Trouble with Omix-Ada steering shaft

[Normanator]

Bought an Omix-Ada #18024.01, the HD manual shaft for a CJ as suggested in several posts to upgrade my 77 Cherokee. Big issue is it is way too long to fit and though it looks like it should telescope in on itself, in no way can I make it budge.
Anyone have any experience with putting one of these in?
Any help is greatly appreciated!

[chevelleguy]

Try heating the outer sleeve.


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[Normanator]

I have tried heating, heating then cooling the inner shaft, even tapping one into the other, and nada

[chevelleguy]

Any time I’ve had to move one, I really had to hit it


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[Normanator]

I will keep up with the heat/beat method. Unfortunately there is not a clean way to hit it due to the bearings, but I'm sure something can be managed

[Normanator]

Finally got it. Heated the outer sleeve until the paint started to turn color, then used a pickle fork to get around the U-joint to actually drive the inner tube down and free it up. Turns out the inner shaft has a flair at the end and it will jam if you even pull it to far by hand. All fit up now though!

[SJTD]

Isn't the telescoping a safety thing that you have now defeated?

I just put an XJ column in my Wag to get the modern goodies and used the whole Wag shaft and column rather than dick around with the XJ shaft to make it fit. I don't have an aversion to the rag joint like a lot of people do.

[chevelleguy]

He didn’t defeat it, it was just fully extended and wouldn’t slide so he could fit it in place.


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[SJTD]

That's very different. Nevermind.