The lower DD tube is slid onto the upper solid DD shaft, meant to collapse in accident, can see upper/lower column in picture. Modified the lower shaft to replace the rag joint with U-Joint........you may have fun trying to slide/line up the shaft back onto the solid upper shaft that is still in your column. David
Welp it all came together nicely in the end. I spun up a little uhmw bushing for my extended steering shaft. The shaft is held up into the column with a collar and set screw that also locks the splined stub up into the shaft. For now the bushing is held in place with friction as I made it a snug fit. The one problem I had was there are 4 nubs up in the column that I had to broach channels into the bushing for to get it to slide fully in to place.
My thoughts on the project were that for someone with average skills its doable but man o man do you need a lot of tools in the shop. The lathe and welder were pretty much mandatory, cutting wheels and flapper discs, acetylene, bending tools, precision measurement, etc etc... you need to be pretty well set up to pull it off, but if you're equipped and know how to use it I'd say it was a great $200 rack and pinion conversion.
Really nice, I like that you garage built this whole thing. It shows really good, thoughtful engineering. Impressive, hits the budget way friendlier than a Borgeson box.