Alright guys, i am home from school working on getting my new P/S rack in my '89 244. So i have ordered the rack from groton and it looks very nice, its a ZF rack, i am not sure what i have, most likely a CAM rack because they do look different, but that shouldnt be a problem.
The real problem is that hte splines are different on the shafts connecting to the Lower U-Joint. on hte old rack it is splined all the way around except for the one machined horizontal slot for the bolt to slide in. on the new rack there is a section of the shaft that is not splined, is this normal? I called groton, and they had no idea what i was talking about. i am thinking about getting a new U-joint, hoping that it has the new spline, but i am not sure.
The delema is that i am home(WI) until wednesday, when i need to get my roommate and myself back to MI for school. Currently my car is up on stands with the front end all torn apart. i know i COULD put the old rack back on, but then i would have to waste money on an alignment and blah, i wouldnt prefer to do that.
Please HELP!
--
I am Joe,- Blue '89 Volvo 244 DL 5-speed w/ 190k, 23mm GT Sways F&R named Douglas

I would bet a beer that it will go on. If I were doing it, I would just plow forward under the assumption that it will.

Don't be surprised if it is very difficult to get the splined shaft to slide in. The rebuilt shaft came with a nice protective cap on the splines, but those splines likely took a beating when the prev owner took the rack off his car, and irregularities too small to see can cause the splines to be REALLY difficult to engage. Clean up the splines and spread the receiving joint with a big screwdriver.

While you have it apart, work as much oil (better yet, chain and cable lube) as you can into that lower U-Joint and make sure it bends smoothly.

Ok, this is fast.

But it is not definitive.

The question is whether the u-joint will slide onto the new rack's shaft.

I don't know, but if it will, then the unsplined part of shaft has to slide into the split in the U-joint. If that is the case, then I would expect to find the unsplined section crossing the "machined horizontal slot" at that slot's middle-point, and I would expect that only one (or at most two) splines are missing from the shaft.

The other possibility is that there is a machined "vertical" groove in the u-joint, apart from the split. At this point in your disassembly, I think you can simply look to see if that is true.

In either case, of course, IF you can conveniently remove the U-joint from the intermediate shaft, you can make a definitive fit-check off the car. But the U-joint may well be essentially welded to the intermediate shaft by dissimilar-metal corrosion.

If worst comes to worst, you could grind down the unsplined part of the shaft (dremel work?) until things go together nicely.

If you get that far, using never-seize on the aluminum-u-joint/steel-shaft connection might help reduce future corrosion problems.

I feel for you. Good luck.
--
jds

i feel like a big idiot...so i ordered the new joint from groton because hte old one was worn out anyways...i had it shipped overnight and what-not. wheni went to go pull off the old u joint i looked very closely at where the splines would be different and noticed that there were "corrosion" splines where the joint and the shaft didnt have hte correct splinage...so what seemed like splines, i simply brushed away with a batery terminal cleaner! so it took me 1.5 hours once i got the new part to get the car together and my roommates parents garage back to normal, i was VERY pleased.
--
I am Joe,- Blue '89 Volvo 244 DL 5-speed w/ 190k, 23mm GT Sways F&R named Douglas