There's one thing not mentioned. If you feel alot of play on your steering wheel some of that could be a bolt or two under the collar behind your steering wheel.
FYI:
I wish that other people came forward before and said what a HUGE POS the flaming river steering shaft is. Since my post, I've heard from people that have had the set bolt and nuts come loose and also knew/suspected that it was a bad design.
Well, unlike the idiots that designed that shaft, I do Mechanical Engineering professional. I'm mainly a Computer Engineer. But I have my 3 years of ME schooling (my minor), and I often do Mechanical Engineering stuff. I brought the shaft to work and showed the Principal MEs the design. They either broke out in laughter, or had a near heart attack knowing that people are driving with those things on the same street they they and their families drive on. I didn't know about the MM shaft back then. If I did, I would have never gotten the Flaming river shaft.
If you showed just the two following images to any Mechanical Engineering student and they couldn't immediately see many problems with the design, then I think that any University would be fully justified flunking them out of school! And, I say that as a former engineering teacher! BTW, ignore the length of the bar stock. It's the depth of the screws and the flat locking nuts "locking against" the round body. Plus, the moronic very shallow depth that flaming river suggests for a counter sink. For one thing, WHY so shallow? Geez, do they know anything at that company?
Close up of the Flaming River rod and joint assembled:
Another close up of the Flaming River rod and joint assembled:
Flaming River shaft instructions:
My solution to the POS Flaming River design. Compare the counter sink amount to the pictures above. Also, the JB Weld I used was has a very high temp rating (the shaft is next to the headers).
Here is how much I did the counter-sink for the screws. You can see the difference in height in the set-screws fro the side and the flat.
The JB-Weld job isn't pretty, but MY steering assembly is never coming apart!
Forgive me if I sound dumb asking, but since I am not in engineering , I'm having troube seeing what is wrong with the Flaming River shaft. What is the countersink? Is that the indented slot that the joints/bolts catch on to prevent it from sliding out?
It's the fact they instruct you to drill basically a dimple and then use flat locking nuts on a round shaft body. Not a whole lot of surface area to instill confidence that they won't loosen slightly and slip out.
Basically they need to go deeper into the flats and there needs to be a more secure locking setup to keep them from backing out
Is there a spec for how much play in the steering rack bushings? When somebody rocks my steering wheel on the ground with engine running I can feel some slight movement between the rack and the washer on the front/nut side of the housing. Is any play too much?