Steering universal joint replacement

Classic symptom is notchy steering during rotation. As it gets worse the return to center will get weaker until the steering stays turned unless you manually return to center

I've had it happen on a number of BMW cars, including my late E60 sedan.
 
kasbatts said:
Did my RHD one earlier this year, and it was a bit painful, went something like this from memory,

You may want a few beers to help make this job easier,

Take all the steering console out of the car, I really don't know if this job is possible without doing this, but if you do it will be a lot easier, you mention "sliding the unit up the shaft, and then down again" if yours is anything like mine I doubt very much you will be able to do this as the joint was well seized onto the shaft with that powdery rust like you get caused by heat on exhaust manifolds.

there is a universal in the steering column that I split leaving the lower part of the sterling shaft going through the firewall to the steering box.

Undo the uni from the steering box, this is a pain in the arse and will require turning the shaft/wheels/steering to get to the bolts on the uni as there's not much room under the exhaust manifold for hands, spanners etc, but it is doable.

Getting the uni of the shaft on mine was also hard as it was a bit seized, I had to tap small steel wedges into the split on the joint to open it up and then lever it up off the splined shaft on the steering box ( don't forget you have to completely remove the joint bolts to allow the joint to come off)

Basically the reverse to put it back on, take note as Don says, the unit only go's on one way ( ask me how I know this !)
Put lots of anti seize compound on the spline and bolts as you reassemble to make it easier for the next guy (which may be you!)

My uni joint was so seized in one direction that I couldn't move it with my hands, I've come to the conclusion that the RHD cars must go through these joints 10 to1 over the LHD as the joint is only just under the exhaust manifold by about 50mm and subject to a lot of heat,
I plan to try and shield or wrap the joint with something to try and give it some sort of heat protection.

Good luck

Steve
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I can vouch that the easiest way of doing this on a RHD is to undo the 4 bolts easily accessible to allow the steering wheel mount to come down. Undo the bolts in the rubber mount to allow you to withdraw the lower shaft after disconnecting the UJ at the steering box which is accessible from below. Once the lower shaft is out of the car its easy to change out the UJ for the new one and then push it back through from the inside of the car and reconnect to the steering box. Then getting the steering assembly back on is not too hard. I tried doing this without removing the steering wheel console and spent hours screwing around getting nowhere - on the RHD there is little room to hammer the UJ on and off so save yourself the hassle. Doing it the way it says in the blue book is much easier and will only take an hour or two.
 
I asked BMW for a replacement and they sent me this. Thinking it was the wrong part I queried it, they said "the original design were actually recalled back in the day for safety reasons and this supersedes them" o_O

53124549220_f5cbe07d87_o.jpg
 
eb88 said:
I asked BMW for a replacement and they sent me this. Thinking it was the wrong part I queried it, they said "the original design were actually recalled back in the day for safety reasons and this supersedes them" o_O

View attachment 218120
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Yes this is the part I used - I got one on ebay in the UK from another car but it went in fine once I took the shaft out from the steering wheel end. Check the condition of the boot - my one was hard and disintegrated so have a spare if you can.
 
My steering is not so hard but it does not centre very with much force. Is this a symptom of a seizing or hard to move UJ? Perhaps my steering should be lighter with this replaced.
 
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