Club4ag,

I'm about to dump my 86 hatch into a river if I can't get the steering figured out. My power steering rack was leaking and the inner tie rods were so shot they couldn't even align the car. I bought a re-manufactured manual rack, a series of u-joints, a mk3 supra shaft and slapped it in. My problem now is that I cannot get the intermediate shaft to reach the u-joint on the steering rack. I thought I had it all figured out but it would appear I do not.

Any ideas on where I'm going wrong? I swear the steering column is in there correctly. Is my steering rack a piece of ****?

The car:
1986 Corolla GT-S hatch

The parts:
-Re-manufactured manual steering rack intended for original manual steering AE86's (Cardone 24-2602)
-Mk3 Supra intermediate shaft (hammered all the way into my AE86's power steering column)
-Original AE86 manual steering u-joint (bought from jdmlevin90 on ebay, this thing is almost an inch longer than the MR2 manual joint I already tried)

The problem:
-Bolted up the rack with new bushings (OEM + T3 adapter)
-New outer tie rods on with no problem
-Supra intermediate shaft hammered all the way into the AE86 column (see pics)
-No u-joint I've tried will bridge the gap between rack and shaft (it's close, within half an inch)

The pics:

The steering rack + joints, looks like an AE86 rack as best I can tell and it fits fine.


The u-joints. Manual AE86 (i was told) on top, manual AW11 MR2 on the bottom


The Mk3 Supra intermediate shaft, inserted all the way in (like I've seen it done)


The original PS shaft next to Supra shaft, definitely a lot longer.

Lowtekk wrote:-Mk3 Supra intermediate shaft (hammered all the way into my AE86's power steering column)

-Supra intermediate shaft hammered all the way into the AE86 column (see pics)

I think that's your problem. I'm not surprised it won't reach with the intermediate shaft hammered all the way in, especially a home brew setup with an ae86 rack. Try pulling the intermediate shaft out of the steering column sleeve some until it reaches at least 5/8" into the u joint.

I'm using mr2 rack, mr2 u joint, and mk3 shaft. The only different with my setup is the pinion on the mr2 rack is 1" longer vs. ae86. Even then almost a full square rubber pad is exposed on the intermediate shaft on my setup. I hope that helps.

yes the intermediate shaft is not supposed to be in all the way just enough to be in the steering column and to reach the steering rack. try pulling it out a bit until it reaches. i had the same issue when i installed mine. the mk3 supra shaft is so long that you wont have to worry about it coming out or anything like that

Yea just pull the intermediate shaft out enough to bolt it all together. I can imagine that the people who hammer it all the way in would have mr2 racks since its shaft is taller. Since you got a manual rack for the ae86 you will have to pull it out a bit.

^^^^ yea they are correct I ran into this a while back

That makes a lot of sense. Unfortunately we hammered the ever living sh*t out of the supra shaft thinking all-the-way-in was correct. I'm not sure if it'll come out, but I'll try!

Thanks!

Put a torch to it and get it real hot, it should make it easier to slide off

Or just spray the hell out of the connection with pb blaster, put some channel locks on the shaft, and tap on the channel locks with a hammer if there's enough space. If not good thing the steering column is cake to remove.

I had the same problem with mine. Just use a torch and some vice grips to back it out a little bit. Don't go too far though.

Easiest way to deal with the intermediate shaft is to kill it with fire. Use a torch like from home depot for soldering pipes and melt the sh!t out of the rubber insulation. Take all that junk off. Throw some KY on that shaft, ram it home, install everything and add a couple tack welds to make it one piece. Makes the steering feel tighter than a prom date. And yeah I know its supposed to collapse and not spear you in a crash but you'll have bigger concerns if you crash your corolla that hard.

I got it all worked out and the car is back on the ground. A liberal application of the torch was the key resetting of the intermediate shaft.

The solution: AE86 power steering column + AE86 manual rack + AE86 manual u-joint + mk3 supra intermediate shaft (sticking out exactly 6.25 inches from the end of the column). The AW11 MR2 u-joint would have worked as well if I'd figured it out before buying a manual AE86 joint.

Thanks for the tips. Gotta get that intermediate shaft spaced out right!