Borgeson Steering Shaft Installation The stock Typhoon steering shaft: The stock steering shaft is an eyesore at best. It has an extremely sloppy feel, and is very prone to allow dirt to interfere with its performance and wear it out. It has a foil/cloth heat-soaking and protective guard, as you can see in the picture, that just gets filthy and rips - letting dirt get into the steering shaft and thus defeating its purpose. At the bottom of the stock setup is a plastic boot, that snaps onto the steering box. This breaks, and also lets dirt into the lower rubber joint of the steering shaft (see the second picture). Yes, the dirt is bad for this section of the steering shaft. The Borgeson steering shaft and needle bearing U-joints: The Borgeson steering shaft and needle bearing u-joints is a much simpler and sturdy solution then the stock setup. It also takes up less room in the engine bay, and just looks much better. 1"DD & 1"DD (upper u-joint), 015252, U16N-1DDX1DD 3/4"DD & 3/4"-30 (lower spline u-joint), 014931, U16N-7DDX730 Telescoping (collapsable) shaft, 450024, Telescoping shaft Installing the Borgeson steering shaft: Step 1. Remove the stock steering shaft There are only two bolts holding the stock steering shaft in place, one at the top and one at the bottom (what a concept). The top one is easily accessed. The bottom one requires you to get the plastic boot out of your way. It simply unhooks from the steering box and can push out of your way. You may need to turn your wheels a bit to make the lower bolt more easily removed. Once you have both bolts removed, collapse the steering shaft and remove it. If yours has over 100,000 miles of dirt like mine did, collapsing the shaft may not be too simple, and the lower spline may not give loose with out some wiggling.     Step 2. Install the Borgeson U-Joints These joints install fairly straight forward. They both are held in place with allen/hex key headed screws, and nuts to lock the screws in place. The Borgeson joints have two screws holding them in place though, unlike the stock setup which only has one bolt for each connection point.   Step 3. Prepare the steering shaft The Borgeson steering shaft is manufactured about twice as long as you need it for our application. So it needs to be cut down to fit properly. Measure the distance from the middle of the upper and lower u-joints that you just installed. It should measure to be almost 13 inches. I cut mine to be about 13.25 inches when fully expanded. When cutting the shaft MAKE SURE IT IS FULLY EXPANDED, or you will ruin it. Fully expand the steering shaft and cut it to your desired length. I used a vice and a hacksaw to cut mine. After cutting it using this method, I had some burring on the edge so i grinded it off to clean it up a little. Its now ready to test fit in the truck. Collapse it a couple of inches, line up the ends with the u-joints, and then expand it into the u-joints. Everything should line up and insert smoothly. The Borgeson instructions warn you to make sure the shaft does not extend to the very middle of the u-joint, so make sure you follow this advice. Expand the shaft to your desired length, and then tighten the allen head screws on the top and bottom joints. The top joint has one long screw which is intended to thread through the steering shaft. Tight this down on the steering shaft so that it makes a nice round mark in the middle of the shaft. You must now remove the shaft, and drill through this marking. Make sure you drill properly through the middle of the shaft, or the hole won't line up and will not allow the screw to pass through the shaft. After this hole is drilled, the steering shaft is ready for final installation!   Step 4. Install the steering shaft The Borgeson steering shaft is ready to be installed. Tighten all of the allen screws, and the nuts to lock the screws in. And you're done.