I'm in the process of replacing the steering rack on a 91 240. The problem is that the pinion shaft on the rack can't be separated from the steering u-joint. Even tried loosening up the upper end of the u-joint and that's frozen to the male splines too. 4 hours of prying either of the two halves apart was no help either. Anyone had this problem before?

I noticed a little trick with these joints when I changed a rack over the summer. The joints and coupler tend to behave like a rigid column when in compression. This "column" needs to "buckle," or fold ion upon itself to allow the u-joint to slide off the splines. If you have the steering wheel oriented in some positions, the lower joint won't, making it impossible for it to slide up and off the splines.

If you have the u-joint bolt all the way out out (the bolt shoulder passes through a groove in the splines to hold the joint to the rack), the slot spread with a hammer, and the thing still doesn't seem to move when you tap it, rotate the steering wheel 1/8 turn or so. Alternatively, loosening the rack will gice you all the slack you need.

Good luck.

1) Make sure the lock bolts are removed (not a problem till ujoint moves)

2) Clean exposed splines as best you can. Lots of PBlaster or whatever and small wire brush.

3) Concentrate in wedging the joint open as much as you can, driving BF screwdriver into the split line with BF hammer.

4) Whe you think it's opened at the split (wedging something in to keep it open may help), then try driving up from below with whatever fits.

That's about all I can recall from my last one several years ago.
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Bruce Young
'93 940-NA (current) — 240s (one V8) — 140s — 122s — since '63.

Take a small screw and drive it into the split, it will spread it and stay put. I do this as a matter of course when changing any rack. Stuff a screw in it and drive the coupler up with a long punch and a hammer, works everytime.

Mark

Thanks to both you and the Almighty! Driving the coupler upwards worked great. After all the prying/beating on the coupler, may as well as replace it too. Once the steering gear pinion was out of the lower half of the coupler, the slide hammer in the spline hole did the remainder of pulling it from the steering shaft.

you can press a small wedge - like one for a wooden hammer handle, or make one on a grinder- into the crack in the u-joint split using a pair of vice grips.
I really like taking off the u-joint from the top.
You can then remove the joint from the old rack on the bench and easily install it on the new rack. The top side of the joint is to me easier to line up and install on the car.

If I understand correctly, you're saying that you first pull the shaft out of the top U-joint section. To do this, you have to first loosen one of the fittings on the top U-joint, right? Which one?

Then you remove the rack, and pull the U-joint off the rack from the bench?

Does the same approach work well if you're not removing the rack?



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David Armstrong - '86 240(350k km?), '93 940T(270k km), '89 240(parts source for others) near Toronto

sorry - I meant the top part of the bottom u-joint.
this would be while removing the steering rack.
unscrew the tightening bolt on the upper sleeve, spread the upper sleeve, then take the u-joint off the steering shaft - it would come off the car with the rack.
the slot pattern on the upper sleeve (still talking about the lower u-joint here) is, to me, easier to line up and mount than the pattern.on the lower sleeve. so it's easier when replacing a rack to let the disconnection/reconnection point be at the upper sleeve.

I've never tried to replace a u-joint without removing the rack.
seems it would be difficult to move the steering shaft upwards enough to disengage a u-joint.
likewise it might be difficult to get enough play in the hoses and tie rods to drop the rack enough to disengage that way.