XJ Steering Shaft Upgrade (88-94 Trucks) 95+instructions on page 31

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THEFERMANATOR

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Does the truck you're doing the mod on have the joint under the dash? If it does, you cant do the ujoint shaft. It appears that some 96s and 95s even have the joint under the dash.
I have yet to see a 95+ truck that DIDN'T have the joint under the dash. I scratched my head when I seen 88-96 in the title as GM changed in 95 to the new style column with a drivers side airbag. I know they made some international market trucks without drivers side airbag, but if you have the new style dash, then you have the new style column WITH the joint under the dash. This is why BORGESON sells there shaft for up to 94, as 95 was the interior change.

As to options, you do have options. If you go with the XJ shaft from an 84-94(the 95-96 is clocked 90 degrees off from the earlier shaft for the orientation of the u-joint to the d shaped shaft), it can be made to work failrly easily, just not as easily as the 88-94 trucks are. The other drawback for some is doing the XJ shaft on the 95+ trucks will do away with any sort of rubber isolator, and you will have complete feedback of all steering movement. On the other hand, GM did this starting in 99 with the NBS trucks. You can take an XJ steering shaft, take the torch to it and burn out the nylon that locks the shaft together, I ended up cutting 4.5 inches off of the smaller shaft portion that slides inside of the other shaft. Then take the other portion of the shaft, take a die grinder(could have used a hack saw or sawzall as well, a die grinder was quicker) and split the upper rubber isolated joint in half to remove it and the joint. Slide the smaller shaft 3 inches inside of the larger shaft portion from the XJ, and weld it in place. Then take the upper portion of your stock shaft, and slide it inside of the other end of the large diameter JEEP shaft, and yo unow have a solid steering shaft to install in the truck. I re-used th GM portion as the slip shaft since it has a spring clip in it to keep it tight and prevent rattling. I did a little extra on mine to make it look stock, but heres some pics.

The 2 shafts sitting next to each other
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XJ shaft apart, and upper rubber isolation joint removed. You can also see the stock sahft from the GM shaft in the upper portion of the pic. You can see how much shorter it is, hence why you need to use the JEEP shaft. The shorter outer shaft wasn't long enough to allow for adequite contact for the slip portion AND for the portion that gets welded in. The JEEP shaft was just about 3 inches longer which was perfect for engagement of the lower portion to be welded.
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The lower shaft that I cut down. you can leave this longer for trucks with body lifts to remove the extension
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The 2 JEEP shafts welded together. I burned and ground the rubber off, then split and removed it's metal sleeve to get down to just the shaft.
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Completed shaft after I did it my way. Found out afterwards much of this was wasted time as the u-joint is enough longer that the plastic protective collar won't slide all the way down onto the box now.
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I will say I have TIGHT steering now with ZERO play in it. Now that I know how to do it, it could be done in very little time. One could even use a through bolt instead of welding it so any DIYer could do this mod with basic tools.
 
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thunderstruck

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You can also split and remove the rag joint assembly from the 95+ shaft and install a Flaming River FR1746DD u-joint in its place.

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Cokeman95

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You can also split and remove the rag joint assembly from the 95+ shaft and install a Flaming River FR1746DD u-joint in its place.

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How big a job is putting that u joint on?

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THEFERMANATOR

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2 reasons I went with the JEEP shaft. First was I had the JEEP shaft on an old truck, so it was free. Second reason I went with it is it is keyed wit hthe flat spot on it. I'm OCD, so I like evrything kept in perfect alignment. So the JEEP joint has the flat in it to keep it keyed straight, and the double D shafts keep all that in alignment as well so I don't have to worry about those set screws that hold the joint onto the shaft slipping off since the GM shaft is hollow, and those joints are meant for solid shafts(hollow shafts compress and move whereas solid ones don't).

I'm about 90% certain of another even easier option to replace the 95+ style GMT-400 shaft, and that is the steering shaft out of a 87-95 WRANGLER(YJ). From what I can find it is roughly 33 inches long which should be REAL close to that of the 2 steering shafts used in the 95+ trucks. It would have to be slid in in 2 pieces, but should be even less work as it would be like the 88-94 trucks, just burn the nylon out, and put it in.
 
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