WRXEATR DIY: Replacing Your Steering Column Guibo

[WRXEATR]

If you have replaced everything imaginable on your front end and STILL have some slight play/wobble in your steering wheel accompanied by excessive road vibration, this DIY is for you. See the before/after comparison at the end of this DIY for more info. This is by far THE best thing I have ever done for my ///M3 as far as driving feel is concerned. (aside from the Z3 rack of course!) This part essentially serves the same function that the drive shaft guibo does, absorbing vibration, and reducing shock transferred from the road to the steering wheel.

NOTE: This job involves temporarily unbolting the steering rack, to shift it and gain enough clearence to remove the coupling from the steering column. Don't let this intimidate you, this is a 1-1.5 hour job MAX, and a 3 on a scale of 1-10 if 1 is removing one of your wheels.

The guibo/coupling being discussed here is PN 32311092949

#3 in the picture:



What you will need:

1. 13,15mm wrenches.
2. Breaker bar.
3. Ratchet, and 13,15mm sockets; 6 point of course.
4. Some PB Blaster. (Not required, but will make your job MUCH easier)
5. A wobble fitting for your ratchet.
6. A somewhat large Flathead screwdriver.
7. 6" Socket extension. (again, not needed but helpful.)

On With the Procedure

Step 1: Jack up the car, and put jacks under your 2 front jack pads so that your front wheels are in free suspension. You will need to be able to turn them freely later. Remove your under panel (if you have one) and set it aside.

Step 2. Locate your steering wheel coupling. It looks like this:



Step 3: Grab your friendly neighbor hood PB Blaster, and spray it onto the areas where the coupling connects to both the steering column, and at the bottom where it connects to the steering rack. Also apply PB to the two bolts and nuts securing the coupling to the teethed column/rack shafts. Let sit for 5 minutes or so.



Step 4: Begin loosening the two bolts and their nuts that secure the ends of the coupling to the shafts. Set them aside and clean them off a little if they're covered in nasty road grime. The bolt heads and nuts are 13mm.



Step 5: If your PB blaster did its job, you should be set. Take your beefy flat head and tap at the bottom of the coupling, forcing it upwards more onto the shaft coming down from your steering column. Your objective here is to get the coupling up as far as possible with the LEAST amount of shaft from the rack side still inside the coupling.



Step 6: Unbolt your steering rack. This was the hardest part of the job only because the bolts were so darn tight. Get your breaker and use it on the bolt heads, and use your 15mm wrench to hold the nuts on the other side.

Steering rack bolts out......



Step 7: Lay on your back, with your feet coming out from under the motor, and grab the rack with your left hand on the left, right hand on the right, and VERY GENTLY slide the rack forward towards the front of the car about an inch or 2, or slightly more if needed. (how much you need to move the rack depends on how far you were able to push the coupling up the steering column shaft earlier.) You want to move the rack as gently, and as little as possible. Keep in mind everything that is attached, that gets stressed when you move it around.

Rack moved forward.....



Step 8: After moving the rack forward, you should have gained enough clearance to get the coupling freed from the steering rack shaft. Grab the coupling and pull it downwards, and off of the steering column shaft. Mind the orientation! The new one needs to go in the same way, not upside down! When it is completely off, add more PB to the 2 shafts. This will help you get the new on on later.

NOTE: Be careful not to rotate the steering column shaft otherwise you steering wheel rotation will no longer be coordinated to your traveling in a straight line. Example: You may be driving straight, but you steering wheel is 60 degrees rotated clockwise.

Old coupling out.....







Take a minute and look at your old coupling. If you've got over 100K, expect to see major cracking, and reduced strength of the rubber. I could almost bend mine in half.

Step 9: Get your new coupling. Both ends are NOT the same, although they look like it at first glance. One end has a longer face than the other and is stamped with a production run ID number. The side of the coupling with the larger face is the top, and connects to the steering column NOT the rack.



Step 10: Place the coupling onto the steering column end FIRST. When the coupling is on the steering column shaft, move your rack back into its original place, and insert the bolts back through the bottom so it can resume its native position. Do not add the nuts and tighten it down yet.




Step 11: Even though you tried to not rotate the steering column shaft, like me, you still did. Stand in front of your car and adjust your wheels so that they LOOK as close to straight as possible. The accuracy of doing this is limited, I know, but it will prevent your steering wheel from being WAY off center when you're going in a straight line. Now, go into the car and center your steering wheel.

Step 12: Get back under the car, and slide the coupling down so that you connect the steering column, and the steering rack shaft. Go back up to your cockpit, and verify before tightening anything that the wheel is fairly centered in relation to the direction of the wheels.

Step 13: Tighten the steering rack down with the nuts, and tighten the coupling up with its nuts/bolts. There is a channel etched into the steering rack shaft the prevents you from not sliding down the coupling far enough. If the bolt does not go through the lower part of the coupling, you are not lined up right.




Torque spec for the coupling bolts = 19Nm
Torque spec for rack to sub frame M10 bolts = 42Nm

You're done! Replace your under panel, drop the car and go hit the highway!


Before/After thoughts:

Before doing this, my steering wheel was very wobbly; it felt very "rubbery" if you will. It felt very weak, and lacking backbone. I would get real bad rebound when I hit a bump, along with feeling a lot of road vibration that I shouldn't have.

With the new bushing, I feel that there is much better steering response along with SIGNIFICANTLY reduced vibration. The steering wheel is now MUCH smoother, and feels much more responsive.

[EastBayBimmer]

Nice DIY. Have you thought of marking which spline runs in line with the split in the clamp? Maybe that would be a more accurate way of aligning the shafts together exactly the way they were. Also, is there any wiggle room the bolts/holes to secure the rack? I would be worried about throwing off the thrust angle of the alignment if the rack isn't installed exactly the same as it was. Just my two cents. How much is the part? I'll do this before my next alignment (which is soon)

[acthad]

Thanks for the DIY I may try this down the road. Boy do you ever stop wrenching on your M?! Your clutch job is finished I am guessing.

[NcTurnL]

I remember when I had my E30 and we would do E36 rack swaps, instead of reusing the rubber guido on that knuckle, there was someone who would take out the rubber guibo and replace it with a aluminum one. I wonder if anyone here does that, seems like it would be beneficial for someone who tracks their car...

[WRXEATR]

Originally Posted by EastBayBimmer

Nice DIY. Have you thought of marking which spline runs in line with the split in the clamp? Maybe that would be a more accurate way of aligning the shafts together exactly the way they were. Also, is there any wiggle room the bolts/holes to secure the rack? I would be worried about throwing off the thrust angle of the alignment if the rack isn't installed exactly the same as it was. Just my two cents. How much is the part? I'll do this before my next alignment (which is soon)

This is a very good idea! No, there is no play at all when the bolts are put into the rack. I guess as a second precaution, you could put the nuts on and tighten them, but you would have to take them off again if things didn't line up right....

The part (32311092949) is 44$ + shipping at Tischer.

[JETninja]

PM a Mod like Kevlar and have this towed to the DIY Forum, it deserves to not get buried....

[Moron95M3]

Awesome DIY! I've been feelng the 'rubbery' steering and might do this after looking into some other culprits thanks!

[VictoryGarland]

+1 for EastBayBimmer's suggestion. Use a sharpie to mark the spline or valley that goes down the split, or just make a mark on the shaft and carry it onto the guibo. Ive tried both ways in different applications and they both work perfect.

[WRXEATR]

Good idea.....this would take the guessing work out of steering wheel alignment.

[gsolo]

any other common wear items that could be replaced/should be replaced while doing this?

[NotSoAverageJoe]

Originally Posted by gsolo

any other common wear items that could be replaced/should be replaced while doing this?

Did all 3 power steering lines, power steering reservoir, and tie rods last weekend. It made quite a difference. Much more fluid power steering, especially close to lock and the new lines cleaned up leaky 80K old rubber. I guess the guibo is my next job.

[RagnarDanskjold]

Great DIY writeup!

I did this a few months ago for the exact same reasons and loved the results.


One thing I had to do was to wedge a larger flat head screwdriver into the slot on the side of the coupling where the bolt goes to apply some opening pressure when getting the old one off. Once I did that, it just slid off the splined column shaft.

Of course I had 200+k/mi of grime working against me, but the job is as easy as you say.

Thanks for sharing.

[Badgtho is back]

that's a very nice DIY.. not a common one either.

did you lube up the column u-joint while you were under there? (infamous squeek)

[Karuza]

I hated every step of this project.

I'm sore, cut up, and grumpy lol... The coupler just wouldn't slide on to the rack... If I recall correctly the shorter face was to the column when I pulled it off... Although, I could be tired and thinking the other way around.

[NeilM]

Originally Posted by Karuza

I hated every step of this project.

I'm sore, cut up, and grumpy lol... The coupler just wouldn't slide on to the rack... If I recall correctly the shorter face was to the column when I pulled it off... Although, I could be tired and thinking the other way around.

I had the same experience with a new coupling recently. I found it necessary to cut the slot in the steering column end a little deeper to allow it to spread better, and to tap a cold chisel into the slot prior to assembly to keep the coupling spread while positioning it. Royal PITA.

Looking at my old coupling I think there may be enough material to drill out one side only of the split and thread it to a slightly larger bolt size. Either 9mm (an uncommon size) or the slightly larger 3/8" (very common) look like they should work. I'd insert a knife blade or some bit of scrap metal into the slot, and screw in this larger bolt until it bottoms on that. Turning the bolt would then spread the coupling and hold it that way during assembly only. The original 8mm pinch bolt would still be used to finally secure the coupling.

Neil

[WRXEATR]

Originally Posted by Karuza

I hated every step of this project.

I'm sore, cut up, and grumpy lol... The coupler just wouldn't slide on to the rack... If I recall correctly the shorter face was to the column when I pulled it off... Although, I could be tired and thinking the other way around.

Make sure its covered in PB blaster. If there's corrosion/crap on it, it wont go on easy. Also try using a wire brush to clean the splines. Also, turn the coupling a little back and forth when putting it on the shaft until you feel it catch the teeth and just slide it down.

[Karuza]

Yeah I forgot PB blaster so I was using some engine brite which helped a little. The project was twice as hard because the first time I did it, I bolted everything down and realized the wheel was way off, so I basically did it twice.

[rebs]

Very nice, gonna check my car for signs of wear.

[328iJunkie]

Noice...

[NeilM]

Since I still had my old steering shaft coupling to play with, I did a little experiment with it over the weekend. I was able to take a 3/8"-16 tap that I had on hand and thread the pinch bolt holes on both sides (this only works for the upper part). It wasn't even necessary to bore the holes — they're the right size just as they are. Then I ran in a short 3/8" hex bolt from each side until they touched, and cinched them down a bit. The ends of each bolts push against one another and spread the coupling for easier assembly. The bolts are pretty short, and shouldn't get in the way during assembly. They'd be removed once the coupling is fully seated on the splines, at which point the normal pinch bolt would clamp everything together.

The pic below should be pretty much self explanatory.

This took all of 10 minutes to do, and I wish I'd thought of it before.

Neil

[328iJunkie]

So youre saying to do this while its in the car? Seems like itd be a total PITA
Nice writeup!

[NeilM]

Originally Posted by 328iJunkie

So youre saying to do this while its in the car?

Which "you" and which "this" are you asking about?

Neil

[328iJunkie]

Sorry for the lack of clarity
Im talking about tapping the pinch point to make removal easier.

[mtdwye0]

Great DIY! second (or third or whatever) parking this in the DIY section for sure. Matt

[NeilM]

Originally Posted by 328iJunkie

I'm talking about tapping the pinch point to make removal easier.

Removal isn't the issue. It's getting the new coupling back on. Especially since if you've taken the precaution of marking the proper angular position, assembly requires at least some degree of finesse. My new coupling simply would not slide on without extraordinary measures. This is the easiest way I can think of to make that happen.

Neil