My solid steering shaft just arrived on Thursday. I decided to go with the Borgeson one with the vibration isolator since most of my driving is on the street.
The Borgeson shaft looks pretty stout especially when compared with the factory steering shaft. The U-joints are pretty big and look like they’re a lot better quality than the factory joints. The collapsible sections of thick D-wall tubing look quite a bit stronger than the factory stamped/rolled pieces.
I read somewhere that Maximum Motorsports uses Borgeson shafts and just welds them completely instead of using the through-bolt/set screw combo that Borgeson uses to build them. After seeing how the bolt setup works, I think either method should hold tight without any concerns. Unfortunately Borgeson doesn’t have any installation instructions for their shafts, so I’m using the MM instructions to put it in. This instructin are critical since it's really not a direct R&R part and some special steps are required.
The two things that I’m a bit disappointed with are:
1) the shaft only comes with some sort of rust-proofing chemical on it, it’s not anodized, plated, or painted. The MM instructions suggest painting it to avoid rust. This is sort of a let-down on a $350 part.
2) According to the MM instructions, you have to pry to the black plastic sleeve off of the stock shaft (the part that acts as the inner race where the shaft passes through the firewall needle bearings) and RTV it to the upper portion of the solid shaft. I slid the black plastic sleeve over the solid shaft the fit is loose with maybe 10+ thousandths play. This is a little bit troubling since I bought this part to eliminate play in the system and improve the on-center feel of the steering.
I will probably finish the install later this weekend, but before I go ahead I would appreciate feedback from anyone who’s running either the MM or Borgeson shafts. Do you like it? Is it too harsh for the street? Did it fix that terrible dead spot feeling our cars have at highway speeds? If this isn’t a huge and very noticable improvement over the stock steering shaft, I’ll probably just return it and put my $$$ into something else.
Also, I would appreciate any installation tips you might have to offer.
Thank you =)
The Borgeson shaft looks pretty stout especially when compared with the factory steering shaft. The U-joints are pretty big and look like they’re a lot better quality than the factory joints. The collapsible sections of thick D-wall tubing look quite a bit stronger than the factory stamped/rolled pieces.
I read somewhere that Maximum Motorsports uses Borgeson shafts and just welds them completely instead of using the through-bolt/set screw combo that Borgeson uses to build them. After seeing how the bolt setup works, I think either method should hold tight without any concerns. Unfortunately Borgeson doesn’t have any installation instructions for their shafts, so I’m using the MM instructions to put it in. This instructin are critical since it's really not a direct R&R part and some special steps are required.
The two things that I’m a bit disappointed with are:
1) the shaft only comes with some sort of rust-proofing chemical on it, it’s not anodized, plated, or painted. The MM instructions suggest painting it to avoid rust. This is sort of a let-down on a $350 part.
2) According to the MM instructions, you have to pry to the black plastic sleeve off of the stock shaft (the part that acts as the inner race where the shaft passes through the firewall needle bearings) and RTV it to the upper portion of the solid shaft. I slid the black plastic sleeve over the solid shaft the fit is loose with maybe 10+ thousandths play. This is a little bit troubling since I bought this part to eliminate play in the system and improve the on-center feel of the steering.
I will probably finish the install later this weekend, but before I go ahead I would appreciate feedback from anyone who’s running either the MM or Borgeson shafts. Do you like it? Is it too harsh for the street? Did it fix that terrible dead spot feeling our cars have at highway speeds? If this isn’t a huge and very noticable improvement over the stock steering shaft, I’ll probably just return it and put my $$$ into something else.
Also, I would appreciate any installation tips you might have to offer.
Thank you =)