I had fairly sloppy power steering and tried to tighten it up at the gear box. I had the box fairly tight and noticed while someone was moving the steering wheel back and forth (with the wheels off the ground) that the sloppiness was in the rag joint, not in the gear. I bought a new rag joint. When I took the old one off, I noticed the gap in the steering column flange is pretty big, about double the size of the pins. Is it supposed to be this big? If not, where do I buy a new flange? Thanks.

There are two top flanges. A bolt-on and one fixed.

I think the bolt-on is for the tilt column and it is pricey to say the least..

Yes, the slots should fit closer, but if your new "rubber" washer has steel screen-like wire in it, it will be one heck of a lot stiffer and stronger than stock w/o the screen wire so should be fine. I know mine is this way now and it is really stiff even w/ the excess slop in the slots..

pdq67

PS., fwiw, that steel screen wire is about like a radial steel belted tire tread so it is STIFF!!!

So I think the bolt holes on the flange are okay (which should keep it tight), it's just the backup safety pins are sloppy. The old joint just had slop in the rubber washer, which may have caused the pins to get worse. How much gap is there normally in the flanges holes for the pins?

I forget?? Not all that much??

pdq67