putting my long tube headers on and im having issuses with the steering knuckle hitting the tube of header is there a aftermarket shaft avaliable or do i have make some mod .....need advice once again on this issue ...HELP

 

This happens with certain brands. All you can do is massage some clearance into the tube with a hammer. It won't take much...

 

They are SLIGHTLY adjustable if it is just barely hitting.

Also check your motor mounts- if they are really old could use some news ones- might help restore the original height of the motor which could also be enough to fix your clearance issue.

 

That would be the steering shaft. The knuckle is what the tie rod and ball joints attach to. Sadly, it seems a lot of people have to do a little pipe massaging. You'd think they would fit better.

 

The ghetto-fabulous way is to get the hammer out and clearance the tube. I have a better solution.
This happened on my AS&M mid tubes and my LPP long tubes. There are four things you can do.

1. The steering shaft is a two piece telescoping shaft that can be forcibly taken apart. I took mine apart and lengthened it 3/4" and welded it solid. This changed the angles of the shaft and I gained a good 1/8" of clearance to better clear the tube.

2. Remove the bolts that secure the lower portion of the steering column to the firewall. Get a Dremel and elongate the holes in the bracket attached to the column. This will allow you to shift the column a good 1/4" and provide some more clearance at the tube.

3. Most headers can pitch up or down a little. Screw in but dont torque down the header bolts and have a buddy push the collector upward to provide any needed clearance then torque the bolts down if it provides the needed clearance.

4. You can clearance the steering shaft at the knuckle assuming you need just need a little more clearance at the tube. I would not take off any more than 1/16" or so here.

A combination of these tips should give you plenty clearance without having to go get the hammer.

 

I'm not sure if you're trying to be insulting by saying this but if not, have a Happy New Year. If you are, you can stop being the south end of a north bound horse anytime, it isn't appreciated.

To the OP. I should have realized there would be significant differences between brands and been more specific. On my Jet-Hot Lt's, there is a dimple in the primary right from the factory. The Jet-Hots are a virtual clone to the Hooker LT's which don't have the dimple and fit hard against the tube in some cases.

I called a friend to measure something on his car. He has AS&M long tubes and the collectors are 20.75" apart. On my car they are 20.0" Different headers obviously fit differently.

Oh, one of the fixes listed concerns me and maybe WRD1972 can correct my understanding. On the steering shaft there is an area that looks that it can telescope. If you forcibly take the shaft apart and weld it, you have removed the columns ability to collapse in the event of an accident. If that shaft can't, it will be shoved into the drivers chest in the event of a serious collision. This can be recommended under any circumstance for a street car. I'll take a dimple on the tube anytime over this...if I understand correctly.

Have a good day.....

 

I was not trying to be insulting. But hammering the tube is the ghetto way to fix the problem and there are other options.

Opinion here. Yes the telescoping mechanism serves the purpose exactly as you stated. But the Camaro shaft is so short in length and the operating angles of the shaft in general are unlikely make any real difference becasue it only collapses a few inches. Now when I had my Jeep Wrangler and that shaft was three feet long, I would certainly want to have the mechanism in place if a front end collision took place because it would collapse in feet and the shaft in general is a almost straight.

With a little more thought, even reattaching the shaft can be done without welding.

 

Thanks, I understand. I do still think that defeating that particular safety device a pretty dangerous choice. Sure, it only collapses 6 inches or so but
as the car accordians in a crash that 6 inches could matter.

I wouldn't choose that particular method and I wouldn't recommend it to anyone else..but that's just me and my opinions.

Perhaps the best way would be to re-engineer the steering shaft, using components from Flaming River as an example to safely move the universal and alter the shaft angle enough to miss the header tube

 

Now your making my friggin paranoid.
I am going to get used shaft and experiment.

 

If you're going to do that, maybe take a look at the LS1 cars shafts..they are different in that they don't have the rag joint. No idea why they changed....

Sorry about the paranoia it wasn't my goal.

 

I think the telescoping section is held in place by shear pins. Definitely a purpose there. I remember more than 10 years ago someone solving the interference problem by simply breaking the shear pins and pulling the lower section out a small way from the upper section. But now you have the possibility of the lower section falling out.

 

There are some yellow plastic wedges on each end that have a pair of plastic shear pins. I drilled out these pins and pulled the shaft apart. Even once the pins were drilled out, it took an incredible amount of effort to pull the shaft apart. IIRC, I actually achored one end of the shaft to the floor and used a fork lift to pull it apart. I guess one could replace the shear pins with some thin aluminum or even plastic stock or some small guage screws once the new length was set.