Steering Coupler – rag joint – critical

[Gregg Strain]

I was watching a recent YouTube video by Slades VW Beetle and he was addressing the importance of checking the steering Coupler (rag Joint). I have a FF MG TD kit car on a 69 chassis. Last year, as happenstance would have it, while I was driving a neighbor to my mechanics garage to pick up his car, the steering felt “unusual” just before I arrived. A quick inspection showed only one bolt was fully engaged on the rag joint. Three of the holes were torn away. I left the car and my mechanic had it repaired the next day. When I got it home and examined it, I saw two things I didn’t like. The first was the red poly coupling, but the second was more disturbing. The two flanges on the shaft were not parallel to each other and I could just imagine the stress on the coupler! While I was waiting for a German Coupler, I did some research on the alignment issue. It seems the steering box on the sedan is the same as the Karmann Ghias. However, the shaft angle is different, so the steering box can be rotated to the correct angle. I adjusted it and now everything is properly aligned. I’m fortunate that I was driving at a slow speed when the joint failed. The warning in the video should be absolutely heeded. Mine was compounded by a previous owner.

[MGLondonRoadste]

I saw the same video and contacted my VW mechanic. He said he just pulled some off of a 58 bug and they were still in good shape. He said to replace them about every 10years. Four bolts. 15-minute job. Check them, of course, yet it not that frequent of a replacement issue.

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