

At least the good part is that there is enough data to make decent determinations as to what may be going on when comparing parts these days (thanks to Rock Auto, Google and other sources of information) ..