Steering shaft wont go all the way back in

[1slow95]

I removed my steering shaft to clean it up and paint it, but now it won't go all the way back in. It bolts up fine, but there is a ring that should go in the rubber piece in the firewall that looks about an inch too short. Any suggestions?

 

[Chythar]

The steering shaft is actually made of two different parts that fit within each other. They slide back & forth, but not easily. Perhaps yours "collapsed" a bit, and just needs to be pulled a bit to lengthen it.

 

[1slow95]

Here's how it looked before I removed it:

And here's how it looks after I reinstalled it. I have cleaned it up and painted it, but I don't have a good pic of that.

What am I doing wrong?

 

[Chythar]

Ah, I see. Here's a quick photo edit, showing the two side-by-side. I'm not as good with Photoshop as some of the folks here, so forgive the roughness of the cut. But it does show the difference between the "before" and after:

<img src="http://www.firstlight.net/~chythar/stangnet/edits/dual_steering_shafts.jpg" width="640" height="480" border="0">

Looks to me like part of the upper steering shaft slid into itself. Can you see if that part slides at all?

 

[1slow95]

Ahhhh, I missed that earlier! I thought maybe that piece needed to move, but I couldn't get it to at the time. I'll just have to try harder . Thanks!