2001 XL-7 with a 2" RRO body lift (heavily modified).

Finally got the body lift on this weekend after some re-engineering of the truck and hardware. My last issue is the installation of the RRO steering extension. My question is this . . . how do you get to the bottom of the knuckle to remove the bolt to pull the shaft out? Anyone who has installed this on Rack and pinion please let me know how you got to it and what you had to take off.

Thanks in advance.

Sorry I can't help right now at work But what did you have to mod on the kit or what issuses did you run in to??? As I'm looking at marking a 3" lift and it would be helpfull to know.
George

Cool, sounds like things lined up pretty well as you aren't asking a whole lot of questions.....LOL

"how do you get to the bottom of the knuckle to remove the bolt to pull the shaft out? Anyone who has installed this on Rack and pinion please let me know how you got to it and what you had to take off."

I don't understand the first question of a knuckle, bolt and a shaft to come out?
Knuckle, speaking of the knuckle of the XL7 with the A-arm and steering tie rod attached?
Bolt, meaning the ball joint which the lower A-arm attaches to the knuckle?
Shaft? Is this the axle shaft or the steering arm coming out of the rack/pinion housing?

Forgot to add, why is this in the GV forum and not the XL7 forum?

Ooops, just noticed I was in the GV section.

Alright here goes, the knuckle is actually the u-joint that is at the rag joint on the steering shaft. This is where the extension attaches.  Sorry for the terminology mistake. I am totally exhausted today and not quite with it. Anyway, this thing is neatly tucked behind everything under the sun, all the way at the bottom of the truck, but then blocked from bottom access by the diff, hanger and just tightness . . .

I was taking it out last night for a test drive and steering shaft pulled out of the coupling  

Luckily I was going pretty slow to listen to see I heard any strange noises. Well. I did, it was the TINK of the bottom half of the shaft hitting the manifold. SO, RRO lists this little puppy as a possible, something you might wanna think about item. On the XL-7 it is a must have, no way around it.

I am just trying to figure out the best way to get the bottom half of the shaft out of the truck so I can get some torque on it. It is WAY too tight in there for twisting bolts loose when there is big rubber puck in between wanting twist about.

Any ideas . . .

Here is what I have as for pics.

I would think this would be the location for an extension with a body lift. Remember, the steering shaft coming out of the firewall is not supported at all to the rack and pinion. It floats around. This makes the direction of the shaft going into the rack stub shaft important. This aligns the rest of the bottom of the assembly.


This is the best picture I could find with what you are talking about. Have you thought of disconnecting from the rack and pinion stub and then pull the entire assembly out?
Notice how close the joints section is to the frame. This is why I wonder if the extension would be better off up higher in the shaft.


This location is under the dash. I have a 2" bl on my Bronco and this is where the adapter was added.

Here is the diagram and the only instructions from RRO. Jag, taking the whole bottom half out is what I need to do, the bolt that is at the bottom of the assembly is what I am after. That is what I am trying to find out if anyone knows if I have to remove a bunch O stuff to get at it. And I agree, you would think that just a longer coupling would have done the trick, but everyone I have talked to about it has said that would cause binding at the firewall and if the extension was inside it would cause the U joint to be out of it's specified aworking angle range. Apparently making the extension at the rag joint is the best option.?.? Who knows, I just try to do what I am told and take for granted somebody has put some thought into it.  

If I can figure out the EASIEST way to pull that bottom shaft out I would have do it tonight. I need to get back on the road . . .  :-/

Not sure of getting stuff out of the way, but how about removing the rack from the frame? It held by 2 bolts both sides and you have it off?
With the rack supported from hanging off the frame (string, wire, etc with the tie rods and ps lines), you should be able to gain access to the assembly to remove from the rack's stub. Can't remember what it looks like for the shaft to attach to the rack's stub.

That's what was thinking about doing. Good idea. I'll see about that tongiht when I get home from work. Thanks.

Well did you get it in???  Got any pics???
George

I pulled an all nighter on the 9th and got it in. I did have to drop the whole rack to get at the bottom bolt. Got the extension on and mounted up. The next few days it was kinda hard when turning right so this weekend I got back under it and bought some longer extensions for my ratchets so didn't need to unbolt the rack this time. I was about 4 or 5 teeth off on the pinion with shaft. So I disconnected the shaft from the pinion and rotated to the marks and now everything is fine with it. I think sooner or later I would like to get a Borgeson shaft for it. That will have to be another day though. I will be posting pix in the build up for 32s topic hopefully today some time.